Andrea Creel, Volunteer 2007

Frustrating. Fulfilling. Arduous. Exhilarating. Any number of seemingly contradictory words could describe my first excavation in Israel, but what it all amounts to is the best experience of my life. Having completed my first year in graduate study of the archaeology of Israel at the University of California-Berkeley, I was so excited to finally go to Israel for the first time and do this thing that I love above all else. I had dug once before as an undergraduate, but my field school site had been a late 19th-early 20th century landfill on the campus of the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois. Though a valuable learning experience, I still thirsted for Israel. Unfortunately, the cost had always been prohibitive, and I have few resources to draw upon. Thanks to the generosity of the Biblical Archaeology Society though, I volunteered this summer with the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon, sponsored by the Harvard Semitic Museum and Boston College. The 22 year long excavation, formerly headed by Lawrence Stager of Harvard University, is now co-directed by Daniel Master of Wheaton College, a former student of Lawrence Stager and longtime presence at Ashkelon. Home to Canaanites, Philistines and Phoenicians, Ashkelon was an important seaport of the southern Levant for over 5000 years. This year's excavation concentrated on Grid 38, located in the central part of the tell, and unearthed Late Bronze (1600-1200 BCE), Iron I (1200-1000 BCE) and Iron II (1000-586 BCE) remains.

I spent my time at Ashkelon digging in two Philistine houses from the 11th century BCE. As my first excavation in Israel any location in the grid would have been an excellent learning experience, but since one of my primary research interests is household archaeology (along with the archaeologies of religion and gender) this particular position was ideal. To that end, I learned how to identify and excavate mud brick walls and beaten earth floors, which is no small feat, and household features like storage bins and a keystone shaped hearth. I also became quite adept at locating and excavating pits and postholes, even earning the nickname "Pit Girl." I thought that my fieldwork in Chicago had mentally prepared me for the grueling labor of an excavation, but Israel offered its own set of surprises that even warnings by others had not prepared me for. Of course, there was the heat and the sun. We were down deep enough in the tell that the cooling breeze from the Mediterranean Sea never salved our sweat and sun drenched skin. Then there was the labor itself. My muscles were definitely not ready for picking down walls and floors and hauling gufas of dirt, especially not for doing it for 8 hours a day. Our schedule was equally intense. Digging started at 5 am with 3 breaks of various lengths throughout the day and ended at 1 pm. However, our day didn't end with field work. After lunch and some downtime, we headed for the pottery compound where we washed and sorted the pottery we were excavating as well as processed pottery from previous seasons. Given all that I learned though, I wouldn't change a moment of it. The intense labor was actually incredibly satisfying and rewarding.

Not only did I become physically stronger and more healthy feeling, but the artifacts that came out of that labor were exciting and exceptional. Other excavators in the houses found a complete potter's wheel and socket, a bronze spear head and an infant jar burial uniquely inscribed with Egyptian style graffiti. In addition, I discovered and excavated a large cache of Philistine style cylindrical loom weights and an infant pit burial. The infant burial was the 7th found so far in Grid 38 and like others before it was located next to a wall right under a floor in the house. These infant burials all date from roughly the same time period and the exact circumstances surrounding them are still unknown. I also excavated a foundation deposit, located in a pit next to a wall as well, which was composed of clay and the right forearm of a sheep. Common to Iron I Ashkelon contexts, this right forearm of a sheep in a sacrificial setting is reminiscent of Exodus 29:22 and Leviticus 7:32 which prescribe the right forearm of a ram in sacrifices to Israel's deity. The most important find I excavated though had to be the longest piece of jewelry ever recovered at Ashkelon, totaling at over 700 multicolored frit beads. This was not only significant for its size, but also for the fact that, though the string had long since disintegrated, the beads were still lined up. For the first time archaeologists could see the pattern of a piece of Philistine jewelry. We didn't just take note of the pattern though. The dig photographer took a series of photographs of the necklace as it revealed itself, not only for posterity but also for reconstruction. I spent a whole day with those hundreds of tiny and fragile beads and the photographs of their excavation, carefully restringing them to recreate the pattern we had seen in the ground. Thus, even my day of not digging was still a day of staring at dirt all day long.

The dirt of Ashkelon though is a beautiful thing. Brown, gray, or orange, serving up finely preserved walls and floors seemingly untouched by the millennia or disappearing the floor just as you've halfway articulated it and sending you into an emotional quagmire, the dirt speaks. Sometimes it sings, and sometimes it teases. Either way, it infects you, gets in every pore and refuses to get out. Why would you want it out though? It has such beautiful secrets.