Volunteer Opportunities in 1980

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Volunteers are needed for a score—and more—of excavations during the summer of 1980. The projects listed below include only those excavations that were prepared to announce specific dates, costs and programs by the time we went to press. There will undoubtedly be later additions to the roster of digs in the field this coming summer. BAR will publish an up-date in the March/April issue.

As we said in last year’s round-up, “age need not be a deterrent” to participating in a dig “as long as good health and spirits are there.” While that is still true, potential volunteers of all ages should be aware that all of the digs are strenuous and require minimum participation of at least two weeks time; many require more. Additionally, a few digs insist that all volunteer participants follow the academic program offered at the site in conjunction with the dig. This can mean the normal requirements of any graduate or undergraduate course—reading, papers, exams. 035However, at least one of the projects we review, the Lahav Research Project, offers two special arrangements of shorter duration in recognition of the more limited vacation time of the non-student.

In a more relaxed vein, almost all the projects offer both on- and off-site enrichment activities in the form of evening lectures and week-end tours of neighboring sites. Accommodations are sometimes for the seven-day week, but more frequently for five nights only. While the latter arrangement can be a source of greater adventure, it can also raise the total cost of your dig experience.

Tel Anafa

Tel Anafa is a small tell in the upper Galilee which was inhabited from the Early Bronze Age to the Early Roman period. Excavations jointly sponsored by the University of Michigan, the University of Missouri and Ben Gurion University will concentrate this summer on the late Hellenistic levels at the site (c. 150–80 B.C.), when the excavators believe Anafa was a Greek trading post. The Anafa project will be in the field from June 8 until August 1; minimum participation is for a two-week period. Fifty volunteers are sought. Three hours of credit in practical and field archaeology are available from the University of Michigan at a cost of $185; food and lodging costs to volunteers are $85 for a full seven-day week. For full details and application write to: Dr. Sharon Herbert, Field Director, Tel Anafa; Kelsey Museum of Archaeology; University of Michigan; Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109.

Aphek/Antipatris

The Joint Israeli-American Expedition to Aphek-Antipatris (see “An Israelite Village from the Days of the Judges,” BAR 04:03) will be in the field again this summer for eight weeks. Biblical Aphek—where the Philistines encamped before the battle with the Israelites described in 1 Samuel 4—became Herod’s Antipatris in New Testament times. The excavations at this site are the ongoing project of Tel Aviv University’s Institute of 036Archaeology, Allegheny College, Cornell University, Rice University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Two four-week sessions, beginning June 15 and July 13 respectively, are open to volunteer participants with or without credit. Minimum stay is for two weeks, with accommodations alone costing $50.00 per week. Credit programs, each four weeks in length, are offered by Tel Aviv University in conjunction with the dig and also by both Cornell and the University of North Carolina which conduct their own independent field schools during the second session. For further details write: Dr. Don Hobson, U.S. Project Coordinator; Box 14; Allegheny College; Meadville, Pennsylvania 16335.

Caesarea

The Joint Expedition to Caesarea, a project of a consortium of some twenty Canadian and American colleges and universities, will continue excavations this summer at the Mediterranean port city built by Herod the Great in the first century A.D. Two five-week sessions (May 25–June 26 and June 29–July 31) will be staffed by 100 volunteers each. Excavations will be conducted in all the periods represented at the site—Herodian, Byzantine, Roman and Early Islamic. Participants must remain for at least one full five-week session. Educational credit is available from the sponsoring institutions. Accommodations for the Caesarea dig are at a beach hotel and will cost about $800–850 for each session. For application and further information write: Dr. Robert Bull; The Institute for Archaeological Research; Drew University; Madison, New Jersey 07940.

Tel Dalit

The third and last season of limited excavations at Tel Dalit, a fortified city of the Early Bronze II period situated close to modern-day Tel Aviv, will take place from May 19 to June 13. Sponsored jointly by Tel Aviv University and Baylor University, the project is seeking about fifty volunteers. Minimum participation in the dig is for two weeks. As is the case with the Tel Dan and the Meiron Project excavations, the Tel Dalit dig is part of a longer travel-study project to the area, but may be pursued independently. Write to: Dr. Bruce Cresson; Institute of Archaeology; Baylor University; Waco, Texas 76706, for applications and complete details.

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Tel Dan

Tel Dan is one of the two cities where, after Solomon’s death, Jeroboam set up worship of the Golden Calf. Dan will be probed again for the seventh consecutive year by a joint team from Hebrew Union College, Harvard’s Semitic Museum and Israel’s Department of Antiquities. The seven-week season will begin June 21, and will concentrate on the early second millennium B.C. gate discovered last year and the open-air sanctuary from the period of the Israelite monarchy. Sixty volunteers are sought and academic credit will be offered. For applications and additional information, write: Paul M. Steinberg, Director; Summer Programs, Hebrew Union College; 1 West 4th Street; New York, New York 10012.

Tel Dor

The first season of a planned five-year-long excavation of Tel Dor on the Mediterranean coast 18 miles south of Haifa begins this summer under the sponsorship of Hebrew University’s Institute of Archaeology. Dor is one of the largest mounds in all Israel. Literary references to the city are found from the 13th century B.C. to Crusader times. This major new excavation project (see “Yigael Yadin to Head New Excavation,” BAR 04:04), begins on July 3 and lasts for six weeks. Two courses will be offered this summer by the field school being established at the site. More information is available from: Professor Neil Richardson; School of Theology, Boston University; Boston, Massachusetts, or Professor Howard Goldfried; California State University at Sacramento; Sacramento, California.

City of David

The City of David excavations on Ophel, the original site of Jerusalem, enter their third season this summer. Ninety volunteers are being sought for the period June 16–August 8; minimum stay is two weeks. (A full report on the excavations in the City of David through the first summer of digging can be found in “Digging in the City of David,” BAR 05:04.) The dig is co-sponsored by Hebrew University, Jerusalem, and the Israel Exploration Society. Academic credit is available through the Overseas Students program of Hebrew University. The City of David Project recruits volunteers world-wide; participants secure their own accommodations in Jerusalem with help, if necessary, from the Project. Thus there are no fees charged to volunteers beyond the initial $10 application fee and any tuition fees if academic credit is sought. For information and application write to: Dr. Yigal Shiloh, Director; The City of David Archaeology Project; Institute of Archaeology; Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Jerusalem, Israel.

Tel Halif

Tel Halif, between Beersheba and Hebron in the Judean foothills, is the location of the four-year-old Lahav Research Project, the field project of a consortium of American schools together with The Albright Institute and the Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology in Jerusalem. Volunteers at Lahav are students in the Project’s Field School which this summer has some 50 openings. Academic credit is available through the affiliated American schools, which include in 1980 the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Washington State University at Pullman and Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia. Students 038enrolling through one of the consortium schools will pay $520 for the six-week experience, which begins June 15. The cost for non-consortium participants is $650. In addition, Lahav offers two special participation arrangements for short-term dig involvement. The project patrons’ program allows for less than six weeks’ participation in the Tell Halif dig with a contribution of $500. The first five days of this season’s dig will be a short-term workshop experience at a cost of $250. Also offered is a one-week archaeological tour of Israel, to be conducted by the excavation’s associate director Dan Cole just prior to the workshop. For full details write to: Lahav Research Project; Joe E. Seger, Director; Humanities CBS 304; University of Nebraska at Omaha; Omaha, Nebraska 68182.

Tel Lachish

Tel Lachish, site of the Biblical city destroyed by Sennacherib in 701 B.C., will be excavated again this summer after a year out of the field. Commemorated in the palace reliefs of Nineveh, Lachish was the most important Judean city in Palestine after Jerusalem (see “Answers at Lachish,” BRA 05:06). Eighty-five volunteers are being sought for two consecutive four-week digging sessions beginning June 15 under the joint direction of Tel Aviv University’s Institute of Archaeology and the Israel Exploration Society. Volunteers may participate in either a two- or three-course program of studies over a four-week period; participation without the study program is for a minimum of two weeks. Costs, with the study program, are $440–$540 for four weeks. Without the study program, the cost is $60.00 per week. Volunteers are encouraged to remain for the entire eight-week season, and applicants will be given free accommodations for half the period of the dig if they are willing to stay the entire season. Accommodations are in tents in a eucalyptus grove one mile from the site. For further information and applications, write: Lachish’s U.S. Coordinator, Dr. Song Nai Rhee; Northwest Christian College; 11th and Alder Streets; Eugene, Oregon 97401.

Nabratein

The Meiron Excavation Project focuses, as it has in the past, on the interrelationship between Judaism and early Christianity in the Galilee. Having completed excavation at Meiron, however, the project will dig this summer for four weeks or more at a new site, Nabratein, a few miles northwest of Safed in the upper Galilee. Excavations at this site will center on the ancient synagogue there and the large Roman-Byzantine settlement. The Nabratein portion of the project comprises the second half (June 15–July 11) of an eight-week travel-study-field archaeology program sponsored by Duke University, George Washington University and the Meiron Project consortium; the excavations at Nabratein may be pursued independently. For full information about the program, write: Summer Program in Israel; P.O. Box 4735; Duke University; Durham, North Carolina 27706.

Tel Michal

Tel Michal rises steeply from the Mediterranean beach eight miles north of Tel Aviv. A trading post from its initial settlement in the Middle Bronze Age through the Roman period, it reached its greatest extent during the Persian period. The 1980 dig, the fourth season at Michal, will be conducted in two four-week sessions beginning June 29. Participants are required to stay for the full extent of either one of the sessions, with participation in the credit program required of all volunteers. The two courses offered will 039be in field and Biblical archaeology. Full cost (tuition and accommodation) for a four-week period is $300. The Institute of Archaeology, Tel Aviv University, is joined in this project with the following U.S. institutions: the Universities of Minnesota and Pennsylvania, Brigham Young University at Provo, Utah, and the Lutheran Seminary at Wisconsin. All inquiries should be directed to: Fred Brandfon; Department of Religion; Central Michigan University; Mt. Pleasant, Michigan 48859.

Tel Yin’am

Tel Yin’am, near the southern tip of the Sea of Galilee, dominates the Yavne’el Valley. Yin’am boasts a longer history of continuous occupation than any other tell in Israel and has yielded what are believed to be the remains of the first ancient iron smeltery in the Near East. This summer’s excavations will take place in two sessions: May 27 to July 9 and July 14 to August 1. The dig will expose more of both smeltery complexes discovered there. The University of Texas, sponsor of the dig, offers course credit through its field school there, but dig participants do not have to pursue the academic program. The dig camp is located in the village of Yavne’el one mile from the site. For further information and applications write to: Dr. Harold Liebowitz; Department of Oriental and African Languages; University of Texas; 2601 University Avenue; Austin, Texas 78712.

The Israel Tourism Administration publishes a full list of active excavations in the country (many of which are already mentioned above) each spring. The 1980 list should be ready next month. To receive a copy, write Fay Schlinsky; Youth and Students Division; Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism; P.O. Box 1018; Jerusalem, Israel. In addition, the Negev Rescue Excavations plan to be in the field both this spring and summer. For information on volunteer opportunities in the Negev, write: Marta Rettig, Assistant to the Director, Department of Antiquities; P.O.B. 586; Jerusalem, Israel 91000.

Volunteers are needed for a score—and more—of excavations during the summer of 1980. The projects listed below include only those excavations that were prepared to announce specific dates, costs and programs by the time we went to press. There will undoubtedly be later additions to the roster of digs in the field this coming summer. BAR will publish an up-date in the March/April issue. As we said in last year’s round-up, “age need not be a deterrent” to participating in a dig “as long as good health and spirits are there.” While that is still true, potential volunteers of […]