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I Volunteered for This?! Life on an Archaeological Dig

Edgar Hardesty, Tel Gezer

Tel Gezer overlooks the Aijalon Valley at the northern-most ridge of the Shephelah, the foothills that lead to the central
hill country of Israel. The ancient site is located just east of the intersection of the coastal highway and one of the major
routes eastward into the highlands, which eventually leads to the city of Jerusalem. The site itself is a long, thin,
sausage-shaped tell of approximately 33 acres and is one of three cities fortified by Solomon (1 Kings 9:16–17). It was
continuously occupied from the Bronze Age to the Hellenistic period.
Originally excavated in the early 20th century by R.A.S. Macalister (1902–1905, 1907–1909) under the auspices
of the Palestine Exploration Fund, it was again excavated by an American team sponsored by Hebrew Union College
under the direction of W.G. Dever and later by J. Seger (1964–1971, 1972–1974, 1984, 1990). This past summer the
tell was again reopened to excavation by an Israeli-American team headed by Dr. Sam Wolff of the Israel Antiquities
Authority and Dr. Steven Ortiz of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary (now associated with Southwestern Baptist
Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas).
I was privileged to join the dig through the enabling generosity of the Biblical Archaeology Society, who provided
a dig scholarship, and the Biblical Archaeology Society of Northern Virginia, who provided a research grant. Our work
centered on the central portion of the south side of the tell in an effort to accurately date the wall adjacent to what has
been dubbed the Solomonic Gate. In the years since Dever and Seger completed their work much has been written concerning the date of the gate and the surrounding wall structure. Our job, this first season, was to begin the research that
hopefully will serve to settle the remaining questions surrounding the dating of these structures and provide a data base
of information to answer larger regional issues. For Biblicists, the importance of dating such structures goes beyond the
mere science of Israel’s past. The Bible states in 1 Kings 9:15–17 that “… Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up and cap© 2006 Biblical Archaeology Society

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