I Volunteered for This?! Life on an Archaeological Dig
ing the dump for the next section. Badè
recognized that this method could not be
left to unsupervised workmen whose understanding of excavation methodology consisted largely of earth-moving and hunting
for artifacts. One of Badè’s primary concerns at Tell en-Nasbeh became the training of future archaeologists.
Badè began an archaeology program
for students at the Pacific School of
Religion that included instruction in pottery typology, excavation methodology and
recording procedures. Students who completed their studies and demonstrated a
high level of interest in archaeology were
offered positions on the excavation staff at
Tell en-Nasbeh. They volunteered their
services to the expedition and paid their
own traveling expenses, both to and from
Palestine. While at the excavation, the students were guests of the expedition and
were sometimes given small stipends for
personal expenses.8
Courtesy of the Matson Collection, Episcopal Home
A whip awaits shufflers at Beth-Shemesh, where a foreman, dressed in white left
of center, keeps workers in line. This precursor to modern quality-control programs kept many early digs running smoothly. Sir William Flinders Petrie
observed at Tell el-Hesi that strategically placed overseers, such as the suited
man on the hill, could weed out laggards by spying—sometimes with telescopes—into workers’ baskets to ensure that no one snuck by with a light load.
The problems and failures of many of
the early excavations can be attributed to
the lack of trained staff members. During
the years 1920 to 1929, when William
Foxwell Albright served as the director of
the Jerusalem school of the American Schools of Oriental Research, which now bears his name, he established a training program for students. Albright began excavating Tell Beit Mirsim, 16 miles northeast of BeerSheva, an excavation that would prove to be pivotal for the development and refinement of ceramic typology.
Albright began a weekly program of local field trips and also led students on excursions to areas such as the
Dead Sea and the eastern Galilee to visit archaeological sites and to collect pottery.9 Albright observed that
having to defend his pottery chronology and his analysis of site stratification during instruction of students
repeatedly required that he reconsider ideas, a process that produced a more accurate excavation analysis.10
Between the two World Wars archaeology began to emerge as a scholarly discipline. Albright and the students he trained began to refine excavation techniques first developed by Reisner and Fisher and, building
on P