Join a Dig: See the World

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As any dig volunteer will tell you, there is nothing like the adventure of going on your first dig. Of course, digging is itself exciting, but there’s also the adventure that comes along with being immersed in a different country and culture and exploring a part of the world that many never get to see. Traveling in a foreign land, seeing the sites of the Bible and meeting people from different backgrounds are experiences that volunteers treasure for the rest of their lives.

Every year, our BAS Dig Scholarship winners (see sidebar) tell us about their overseas 030 adventures in Israel and elsewhere, recounting how their travels exposed them to new cultures, languages, foods and customs, not to mention the incredible sites and monuments of Biblical lands. In this issue, we use their words, stories and photographs to highlight the many intangible benefits of traveling abroad to work on an archaeological excavation.

Get to Know the Lay of the Holy Land

While a volunteer’s workweek revolves around a strict dig schedule,^a there is usually plenty of time on weekends to see the sites and explore the country. In Israel, for example, many digs offer organized field trips to various sites and regions around the country, including Jerusalem, the Dead Sea and Galilee, while in Jordan, volunteers can look forward to trips to Petra, Amman and Wadi Rum.

Dig volunteers, many of whom are avid students of the Bible (and readers of BAR), relish these opportunities to “get to know the lay of the Holy Land” for themselves. Eszter Tatai, a 2009 scholarship winner, told us that trips around Israel were “a pilgrimage as well as an archaeological experience. We walked in the footsteps of Jesus around the Sea of Galilee. We visited Caesarea, Megiddo, Nazareth and the Jordan River … It was incredible to see all these places with my own eyes!” Another 2009 winner, Katherine Lambson, was fascinated by her first “plunge” into the buoyant, mineral-rich waters of the Dead Sea. “The Dead Sea is indescribable,” she wrote. “To float without effort, to see the salt crystals formed from the minerals, and taste the saltiness of the water is an experience I’ll never forget.”

For many who volunteer to work on a dig in Israel, however, nothing quite matches the experience of visiting Jerusalem for the first time. “Jerusalem is an overwhelming and powerful city,” wrote Erin Pruckno, a 2007 scholarship winner. “I loved the bustle and barrage of people in the Old City, and the terrifyingly fun walk through Hezekiah’s Tunnel that found us knee-deep in freezing-cold, pitch-black water.” Not surprisingly, many volunteers also become entranced by the city’s awe-inspiring monuments and religious sites. “To be able to see the Western Wall, the Dome of the Rock and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on a daily basis was a dream come true,” reported Tyler Alt, one of last year’s winners. Pruckno added that “seeing holy sites important to different faiths was emotional and intoxicating, even for someone with uncertain beliefs.”

Become Immersed in a Foreign Culture

Working on a dig also gives volunteers the opportunity to dive into the language of the host country. In Israel, though English is the lingua franca on most digs, volunteers are bound to pick up some Hebrew phrases in the trenches. At the site of Khirbet Yatir in southern Israel, for example, Joanne Besonen, a 1998 scholarship winner, learned enough Hebrew to join an impromptu dig choir that sang Hebrew words to old Latin hymns.^b

And on digs in Jordan and other Arab countries, where volunteers regularly work side-by-side with workmen from local villages, many of our scholarship winners tell us of their triumphs in learning 031 032 their first few phrases of Arabic. “Everyone on the team went home speaking much more Arabic than they started with,” said 2008 winner Dina Boero, who excavated at the site of Ras el Bassit in northern Syria. “We were surprised to learn how much we could communicate with only a few words.” Similarly, Kristina Glicksman, a 2007 winner who worked at the site of Khirbet al-Mudayna near the town of Madaba, Jordan, told us, “I really enjoyed working with the Bedouin [workmen] and trying to communicate with smatterings of Arabic and English and lots of hand gestures.”

Perhaps even more important are the cultural interactions that volunteers have with local communities. According to John Brown University Professor David Vila, who directs the excavations at the Decapolis site of Abila in northern Jordan, his project aims to teach volunteers not only about archaeology, but also about the people and culture of modern Jordan. “Our students are invited almost daily into the homes of their Jordanian coworkers for meals, to enjoy tea and hookah, and just hang out,” said Vila. “They return home with a greater understanding of a people with whom they originally thought they had very little in common.”

Make Friends from Around the World

Digs are almost always international affairs, composed of archaeologists and experts from around the globe. In addition, dig volunteers themselves come from an array of backgrounds and typically include college and graduate students, retirees, school teachers, vacationing archaeology or Bible enthusiasts, and everyone in between.

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It is no surprise then that digs are an excellent way to learn about and experience the world’s diversity and, indeed, this is a theme that appears again and again in letters from our scholarship winners. From language exchange to learning the finer points of global cuisine and international sports, volunteers find that interacting with people from diverse backgrounds can be one of the most rewarding aspects of working on a dig.

“I never imagined that I would learn so much from and about the people with whom I moved buckets,” said Leah Schulte, who worked in 2008 at Ramat Rahel, an excavation near Jerusalem, with team members from Israel, Germany, the United States, Austria, New Zealand and Canada. “We talked about what led us to the dig site and we even worked on languages together—yes, languages! We all took turns teaching each other phrases.”

But not all cultural exchanges have to be serious. Eric Welch, a 2009 scholarship winner who worked at Tell es-Safi/Gath, wrote of the memorable friendships he made with members of the team’s Australian contingent: “Plenty of afternoons were spent in the pool discussing the finer points of Australian slang, while their mascot, a yellow inflatable kangaroo named Skippy, watched nearby.” And Jennifer Thum, whose letter was published in the January/February 2009 issue of BAR,^c noted how she used classic American snack foods at Megiddo to foster group cohesion. “This season also witnessed two now infamous food-related instances—the day when all the British students tried Oreos for the first time, and the day when I introduced them to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches … the PB&J was a big hit, but not as big as the Oreos.”

Become a Global Citizen

Working on a dig is much more than just archaeology and learning about the Biblical past. It’s also a chance to experience the world and broaden your horizons. Like many of our scholarship winners, Monica Parshley, who dug at Megiddo in 2010, says she was changed forever: “This experience was so much more than hours of sorting pottery sherds and mounds of dirt,” she wrote. “I was introduced to many incredible people from all walks of life, learning about their experiences and dreams while discovering much about myself.” Erin Pruckno, like many volunteers, “came home with great friends, a better understanding of the world around me and an insatiable urge to travel.”

As any dig volunteer will tell you, there is nothing like the adventure of going on your first dig. Of course, digging is itself exciting, but there’s also the adventure that comes along with being immersed in a different country and culture and exploring a part of the world that many never get to see. Traveling in a foreign land, seeing the sites of the Bible and meeting people from different backgrounds are experiences that volunteers treasure for the rest of their lives. Every year, our BAS Dig Scholarship winners (see sidebar) tell us about their overseas 030 adventures […]