Logs and photographs posted by participants in Samford Summer in Israel, a four-week program in which students dig at an archaeological site and receive course credit.
Photos from the advance crew and the first week of digging
To those so inclined to read this... This past weekend was our first full weekend of free time here in Israel. At the last second I decided to travel with Michael Flowers, one of the other volunteers, to Jerusalem so that the taxi ride would cost less for both of us. Once we finally got in the taxi (about 45 minutes after it was at the hotel) we then picked up a third member to the party at one of the neighboring towns. I think we picked her up at Afula, but it could have been Haifa. We then continued east until we got to Bet She'an and then turned went south. This course of direction led us straight through the area known as The West Bank. The entrance check point wasn't a big deal at all - we just drove straight on through. The change was immediate and easy to see as I went from the area just outside of the WB where there was a gas station and a small shopping area to the area just inisde of the WB where there was an old gas station no longer in operation (it was being ...
Sunday June 18, 2023 Dear Family and Friends, I’m late with this first letter, so I’ll do my best to catch you up on our progress. I landed on May 30 with a small early crew. Most headed to Nazareth to start preparing our storeroom in the hotel and the site for the dig, while Tom and Mary Lynn McCollough and I drove to Jerusalem for a couple of meetings with folks at Hebrew U. The next day we joined everyone at the site to supervise the delivery of our tool container and toilets, and to get shade over our squares. Tom McCollough, Motti Aviam, and I walked the site, discussing where to re-open old squares and where to sink new ones. The weather has been kind to us. That has been the general pattern this year, with the exception of one day that hit 40 C/104 F, and yesterday, which got close to 38/100 during our tour of Megiddo, Beit She‘arim, and Caesarea. Most days have been somewhere in the 80s Fahrenheit, and today the high is predicted at 81. Two Fridays ago, we left the fiel...
Dear Family and Friends, Today is our second full day of three in Jerusalem. We arrived Friday evening—the beginning of Shabbat—as we usually do and ensconced ourselves in rooms at St. George’s Cathedral guesthouse. We had a few minutes to take in the attractive dining room and bar with the lovely garden, then we hiked down Nablus road and through the Damascus Gate until we reached the Western Wall. Up to this point the experience has been full of novelties and adventure for our first-timers, but Jerusalem multiplies the exotic encounters. On these hikes I wear my big white hat (a gift from David Johnson at Samford) so that those at the back can keep sight of me, and I give a brief lesson on how to move through a crowd like a Middle Easterner. But the sights, sounds, and scents allure, and the group slows like rubberneckers on a highway. Well I can’t blame them. They are seeing architecture that dates from t...
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