Angle

Issue date: 9/25/06 Section: Cougar's Tale

Lovik with Druze helper Makmoud [Click to enlarge]

Bronze Age wall in middle of trench [Click to enlarge]

Two structures in one wall [Click to enlarge]

As I sat on the plane returning to the United States on July 12, I reflected on the busy three and a half weeks I had spent in Israel.

It began last January when I sent in an application to volunteer for an archaeological excavation at Tel Kedesh in the hills of Upper Galilee in Israel. I received my acceptance notice, purchased my ticket, and eagerly awaited THE DAY.

I left Newark on June 16 and landed at the Tel Aviv airport in Israel, 12 hours later, and everything was a whirlwind after that.

Three excavation volunteers took me to Moshav Ramot Naftali where we were staying on the western mountain range of the Hula Valley overlooking the Golan Heights and Mt. Hermon to the east. (A moshav is like a housing development but with its own store, school, synagogue, and magistrate or mayor.)

The nearest town is Kiryat Shimona, seven miles due north, where we occasionally shopped for snacks and supplies. Our excavation site was about three miles west of the moshav and a mile and a half from the eastern border of Lebanon.

Almost daily we saw the United Nations helicopter fly the border to maintain peace and heard the Israeli Defense Force artillery practice. (At least that's what we hoped it was.)

Standing on the tel (a large mound or hill created by many years of debris from previous ancient towns), we could look directly north into Lebanon, and sometimes we heard the Muslim call to prayer.

We worked from Sunday to Friday and had Saturday off because it is Shabbat or the Sabbath. On our off days, we rested and relaxed or went on field trips to other sites such as Tel Dan and Banias (two sources of the Jordan River), the Hexagonal Pools at the Yehudiya Nature Reserve, or Gamla.

Several of us spent a Saturday in a Druze village on the Golan Heights just a mile from the Syrian border enjoying their hospitality and learning about life there.

Our daily schedule went something like this: wake up at 4:30 a.m., eat breakfast of cereal or bread, be in the vans by 5:00 a.m., be on top of the tel by 5:30 a.m., dig by 5:456:00 a.m., continue work until second breakfast at 9:00 a.m., back on the tel by 9:45 a.m., work until 12:00 p.m.

In the afternoon we were back at the moshav washing pottery until 2:00 p.m., have lunch, wash more pottery or sort pottery if we were scheduled to sort until 5:00 or 6:00 p.m., eat supper at 7:00 p.m., do paperwork (if one of us were a trench supervisor) or relax until bedtime at 8:30 or 9:00 p.m.

It was a very tiring time, but I loved every minute of it. I got to know the 20 or so people in our group, most of whom were graduate students in archaeology at the U. of Michigan or U. of Minnesota.

Most in the group were from either the United States or Canada, one was from Australia, and two were from the Czech Republic.

Working on the tel, we dug with pickaxes or patiches (small hand picks) and sifted for pottery (There was a lot!) or various artifacts left behind by the Phoenicians who inhabited the site during the Persian (539-332 b.c.) and Hellenistic Period (332-141 b.c).

My trench was at the southeastern corner of the site. At the corner of the building structure we were excavating, we uncovered walls, with very little plaster floor to date the site.

We found coins, a kohl stick (an ivory or bone makeup stick with which to put kohl around the eyes), a sheep's skull and bones, a stone seal for sealing official documents, and other items.

This was certainly a life-changing vacation. Even though the three weeks was not a mission trip in a traditional sense, I considered the dig a mission field, because I realized that I might be the only Christian whom these people would ever meet.

I wanted my life and actions to show Christ-likeness in all I did or didn't do, including the effort I put into my work.

Although I learned numerous archaeology techniques and concepts, a crucial thing I learned is that even though the Bible does not need to be proven, archaeology in Israel without a sound belief in the Bible is very difficult.

Otherwise, one sees only the historical connection of the facts and events, not how God has been and still is at work in the events of history and mankind.

I met Israeli Jews and Druze (a religious sect that is an offshoot of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, but whose members do not consider themselves to be Muslims) with whom I worked and shared food.

When I finally flew into Newark and was waiting for my plane to Tampa, I discovered that I had missed the fighting in Lebanon and Israel by a mere two hours.

Yes, the bombs were falling in the area where we were excavating, and the rest of the group got out of Israel safely a week later after closing down the site. Now, watching the events of fighting in Israel, I pray more earnestly for the salvation of my new friends.

For further information about Tel Kedesh, see the article "Life and Death on the Israel-Lebanon Border" in the September/October 2005 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

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