I Volunteered for This?! Life on an Archaeological Dig
After a flight to Tel Aviv, a bus ride
and two days in Jerusalem, I met Bob
Mullins of the excavation’s staff and a van
full of other staff, volunteers and equipment. It was a very early and bumpy ride
in the van, but in about an hour and a half
we arrived at Kfar Ruppin. There we met
our host; “Czech” was to be our principal
contact with the kibbutz. He was an older
man, retired from the Israeli army and
now a member of the kibbutz. He spoke
excellent English and was full of jokes
and stories about his life, the kibbutz and
his experiences in the army. He was the
man to see about laundry, scrip for the
kibbutz store, telephone tokens and any of
the other things needed to make our stay
comfortable. Dana, a young woman who
worked in the kitchen, was our other contact. She saw to it that we were fed properly, and as our hours were different from
most of the rest of the kibbutz, we kept
her busy. The food was very good, with
more varieties of vegetables than I was
used to, supplemented by meat, poultry or
fish. The food was well prepared and there
was plenty of it.
High above the Roman city of Beth-Shean, volunteers move to their assigned positions
atop Beth-Shean tell—occupied more than 1,000 years before the lower city. Meterwide balks (unexcavated catwalks), divide the