I Volunteered for This?! Life on an Archaeological Dig
A Guide to ’98 Digs: The Volunteer’s View
Volunteers’ Views
Making a Find
By Jesse Halpern
Many people must have heard my excited cries. If they were standing atop the sun-crisped tell, or excavation mound,
they would have seen my square supervisor rush over. Approaching Square W41–42, they would have seen me pointing
excitedly to a small triangular hole. Lying in its center was a bead. To a non-archaeologist the discovery of a little old
bead may not sound like a big deal, but it is.
I had been talked into spending the summer at Megiddo by my father, a codirector of the expedition. I had been
assigned to Area H, the Assyrian palace. While cleaning out my s