I Volunteered for This?! Life on an Archaeological Dig
At 7:30 a.m. the BBC came on with an English language news broadcast: a link with home. Five minutes later
the Israeli “top 40” resumed to the air and we listened to
canned American pop tunes, interspersed with the Israel
Symphony orchestra. Talk became desultory; we concentrated on picking, cleaning, and brushing our balks (the
sides of our work squares) in the last big effort before breakfast. We had no finds yet, only a need for Ben-Gay and bandaids.
At 8:45 we started looking for the truck that would
bring breakfast from the main camp. Each day a different
work detail was assigned breakfast duty and if our colleagues
were late the rest of us felt betrayed. “How could they make
us wait like this,” we wondered. “It could be them.” Finally,
the truck was sighted in the distance! Spirits soared.
We bolted down the side of the tel. It didn’t matter how
tired we were or how absorbed we may have been. Being near
the head of the line meant a chance at getting both the flavored yogurt which was always in short supply and a full half
hour’s escape fr