The Dig Information

Even though today is Sunday (a normal day of rest) today started with orientation at the dig site. I took many pictures to be added later.

I know I said I wouldn't post links just yet, but here is one about our particular dig, called Tell Keisan.

The word Tell means a city built by people. As we drove to the site (the next 20 times will be in the dark), the land is flat. Every so often there is a flat topped mound. These are "tells." This one was settled in the Neolithic era at the end of the Stone Age. Note: if the above link has conflicting information, that one is right. Other mounds were built.

Our site is near the city of Akko. The bus at the end of our drive goes to Akko several times a day. I am probably misspelling Akko, which is easy to do since it is spelled differently on every sign. Acre also seems to be a common spelling.

This is the third year of excavating this site. The first year they found a skeleton, but mostly they find animal remains and pottery -- sounds like the dig at Morven in Trenton where they are excavating the kitchen next to the mansion. So far they have gone down about a meter. It is a slo-o-o-w process. The hope is to work on this site for 10 years, one July at a time. It takes years to go down. There is only so much we can do.

Technology allows them to use geomagnetic prospecting before digging, but that is only so accurate. In theory it shows the depth of the filed site without digging to help choose the exact right spot. I talked to Josh at Hunter Research in Trenton about this while at the dig at Howell Living History Farm. It is not 100% accurate, and often you end up digging near where you would find really cool stuff, but not close enough.

The tour is led by college professors who enjoy lecturing. Oddly I was only one of a couple of people taking notes. There are about 50 people in our group, including supervisors, staff, volunteers, and some others.

The dig is focusing on the end of the Stone Age, beginning of the Bronze Age (good professors like to repeat so the information sinks in). It is the 3rd to 2nd millennium BC when the area had fortifications. This focus of this dig is the Phoenicians (which makes me think of Carin since her email was PhoenixStamp). It is near Lebanon. The goal is to find out if the Phoenicians lived here. There was some mention of the city state of Tyre, too. In the first millennium people moved here from Tyre while the Southern Phoenicians lived here. In the 7th century BC this area was used as a storage facility. They found lots of pieces of broken pottery. Last month people were gluing the pieces together.

Back track ... the digging happens for one month a year. The other 11 months archeaologists work on cataloging and taking care of the items found. Then they start all over again.

At the end of the 8th century BC the Assyrian Empire was here. The next area over was controlled by the Egyptians. The interface between the two empires in this strategically important place. In 640 BCE the Assyrians left and the Egyptians moved in. Egyptians did not like to fight, so they hired Greek mercenaries to do the fighting for them. Archeaology proves this by the Phoenician jars. It has always had an international existence.

Digging deeper to the early 8th and 9th centuries BC (the deeper you go, the earlier you get), the Phoenecians explore agriculture, particularly grains, wine, and olive oil. These items are sent to ships in the nearby port for trading. It was truly a global economy.

We've been warned nothing will look impressive. They had dirt floors. Lived modestly. 

The city was destroyed in the 10th century BC (think the era of Solomon and David). The little community was quite wealthy in the 10th, 11th, and 12th centuries BC. It was destroled at the end of RH1 (no idea what that is).

"We like destructions ... everything is still in situ. Gives us context." According to one of our leaders. The others would probably agree.

We are not the first ones to excavate this site. In past digs a church was found, proving a Christian village was there. 

We are near Akko, Galilee, and the Mediterranean, not far from Haifa. The climate is more Mediterranean than Middle Eastern.

The area has fertile plains well suited for agriculture -- wheat, barley. On the nearby mountains they grew wine (grapes), olives, and fruit trees. Further up was ground for herding. Historically the cultures were integrated. The Phoenecians were traders plus in agriculture. Their settlements live to this. It is a complex situation. In 1948 the state of Israel was founded. Half of the population of this Jewish state is Muslim. There are Arab villages in the south, and Jewish villages in the north. The wide fields belong to the Jews. The small fields with huts belong to the Arabs. Plus there are Christian Arabs among them. It is a complex landscape meeting each other. There are not many conflicts here. Have to trust we would not be there if they did not think we would be safe. Certainly feels peaceful and remote.

They all live together in a delicate position. It can be a positive, and it can be a problem if you look for divisiveness.

We walked around the top of the Tell since we won't have much time to do so once we do actual work. It is not a large site.

The first exploration started by the British in 1917. They finished in 1936 because a civil war broke out.

In the 1970s the French Dominican order dug 100 square miles. When this dig is finished in another 7 year they plan to dig 600 square meters. Part of the dig (not the part I am on) is to build off of what the French Dominicans did.

This is the third exploration of the site.

In the 19th century people had cisterns for water. It is very dry area without them. Water was collected by women at the foot of the Tell. During the Ottoman period a road passed through here making it a major area. In ancient times cities were smaller than what we think of today -- they were around 1,000 people. Nearly half the children died before the age of 5.

History lesson over (for now). Liz shared with us logistics. Stay hydrated. Bring full bottles every day.

Many dig sites do 5m x 5m holes. This is a 10m x 10 m dig. The digs I have done have been 2.5 feet by 5 feet (did not seem big enough to be measured in meters). There is one supervisor for each hole, and each supervisor has an assistant. 

Pros to this size:
You can see what you are digging. (Harder to see big context in smaller sections.)
You can dig faster 
You can leave half a section to see what you dug through

Cons:
You don't have many baulks (the standing bunches of dirt). In the baulks you can see how the ground is changing -- important with dirt floors. 
You move down slower.

We have 6 10x10 sections. I believe I am in section 47. There are 10 in my group, but one is leaving next week to do research. Emily and Anna are our leaders.

At the end of last summer the area was covered with plastic and buried. Tomorrow's job is to uncover the plastic. They are hoping that will only take a day. They also want to teach us what to look for -- what is trash, what are treasures. We should ask Liz questions as we go along. The site supervisors are in charge of our square, but Liz is overall in charge. When cool things are found, she will share with everyone as motivation.

Yulia is working on a seventh site -- they are studying what the French did and building a trench between that one and Tell Keisan to get a better sense of the overall context.

As we waited for the bus, the leader shared some information with us. The area has really been built up over the past 40 years. Modern agriculture is taking over. Farmers use modern equipment to shove the rocks out the way -- rocks that might be ancient city walls or the gate to the city. It is making it impossible to see how they used to live. 

There are other Tell mounds in the area. You can see about 5 or 6. It is impossible to excavate all of them (financially, man power, etc.), so one was chosen. This one dig will serve as an example of the others. 

Traditionally the area was farmed. Grains were grown. These grains were used as currency. In Biblical times workers were paid in grain. The more grain a king grew, the more workers he could have, and the bigger and fancier his empire could become. One liter of grain = one day's work.

The Israelites lived on the mountains. They were poorer. They could not afford to build large cities. The Bible does not say all this, but this is what archaeology is showing.

During the Crusaders era Akko was a Medieval city -- one of the best places they controlled, until it was controlled by the Solodimes. Richard the Lionhearted lived here in the 13th century. It was abandoned in the end of the 17th century. Then there was no settlement. It turned into an agricultural area. 

We choose what narratives to study.

Israel is cooperating with Jewish, Muslims, and Christians. Hard to call something the "Muslim Period," because other religions lived here, too. He calls it the "Medieval and Modern Period." 

We were encouraged to visit Akko to see the Muslim and Jewish populations living together harmoniously. Before 1948 villages were abandoned due to ethnic cleansing. Some of the population cooperated with the Jews and settled in Akko. It is a complex story. More than I'll learn in a few weeks.