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It’s 102 degrees under the hot Mediterranean sun. Your neck aches and your back feels like it’s breaking as you squat, knee deep in dirt, in a narrow rocky ditch. For the hundredth time, you find yourself wondering why you decided against a vacation in the south of France. Then, suddenly, your hand brushes up against a buried fragment of pottery. For an instant, the pain recedes and your heart races: You are holding a piece of ancient history in the palm of your hand…

In this era of information highways and tele-education, there are many ways to learn about archaeology. You can study ancient cultures in ivy-covered buildings, in the pages of magazines and books, and even on the Internet. Nothing, however, is like the experience of participating in a real archaeological dig. Ever since the Israeli archaeologist Yigael Yadin first placed an ad in the London Times, 35 years ago, asking for hardy and enthusiastic workers to help out with his excavations at Masada, thousands of people have experienced the unexpected pleasures—and occasional monotony—of being a volunteer excavator.

Volunteer opportunities are plentiful in Israel and Jordan, countries with numerous ongoing excavations and a long history of volunteerism. (For a complete listing of dig sites in Israel and Jordan, see the January/February 2000 issue of our sister magazine Biblical Archaeology Review.) But not all regions of the world are quite so eager to enlist volunteer help. In Egypt, laws designed to stimulate the economy and protect native workers prohibit the use of unpaid labor at archaeological digs. In Turkey, immigration restrictions require that all volunteers register to participate in archaeological excavations at least eight months in advance, and in Greece and Italy, the national ministries of culture strictly regulate the number of excavation permits issued to foreigners each year—making it difficult for untrained amateurs to lend a hand. Nevertheless, determined excavators—who are willing to work hard and pay their own way—can still find a broad range of volunteer opportunities throughout the Mediterranean and Western Europe. From Stone Age temples in Malta to rustic national parks in Britain, there’s plenty of work—and dirt—to go around.

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Excavations at the Athenian Agora

For almost 60 years, archaeologists with the American School for Classical Studies at Athens have been excavating in the shadow of the Acropolis, slowly uncovering the remains of classical Athens’s central marketplace and civic center, known as the Athenian Agora (photo, above). Since 1931, the Agora excavations have unearthed numerous artifacts dating from the golden age of Athenian democracy (fifth century B.C.), including important public documents inscribed in stone, jury records and ancient voting ballots. But the Agora excavations have also turned up Neolithic pottery, Mycenaean tombs and plain old modern junk. In recent years, the excavations have concentrated on the upper levels of the Agora, where evidence of Greece’s Ottoman, Venetian, Frankish and Byzantine heritages can be found. Spots on the Agora’s annual dig team are much coveted in the archaeological community; most of the 25 or so spaces are reserved well in advance by trained scholars and full-time students. Still, the program’s directors say they will consider other candidates with “with a strong background interest in Greek archaeology.” The chosen few get free room and board, and a small stipend courtesy of the school.

Bruttium and Pompeii, Italy

At least two important Roman-Italian sites are looking for volunteers this summer. The Mamertion Foundation of Lakewood, Colorado, expects to continue its excavations of a third-century B.C. Italic city called Contrada Mella. Built by the Romans shortly after they conquered the region of Bruttium (modern day Calabria, Italy) during the Second Punic War, Contrada Mella offers a rare glimpse of an early Roman colonial city. Excavations of the site have already revealed much of the city’s central square and streets. This year the Mamertion Foundation hopes to excavate Contrada Mella’s main gate and tower, and to prepare portions of the site for public viewing.

Aspiring volunteers interested in a thorough, systematic introduction to the science of archaeology, may want to consider the Anglo-American Project at Pompeii. Headed by archaeologists from the University of Bradford, England, this project not only gives volunteers a chance to help excavate Pompeii’s House of Vestals, but also offers participants formal academic training in archaeological fieldwork. Through a series of lectures and field trips, volunteers are introduced to “stratigraphic excavation and recording,” “standing monument analysis” and “the processing of ecofacts.” Last year’s excavation team completed a basic archaeological survey of Pompeii’s House of the Vestals. This year, they plan to start work on several adjoining structures, including an enigmatic building known only as the Inn.

Kerkenes Dagû, Turkey

A low granite peak covering almost an entire square mile of central Turkey’s Anatolian plateau, Kerkenes Dagû is believed to be the site of an important sixth-century B.C. city mentioned in Herodotus called Pteria. A short-lived metropolis inhabited by the Medes (an ancient Iranian people), Pteria was burned to the ground and its inhabitants were enslaved by the Lydians (sixth-century rulers of Asia Minor) in 547 B.C. Only the city’s strong defensive walls survived the conflagration. Archaeologists from the Middle East Technical University in Ankara have now succeeded in 054reconstructing significant portions of the ancient city by combining conventional excavation methods with some creative high-tech approaches like ground-penetrating radar and remote-satellite sensing. Over the last three years, the Kerkenes excavation team, led by Geoffrey and Françoise Summers, has managed to locate the charred remains of ancient Pteria’s central gateway (known as the Cappadocia Gate), the city’s imperial stables and a number of timber-frame houses. Because of the unusually technical nature of the work at Kerkenes, this excavation team is interested only in volunteers with strong engineering backgrounds or some special expertise in Near Eastern studies. The Kerkenes dig directors are quick to add that interested visitors are welcome to drop by any time.

The Tas-Silg Dig in Malta

They haven’t found the Maltese Falcon yet, but archaeologists working at the Tas-Silg dig in Marsaxlokk, Malta, have managed to turn up almost everything else you can imagine. The site of one of Malta’s famous chalcolithic temples (from the so-called Megalithic period, c. 3500–2500 B.C.), Tas-Silg is also one of the island’s most repeatedly occupied religious sites. Since the area was first excavated in the 1960s, scholars have turned up the ruins of a Phoenician altar devoted to the goddess Astarte, sherds of Roman-Punic pottery and an assortment of early Christian artifacts. This summer, the University of Malta’s Department of Archaeology, under the direction of Anthony Bonnano and Anthony Frendo, plans to examine some of the upper excavation levels at the site in an effort to reconstruct exactly how this important religious center has endured and changed over time.

Roman Excavations in England

Surprisingly, England is one of the best (and most easily accessible) places in the world to study imperial Rome. Remnants of Roman Britain are scattered all over the English countryside, and archaeologists are 058uncovering new ruins every day. Just ten miles from Oxford University, in the tiny rural hamlet of Alcester, a team of archaeologists from the University of Leicester, led by Eberhard Sauer, is exploring the ruins of a first-century A.D. Roman fort—one of the only surviving early Roman fortifications in southern Britain. Less than 50 miles away, the British National Trust is continuing its renovations of the second- to fourth-century A.D. Chedworth Roman Villa—a modest 32-room house complete with Roman baths, colorful mosaics and an elaborate underground heating system. Far to the North, in the cozy resort town of South Shields, a team of scholars from the Tyne and Wear Museums is reconstructing the daily life of a Roman frontier soldier in the colonial barracks at Arbeia Roman Fort. Volunteers are needed at all these sites, where you can enjoy not only ancient treasures but also cricket and scones.

It’s 102 degrees under the hot Mediterranean sun. Your neck aches and your back feels like it’s breaking as you squat, knee deep in dirt, in a narrow rocky ditch. For the hundredth time, you find yourself wondering why you decided against a vacation in the south of France. Then, suddenly, your hand brushes up against a buried fragment of pottery. For an instant, the pain recedes and your heart races: You are holding a piece of ancient history in the palm of your hand…