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I Volunteered for This?! Life on an Archaeological Dig

From the Volunteer’s Viewpoint: History by the Bucketful
By Charlotte D. Lofgreen

“What brings you here?” is a frequent question of introduction when Tell Beer-Sheva volunteers introduce one another.
The answers reveal students of archaeology from various universities coming for field experience, others looking for a
new or different experience, Biblical students, or volunteers, like myself, interested in archaeology, this land and its history, or wanting to make a contribution to man’s knowledge of his past. There are not many such opportunities for someone who is “just interested” and “willing to work”. It is a unique experience. What is it like to participate in an
archaeological expedition?
The time is 4:30 a.m., the music, coming over a loud speaker at maximum volume, is a mixture of Israeli and John
Philip Sousa; the mood—what am I doing—permeates the semi-conscious as you trudge in the dark to rows of sinks to
brush teeth. Nourishment is bread and milk or coffee. To the piercing shrill of a whistle, the work groups slowly place
one foot in front of the other, up the hill until their area is reached. A bucket, trowel, pick, and sundry equipment is
placed in your hand. An area supervisor advises you on filling buckets, hauling buckets, and emptying buckets. You
remember another word for archaeological expedition is a “dig” and dig you do. This might be a volunteer’s first impression of the process of discovery into a tell.
This artificial hill, called a tell, is a rise in the land that a people build on. Then a destruction; drought, plague,
conquest, causes that civilization to cease. In time another group builds on the remains adding height and breadth to
the previous cities’ dimensions. The process continues through the ages, adding level upon level. Each stratum holds
its unique pottery, coins, religious objects—as keys to its generation’s story of survival and search for meaning.
Another whistle announces breakfast and the downward walk becomes a trot. Hard boiled eggs, cucumbers, tomatoes, yogurt, milk, and bread await the hungry diggers. After the short 45 minute interval the whistle hits its same note
© 2006 Biblical Archaeology Society

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