Excavations of the Philistine city of Gath (Tell es-Safi) began this week, and Associated Press writer Matti Friedman visited the site with photographer Ariel Schalit. Their profile of the site’s importance and its connection to the Philistines in history is well-written. From the article’s conclusion:

One intriguing find at Gath is the remains of a large structure, possibly a temple, with two pillars. Maeir has suggested that this might have been a known design element in Philistine temple architecture when it was written into the Samson story.
Diggers at Gath have also found shards preserving names similar to Goliath — an Indo-European name, not a Semitic one of the kind that would have been used by the local Canaanites or Israelites. These finds show the Philistines indeed used such names and suggest that this detail, too, might be drawn from an accurate picture of their society.
The findings at the site support the idea that the Goliath story faithfully reflects something of the geopolitical reality of the period, Maeir said — the often violent interaction of the powerful Philistines of Gath with the kings of Jerusalem in the frontier zone between them.
“It doesn’t mean that we’re one day going to find a skull with a hole in its head from the stone that David slung at him, but it nevertheless tells that this reflects a cultural milieu that was actually there at the time,” Maeir said.

The full story is here. Larger versions of the seven photographs may be found here.

HT: Joseph Lauer

The Travel section of the New York Times features an article by a volunteer to last summer’s excavations of the Philistine city of Ashkelon.  Sam Roberts writes:

The expedition is a mix of Outward Bound and summer school. The classes are all outdoors — below ground, mostly — in deep pits excavated in grids marked on a 130-acre bowl atop an eroding cliff that overlooks the beach below. The site is part of a national park, populated by picnickers and jackals and mongoose, with guest appearances by the pink, black and white-crested hoopoe, Israel’s national bird. The accommodations are vastly improved from the first year when, with the group camping out near the dig, the director stumbled into a cesspool and had his pants stolen. These days, the accommodations compare very favorably with sleepaway camp and the hotel food is tolerable (it’s served at a buffet, so at least there’s plenty of it). […] What is striking, too, is the juxtaposition of ancient ruins and modern technology. Each artifact and the daily changing dimensions of the dig are meticulously digitized. “Every field book is typed onto a laptop, every bucket is assigned a bar code to enable us to communicate the results to the archaeological community faster,” said Dr. Daniel M. Master, an archaeology professor at Wheaton College and the expedition’s new co-director with Dr. Lawrence E. Stager, a Harvard archaeology professor and director of the Harvard Semitic Museum, who has overseen the dig for 25 years.

The article includes information about qualifications to volunteer at Ashkelon as well as the cost and deadline.  (The cost doubles for those getting academic credit from Harvard.)  The writer includes the Israelites as among the ancient groups that lived in the city, but I’m having difficulty recalling when that could have been.

The Ashkelon Excavations Blog has had a number of posts on the practicalities of archaeology as they gear up for the start of their season next week.  If you’ve thought of joining any archaeological team, you’ll get a better sense for what it’s like from “A Day in the Life of an Archaeologist.”

By 5:10 we are at the Pottery Compound where we one and all race to grab our tools. We do this by the light of the florescent moon which pierces the still dark morning. Honestly, it is still dark! Then, tools in hand we strike off in the direction we believe will lead us to our designated excavation areas. (We haven’t lost anyone yet and, fingers crossed, we won’t this year.)
By 5:30 we are usually hard at work even though we can’t really see anything. We work using a range of tools from dental picks and tiny paint brushes on up to full size pick axes and shovels (although they have a more fancy name). We dump all the dirt we dig up into buckets called gufas and then haul it away.

The post continues here.

If you’re interested in more of the logistics, the Gath team has also made available the excellent packet of materials that they provide to volunteers.