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I Volunteered for This?! Life on an Archaeological Dig
of Iron I glassware, a large bronze ingot, ceramic tableware, a scarab seal, bones of Nile crocodiles and many Egyptian,
Mycenaean and Cypriot pottery sherds. When we learned about the background and origin of the pottery we had excavated during the week, the relation between the floor levels that we had uncovered, and the kinds of animals that were
eaten and sacrificed 3,000 years ago, we truly felt the reward of our hard work.
Also extremely valuable were the various field trips held on Thursday afternoons and weekends. We visited excavations at Megiddo, Caesarea, the Carmel Caves, Hazor, Dan, Banias, Beth-Shean, Belvoir, Hippos, Hammat Tiberias and
Jerusalem. Our director and “tour guide,” Jeffrey Zorn, visiting lecturer at Cornell University, always pointed out each
site’s archaeological characteristics in addition to its historical and cultural significance. Having our own digging experience fresh in mind made it easier to understand the unique archaeological aspects of the various sites and deepened
our understanding of our own work at Tel Dor.
My personal goals on the dig were to gain firsthand knowledge of field archaeology and of Phoenician culture and
language. Those goals were only partially met. I learned more about Phoenician seafaring, pottery, architecture and the
purple-dye industry than I had ever learned from my academic reading. But my desire to find a new Phoenician inscription was not realized (the only epigraphic find was a scarab seal written in hieroglyphic Egyptian, not yet published), so
I will have to use already-published Phoenician inscriptions in my dissertation.
Another disappointment was that we never reached the Late Bronze Age level as we had hoped. We did notice,
however, an ever-increasing percentage of Bronze Age pottery during our pottery-reading sessions. We are more and more
convinced that we will soon discover the Late Bronze Age settlement, most probably next season.

© 2006 Biblical Archaeology Society

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