One thing (an important thing) to consider when choosing an excavation to join is the extra-curricular activities. By that I mean the evening lectures and the afternoon or weekend tours. Digging in the dirt is nice, but your experience will be greatly enhanced if you can learn about your site and travel around the area. Having said that, and having looked at the schedule at Gath this season, I would certainly recommend choosing Gath for your excavation next year. Check the schedule out at the Gath blog. A tip to other excavations interested in boosting their number of volunteers for future seasons: put your extra-curricular schedule online. And start a dig blog.
Today is the first day of excavations at Megiddo, and a new blog intends to narrate the season from the perspective of archaeologist Eric Cline and 9 students. Apparently 8 of the bloggers are female, which may say something about the attitude of guys towards archaeology or perhaps the recruiting skills of Cline. You can check it out here: http://digmegiddo.wordpress.com/
- Tagged Excavations
The Star-Telegram has a brief article on the recent season of excavations at Gezer. The main finds mentioned are walls burned by the Assyrians in the 8th century and a rare silver coin from the Ptolemaic period. The excavation project is described at gezerproject.org, and some general information and pictures of Gezer is available at BiblePlaces.com.
- Tagged Excavations, Shephelah