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Coming soon -- Grid 44!
Check back soon for more information as well as a video about our decision to open a new grid and how we are selecting its location.
Fill out an application now and join us as we open the first new excavation area since 2008.
Members of the Ashkelon team enjoyed a night out at the Little Goat Diner in Chicago recently. Talk was of warmer weather, the closing of an old grid, opening of a new one and, of course, goat.
Good food, good company.
Now for the pictures posted on January 29th. What is going on? Well, volunteers and staff alike are participating in one time honored tradition and one not so old. In the first, participants in the annual Tell Games extravaganza are practicing the various moves that will allow them to get an opponent "out." Tell Games take place mid-season every year and it is a much anticipated break from the daily grind. I can't wait to see what Dr. Aja has planned for us this year.
In the second picture, one of the 2012 volunteers is participating in Grid Prom. This fabulous event was an opportunity for volunteers in Grid 38 to relive their youth, in some cases, and the not-to-distant past in others. Much planning went into the festivities which included parades to other grids to show off their hand-constructed finery. All in all, great fun was had by everyone.
I suppose the point of these two events is that archaeology isn't all work and no play. For many of us, there is no better job then this. We work outside alongside the Mediterranean solving puzzles, a new and invariably interesting one each and every day. Might there be a better job? I don't think so. There are, however, some realities about living in a hotel for six weeks far away from home, in working six days a week outside doing, lets be honest, manual labor that can make the experience challenging in addition to fun. Events like Tell Games and Grid Prom, the Finds Display and Final Party, field trips and lazy afternoons at the pool ensure that there is a great quailty of life on the expedition. That combined with the strength of the field school and lecture program make the Leon Levy Expedition an ideal opportunity for exposure to the world of archaeology. Obviously, I can't recommend it highly enough.
Interesting story out today about the identification of the remains of Richard III, the last Plantagenet king of England. You can read more about it here.
It gets one thinking. What might we find if we ever had the chance to dig under the parking lot which covers the center of ancient Ashkelon?
What are these people doing?
More importantly, what do they have in common with the volunteer below?
Intrigued? Check back next week to find out exactly what is going on in these two pictures.
The Leon Levy Expedition is now accepting applications for the 2013 field season. Please consider joining us as we continue to excavate Iron Age houses, a Persian period residential area and as we start the excavation of a new area on top of the South Tell, one of the primary areas of settlement throughout the history of ancient and medieval Ashkelon.
Hard to believe but thoughts are already turning to the summer season and planning is under way. As announced the 2013 field season will run from June 8 - July 19. Applications are available now. If the cold winter weather is leaving you with a longing for summer, this is the perfect time to pick up one of those applications and to start dreaming about a fantastic summer on the Mediterranean coast of Israel. The Leon Levy Expedition runs a comprehensive field school during which volunteers, young and old alike, participate in daily excavation, actifact processing and analysis, a weekly lecture series, fieldtrips and publication projects. There is no better way or location to learn about archaeology. To learn more, please see the Summer Program Page on this website.
The reviews are in! Both IEJ, the Israel Exploration Journal, and BASOR, the Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, have published reviews of Ashkelon 3: The Seventh Century B.C. in their recent volumes.
Congratulations to authors, L. E. Stager, D. M. Master and J. D. Schloen, and a host of contributors for a volume that is being hailed as a major contribution to the field.
What are we working on right now? This summer might see the opening of a new excavation area within the ancient city walls. In Febrauary, GPR (ground penetrating radar) will be used to help identify the most promising area for excavation. Stay tuned for more information.
And check back often. I'll be updating the blog more often as we get closer to the start of the season.
The conference was a great success with a number of current and former staff members of the excavation presenting papers. For those of us not presenting, the weekend passed in a blur of constant motion, from one lecture to the next. In between, we fit in as many interesting experiences as possible. First up? Repeated trips to Intelligentsia, hands down some of the best coffee in Chicago. Some were, perhaps, more excited about this than others.
The senior staff also met and discussed a number of items including, believe it or not, departure dates. The anticipation and planning begins.
SBL followed quickly on the heels of ASOR and many staff members participated in the second set of meetings as well.
Next up, the AIA meetings in January.
Want to know whether a fellow Ashkelonian will be speaking somewhere near you in the future? Be sure to check the calendar for upcoming events. It's the best place to get the most up to date information.
A big "thank you" to everyone who came to Chicago. It was a great conference.
Now for some bonus fun. See if you can identify all the current and former staff members in this picture. I'll give you a hint, there are five total.
After a long hiatus, the blog is back in action. It's a big week in Chicago as both the ASOR and SBL meetings are in town. This means it is also the largest gathering of Ashkelon staff outside of Israel. Many of the expedition staff will be giving lectures later this week. A few of the highlights include:
Thursday morning Rafi Lewis, Ashkelon Lab Director will be giving a lecture titled "The Battles of Hattin: Locating and Reading the Material Signature of Historical Events."
Also on Thursday, Deirdra Fulton and Paula Wapnish, zooarchaeologists who work with the expedition, will be lecturing on "A Zooarchaeological Investigation of the Iron I Philistines at Ashkelon."
Friday morning, Rona Avissar Lewis, former Lab Director, is scheduled to present "Give Me Some Room: Children and Their Space in the Archaeological Record."
Also on Friday, Philip Johnston, member of the field staff, will be presenting research related to his dissertation, "Preliminary Results of a Provenance and Technological Analysis of Pottery from Southwestern Iberia (c.850-550 B.C.) Using Portable XRF, NAA and Optical Petrography."
And on Saturday, Daniel Master, Co-Director of the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon, will give a lecture titled, "Online Publication of the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon Using the OCHRE System."
Staff members will also be presenting at SBL, the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature. Its a busy week!
For a complete list of upcoming lectures about Ashkelon as well as those being given by Leon Levy Expedition staff members, please consult the calendar.
Rainy and mid-70s back in Chicago. What a glorious day!
Just a brief word today. This season we were joined by Nichole Moos, a pre-school teacher in a Chicago Public School who came to learn about archaeology. And, in conjunction with the expedition, she came to work on developing web content and an archaeology classroom curriculum. Nichole excavated every day and then blogged about it in the afternoons. Many of those blogs included videos by the Ashkelon staff and they were wildly popular with kids back home.
Well, people have taken note of Nichole's great work. "Dig: The Archaeology Magazine for Kids" has linked to Nichole's blog. You can find it here. Just scroll down the page until you see Ashkelon.
As mentioned previously, Nichole will continue blogging and working on various projects throughout the school year. Do check periodically to see what is going on in her world and this fabulous project.
Last night is was a dairy dinner in the hotel followed by a Ben & Jerry's feast at the lab. And now it is time to start heading home. The first to depart head out this morning. Tomorrow the remainder of the staff heads home as we return to teaching jobs, graduate school and other jobs. And planning for next season of course!
If you haven't checked out Nichole's blog, you really should. She has posted a number of great videos. Check back periodically. There should be new material throughout the year.
This is the last post until we are home. ASOR is in Chicago this winter. Should be great and we'll look for you there.
Wheelbarrow use number 2: Sleeping.
Josh -- and many others in the past -- find wheelbarrows to be very conducive to good napping.
We're still here, hard at work. Or, not so much now that we sleep in and have breakfast at 6:30, work at a more leisurely pace in the compound or lab and go on field trips. Yep, that's right. Tomorrow the staff is going on a field trip to Gezer.
Believe it or not, there is still work to be done before the staff heads home to enjoy the remainder of the summer. And we have some help this week. Joel decided to stick around and he is busy working on the bone for us.
Josh has a team working hard on sorting Persian pottery.
Robyn is bouncing between the odeon, Islamic glass and the inventory of the vault.
Kate is working on Hellenistic pottery.
And, as always, I am hard at work on the Islamic volume.
The reports are written, or nearly so, the pace is slower, but not too slow, and the season is at last winding down. The blog will still be here though less frequently. Check back periodically to learn more about what is going on and what will be happening next. Soon planning for next season begins!
The blimp arrived, pictures were taken and the real fun began. In Grid 51 they worked to take down Phase 4 walls with the help of some Grid 47 volunteers. Needless to say, everyone was quite happy to be working in the field instead of the compound.
That isn't to say there was nothing going on in the compound, there was plenty.
All the body sherds collected over the course of the season, those sherds which don't tell us much about the vessel from which they came, were dumped into a wagon and carted off to Grid 23 which is being backfilled.
There is still a lot of work to do even after the volunteers leave tonight. Next week during staff week, we will work to sort through much of expedition's bone collection. A number of staff members will also work on their individual research projects including Islamic glass, Persian pottery and the Roman odeon.
And speaking of volunteers, the bulk of the group leaves tonight. On behalf of the entire excavation I'd like to thank the volunteers who joined us in making the 2012 field season a spectacular sucess. Thank you and bon voyage!
Pat sweeps the last few footprints out of Grid 47 ahead of Zach who wielded the leaf blower with great precision. By the time he was done two days had been cut off our cleaning time and the walls positively sparkled! The grids stand ready for their final photos tomorrow. And then the walls are coming down in Grid 51! What a great way to end the season.
In the meantime, voluteers and staff eagerly await Adam's season ending slide show tonight. Other projects are also in the works so it should be a fun evening as we spend one last night together as a group.
A shout out to David who had a very special birthday celebration last night. The ice cream was delicious and the entertainment even better!
One day to go and then the majority of the group will be on the go!
Who says archaeology isn't fun? Not Pascal! Fun things are always found at the end. The amphora at left is an East Greek Persian Period amphora.
Today Grid 51 worked on removing their sandbag staircase so that it won't mar their final photos. A little sweeping tomorrow and they will be good to go.
Grid 38 swept today and are ready to go. Tomorrow is a compound day for them. The highlight of Grid 38s day was Grid Prom. The festivities were mighty and included a field trip to Grid 47 where they showed off their prom outfits.
By the way, I was asked to create thumbnails so that readers could see larger images. So to the right, is a view of Grid 38 all dolled up and ready for prom. No doubt about it, the highlight of the sartorial splendor on parade was Jacob. There is pictoral proof. Unfortunately, it lies sideways so I will try to find another copy to share with everyone.
I had a request for a larger copy of Dr. Walton's contribution to the blog. Here it is! Enjoy!
Cleaning is well under way in Grid 47 where the walls have been hit a second time with the leaf blower. They positively sparkle!
An interesting find while we were cleaning, well okay, digging a bit. The first archaeologist to excavate in this area, John Garstang in the 1920s, found several walls which he called Hellenistic. We decided to poke around one of them to see if we could learn more. What we found was that he was right, the walls stratigraphically are Hellenistic. The one to the right is, in fact, cut by the apse of the 1st century C.E. Roman bouleterion. They are also something more than just walls as they include engaged column bases. Very interesting.
Grid 51 was still hard at work today excavating their tabun. It sits on a floor that dates to the Persian-Hellenistic transition. The bowl smashed up against it is an in-curved rim bowl which dates to 4th-3rd century B.C.E.
The end is in sight, however, and tomorrow Grid 51 will start cleaning.
As the focus shifts from excavation to cleaning and shut down, supervisors find themselves spending more time on the computer. It's always helpful to find a comfy place to do that and hey, why not use a wheelbarrow?
Grid 38 finished excavation today and after breakfast both Grid 38 and Grid 47 was in the compound working on inventory, pottery marking and other end-of-the-season tasks.
And finally, from Dr. Walton and his wife Kim who joined us for the first three weeks of the season, a hilarious contribution to the blog. Ashkelon and its denizens are everywhere!
Somehow yesterday's post did get published. My apologies for the delay.
The digging is over in Grid 47 and we have started cleaning. That's right, that's Zach using a leaf blower to clean off our big Roman walls. What's a little dust storm when you can cut two days off your cleaning schedule? The walls have never looked better which is great since we will be hosting a meeting of the minds to discuss the odeon in a few days. Hard to believe the season is almost over.
It isn't for Grid 51, not yet. They are hard at work excavating a tabun and the related floor. And, wouldn't you know it, funny things happen when you excavate and while digging that tabun, they found another! Looks like another day or two in the dirt for Grid 51 but I doubt you'll hear any complaints.
Grid 38 is done enough with their digging that there is time for some fun. I wonder who will win?
Pancake day is coming up soon. So too is Adam Aja's famous end of season slide show. Can't wait!
Final photos fast approaching... And the first post-season staff meeting has already been scheduled.
Fun things always happen in the last few days of digging as we race towards the finish.
Patrick and Erin finish the excavation of a Hellenistic wall's foundation trench discovered in Probe 2 which was dug through the east pier of the odeon's stage.
Meanwhile, work continued just across the way in Probe 1 where the hole just keeps getting deeper and deeper. And as it gets deeper and deeper, it continues to produce Iron Age pottery. Today it also produced some patches of heavy burning with some fragments of burned wood still visible (according to the microarchaeologists).
And when the pottery is all Iron Age and heavy burning is found it can only mean one thing. The photographer was called in to snap a photo and the microarchaeologists came in to take samples. Was something burned in situ, meaning in that place, or was the burned material dumped in along with the piles of dirt? Check back for the answer later this week.
There is a good chance, however, that the probe has now reached a sand dune which means that Probe 1 will be soon closed and backfilled.
Never fear, work continues not only in Grid 47 but also Grids 51 and 38 for which pictures should appear soon.
Happily we are back! Sorry to have disappeared on everyone for a couple of days.
It was a busy week in Grid 47as we finally returned to the sewer. On Thursday we started excavating its roof in the hopes we would find some ceramics that would help us date it. Unfortunately, we only recovered a small piece of glass but we did make another interesting discovery. While cleaning the sewer Busby and crew found a feeder channel which we will start excavating tomorrow. It was a very interesting discovery that may explain some walls we can see running through the orchestra of the odeon.
Work also continued in Probe #1 as we continue to hunt for the Hellenistic period under the Roman period buildings in Grid 47. Patrick has excavated it from the beginning and beyond. Daniel challenged us to go down 75 centimeters on Thursday and the crew worked hard in getting down over 80 cm. What are we finding in the probe? Iron Age pottery. Very interesting and quite surprising.
Grid 51 has continued to excavate the floors in their Persian period building and to move Big Dirt.
Grid 38 took a photograph of all of Shimi's square and is now prepared to float the entire square first thing tomorrow -- that's right, the entire square which consists right now of either walls or floors.
It was a long weekend for us this weekend. Yesterday the volunteers headed off on a field trip to Masada, Ein Gedi and Qumran.
We're in the home stretch now. Final photos are on Friday!
Apologies for the lack of pictures. The pervasive internet issues we've been struggling with this summer are still causing trouble. Never fear, though, there is news to report. Today was the day of Ashkelon's annual Tell Games. The festivities were masterminded by Adam Aja who always comes up with a really creative way to let off Week 5 steam. This year it was a version of "Rock, Paper, Scissors," with "Egyptians, Assyrians and Philistines." Very geeky and a great deal of fun!
Today in Grid 47 we continued to dig Iron Age fills in our two probes. Both areas of fill seem to be part of the odeon's construction which is very interesting.
In Grid 51 they worked on uncovering more mudbrick floors, they took down some walls and worked on their tabun. Hopefully pictures will follow soon.
And in Grid 38 they are getting ready to fine grid and float Shimi's entire square.
Today in Grid 47 we worked to answer a century old question. In the 1920s a British archaeologist named John Garstang excavated in Ashkelon. While working near the center of the site he found a large building which consisted of a basilica and a bouleterion. He called it "Herod's Cloisters" and associated it with Herod the Great and the 1st century B.C.E. The date was never confirmed, however, and the exact date of the building has not been established.
Until, we hope, this year. This year we uncovered more of the bouleterion including a room with a floor. To the left, volunteers work to excavate that floor and the sealed deposits underneath it. That sealed material should, for the first tim,e help us date the basilica and bouleterion complex archaeologically. We should have the answer in the next few days.
In Grid 51 they worked on their tabun (an oven), some loom weights, an upside down amphora, and huge chunks of iron slag. Grid 38 continues to work towards Phase 20 and the house which is their stopping point.