Same Story Different Perspective continued…

Aug, 2018

By Wei Zheng

Same Story Different Perspective continued…

Two weeks into the dirt, we all were pros at this excavating compared to the first day. It started to become mindless work of carefully digging, trimming the bulk, sweeping and digging and trimming and sweeping. But that’s what archaeology is, this they don’t tell you, the man-hours put into excavations, so you don’t know what it was like when you read an article only about the finds and results. I knew archeology was more physically labor intensive, but it felt like I wasn’t able to comprehend the reality of it until I experienced it firsthand. What kept most people going was breakfast time, naptime and my favorite beach time. I also didn’t know how to swim, so that was a problem there, but it didn’t stop me, well the waves did. At one point, if I got out far enough, I would get wiped out by the waves.
The strongest motivator that made us continue digging each day was that hope we would find that unique relic in your square that would win find of the day was what kept all of us going. It was a weirdly motivational idea in my head that would represent all the man hours put into excavating our area that served our efforts and achievement. So what did I have to show for my square you say? Lots and lots and lots of pottery that surpassed everyone else’s. Our record was 26 buckets from a single day’s worth of work. I feel sorry for our square supervisor Amanda and Dan since they had to write a pottery tag every time we fill up a bucket and we were always filling up buckets. We hit pottery every time we picked up the pickaxe and frankly it was more pottery than dirt in our entire square.
I divided my time between my square NN10 and survey. Usually, in a study, we do not typically contribute much to the find of the day, but I did it out of curiosity. A typical day would be digging holes that were previously plotted by someone on the total station. The holes dug were small and was not as deep compared to the other squares, but we did find pottery more or less. It was during the last week we were digging on the slope of the Tel we uncovered a wall, and I was digging on the left side while Jamie, Sugerman, and Brett were digging on the right side. That was when they found a bright blue piece of faience and a large crystal bead. It was an incredibly rare find that none of the other squares had. We submit the find for the find of the day, but we lost to monkey carvings which were a bit disappointing. Who could compete with monkey carvings, that was amazing in its way
I’m the kind of person who does not particularly eat out at nice places too often and loved the idea of home cooked meals with friends more meaningful than going out to eat at a restaurant. We all were looking forward to the final dinner at Uri Buri. A few others and I couldn’t wait till the last day and went on our own for dinner one day since everyone was saying how amazing and delicious it was and my they were right. When I had tried the salmon sashimi with the wasabi sorbet, my mind went “where have you been all my life.” It was comparable to a person who loves chocolate and peanut butter and had a Resse’s peanut butter cup for the first time. When the day of the final dinner came, I was blessed to be sitting at a table with two vegetarians, meaning more food for me. I was in heaven to be eating gourmet food, and I stuffed myself until dessert came and continued to eat more. Those questions you get asked what your last meal would be, I would say the tasting menu at Uri Buri. The rest of that day everyone gathered around to take photos of the lovely sunset, and I went back to play Catan.
The following day I was unprepared for the amount of work that was ahead of us. I guess my body got too used to the daily excavating and surveying that when we had to fill in all the squares with sandbags, it was a very tiring process. Like machines, we formed lines and passed sandbags systematically and believe it or not we nearly filled up the squares with 6000 sandbags before we had to leave the Tel. Everyone was covered in dirt that it was unusual in finding anyone clean after all that sandbagging we did. It felt right to end our last day on the Tel covered in dirt and sweat knowing that we worked hard and put in all our effort into excavating.
Looking back at myself and looking at the things I would have changed during my time at Akko. I would repeat everything I have done the same all except for the time I was late for the bus. I held up the bus on the day we were heading out to Jerusalem, despite the efforts of the staff members continually telling us about the changes to the schedule. That I wished I could change, but everything else I would have done the same. You would think that I would also want to decrease the crazy amount of pottery buckets produced solely from my square, but I think I’ll keep that the same. We broke a record for the most buckets of pottery produced from a single square that season and everyone who went to pottery washing did not like our square very much. Was that our fault? No, but we were the ones who picked up every single piece so it can’t be entirely our fault there. I honestly did learn a lot, and it was a great experience to have that did help change my perspective on GIS and survey career path. This is one of the most memorable experiences I do not regret making in my life.

Aug, 2018

By Wei Zheng

Same Different Thing (continued)

The strongest motivator that made us continue digging each day was that hope we would find that unique relic in your square that would win find of the day was what kept all of us going. It was a weirdly motivational idea in my head that would represent all the man hours put into excavating our area that served our efforts and achievement. So what did I have to show for my square you say? Lots and lots and lots of pottery that surpassed everyone else’s. Our record was 26 buckets from a single day’s worth of work. I feel sorry for our square supervisor Amanda and Dan since they had to write a pottery tag every time we fill up a bucket and we were always filling up buckets. We hit pottery every time we picked up the pickaxe and frankly it was more pottery than dirt in our entire square.

I divided my time between my square NN10 and survey. Usually, in a study, we do not typically contribute much to the find of the day, but I did it out of curiosity. A typical day would be digging holes that were previously plotted by someone on the total station. The holes dug were small and was not as deep compared to the other squares, but we did find pottery more or less. It was during the last week we were digging on the slope of the Tel we uncovered a wall, and I was digging on the left side while Jamie, Sugerman, and Brett were digging on the right side. That was when they found a bright blue piece of faience and a large crystal bead. It was an incredibly rare find that none of the other squares had. We submit the find for the find of the day, but we lost to monkey carvings which were a bit disappointing. Who could compete with monkey carvings, that was amazing in its way

I’m the kind of person who does not particularly eat out at nice places too often and loved the idea of home cooked meals with friends more meaningful than going out to eat at a restaurant. We all were looking forward to the final dinner at Uri Buri. A few others and I couldn’t wait till the last day and went on our own for dinner one day since everyone was saying how amazing and delicious it was and my they were right. When I had tried the salmon sashimi with the wasabi sorbet, my mind went “where have you been all my life.” It was comparable to a person who loves chocolate and peanut butter and had a Resse’s peanut butter cup for the first time. When the day of the final dinner came, I was blessed to be sitting at a table with two vegetarians, meaning more food for me. I was in heaven to be eating gourmet food, and I stuffed myself until dessert came and continued to eat more. Those questions you get asked what your last meal would be, I would say the tasting menu at Uri Buri. The rest of that day everyone gathered around to take photos of the lovely sunset, and I went back to play Catan.

The following day I was unprepared for the amount of work that was ahead of us. I guess my body got too used to the daily excavating and surveying that when we had to fill in all the squares with sandbags, it was a very tiring process. Like machines, we formed lines and passed sandbags systematically and believe it or not we nearly filled up the squares with 6000 sandbags before we had to leave the Tel. Everyone was covered in dirt that it was unusual in finding anyone clean after all that sandbagging we did. It felt right to end our last day on the Tel covered in dirt and sweat knowing that we worked hard and put in all our effort into excavating.

Looking back at myself and looking at the things I would have changed during my time at Akko. I would repeat everything I have done the same all except for the time I was late for the bus. I held up the bus on the day we were heading out to Jerusalem, despite the efforts of the staff members continually telling us about the changes to the schedule. That I wished I could change, but everything else I would have done the same. You would think that I would also want to decrease the crazy amount of pottery buckets produced solely from my square, but I think I’ll keep that the same. We broke a record for the most buckets of pottery produced from a single square that season and everyone who went to pottery washing did not like our square very much. Was that our fault? No, but we were the ones who picked up every single piece so it can’t be entirely our fault there. I honestly did learn a lot, and it was a great experience to have that did help change my perspective on GIS and survey career path. This is one of the most memorable experiences I do not regret making in my life.

Aug, 2017

By Ansel Burn

Survey archaeology, impression and experience

Over the course of my four weeks at Tel Akko I have had the opportunity to discover a type of archaeology of which I was previously quite ignorant: survey archaeology. Prior to my time at Akko, I had had a chance to work with several tools used on survey such as the total station, resistivity and ground penetrating radar scans. However, Akko was the first time I had really had a chance to understand the results survey archaeology generated and how vital it is for an excavation.

(Total station looking over the survey site)

My first impression of survey is that it’s an entertaining, yet mindless task, which was a nice break from the very detail oriented main excavation. That opinion, however, was quickly altered once I began to actually learn about the process and the many sides of survey archaeology. The survey work I was doing involved, for the most part, digging 40 cm deep holes with pickaxes and collecting the finds that I uncovered from the different levels. The purpose of this task was to find evidence of the sorts of pottery that might be found across the site, learn what groups were present at different levels on the site, and uncover any major structures those groups left behind. Since survey archaeology can move quite quickly over a lot of ground it is also able to dig in areas that might not be considered worthy of a full excavation, which can occasionally lead to some vital and startling discoveries. For instance, the survey team had, in previous years, discovered the area of site we were digging in contained the remains of a Persian city which had covered a large section of the hill.

(Possible Persian structure)

This area had been considered too disturbed by medieval plowing and later British digging projects to require a proper excavation and a valuable section of the tel’s history would have been completely lost without the survey test pits. Learning about the thought, effort, and skill that survey archaeology requires, as well as the advantages and opportunities it allows has, without a doubt, been the most useful and enjoyable lesson I got out of Tel Akko, and I hope to possibly use this lesson in my future.

Aug, 2017

By Sarah Kammer

When in Israel, Work with Teens

Community archaeology. Essentially, it’s a way of involving the local community in the history and current activities surrounding archaeological sites. While each community archaeology project has their own unique way of achieving this goal, the overall intent of these projects are to raise awareness and a sense of connection to the places that archaeologists are digging for the people who live nearby.

The community archaeology program at Tel Akko connects American university students and Israeli teens with one another to teach conservation and excavation techniques. The first day established relationships through building with stones and mortar, which ended with lots of laughter, a mortar birthday cake, and newfound friendships abound. The second day developed the camaraderie of the first day by putting our newly acquired skills to the test with a real conservation project on walls. These days of conservation were followed by a day where we looked at the city of Akko through the teens’ eyes. They lead us around on a photo scavenger hunt adventure to see personal important places – an adventure that spontaneously joined us with another citywide scavenger hunt! The rest of the program was spent working on the tel together, finding and learning about the things the ancients left behind.

Overall, the community archaeology program was an amazing experience filled with fun, learning, and friends. The teens I worked with will hold a special place in my heart, along with all the wonderful memories we made together. I’m beyond glad that I had the chance to work with and learn from such amazing teens. My life has been enriched because of it. I was proud to watch them get their completion certificates, as I felt, and still do, we had become part of a wide-ranging family in the few weeks we were in the program together.

At the teens’ program graduation, as I was chatting with my main partner, her mom came over to me, started to shake my hand, and profusely thanked me for everything while inviting me to come stay with them anytime. I couldn’t help but be touched by her kindness and generosity, and only wish there was a way I could return the gesture.

This is why community archaeology exists. It makes the archaeological site relevant to the local community, all the while making lasting connections for all the participants, local and foreign. It leaves an impression, that, sometimes, you aren’t aware of right away or you never even imagined possible.

Aug, 2017

By Sarah Kammer

Professional Conservateur in the Making… Maybe Not

The conservation project and community outreach program at Tel Akko is unique. It includes two different aspects, which I will tackle in separate writings since trying to put them together would do an injustice to both. Though they are intertwined, they are very different facets of a really wonderful whole.

I went into the field school knowing nothing about field conservation, except that it is really important for the preservation of sites. I was intrigued, and wanted to do a project that furthered my knowledge of conservation and how the logistics of it worked on a real site. The conservation program started off by teaching us about a variety of mortars, what they are used for, and how to make them. We made several mortars and in teams built projects with them. The entire day was spent laughing and joking with our partners and other teams. We continued our project with a day of putting our new knowledge to practical use on the walls of the conservation center, learning how to fix loose and disintegrated mortar and how to carve stones in order to piece them together for repairing arches, walls, and other stone work. The field school also had several lectures and tours that were to inform participants about the importance, problems, and ways to conserve old cities. Finally, students who worked with the conservation project specifically got a chance to work with a professional conservateur, Dr. David Zell, on the walls of the archaeological site of Akko. With the help of Dr. Zell, we were able to put together a specific conservation plan for our individual walls and present our plan to Dr. Killebrew.

As aforementioned, I didn’t know much about conservation before Tel Akko, and I am extremely glad for the basis it gave me of the field. I thought perhaps this would give me a direction in which I wanted to go for my career. After going through this program I can say with certainty that I do not want to become a conservateur. It is a skill that I do not wish to develop further, as the field is not for me. While I am thankful for the basis the program has given me, it has also taught me that this is not what I want to do as a career, which I am even more thankful for.

Aug, 2017

By Rachel Strohl

Silver Lining Playbook

The Silver Lining Playbook. This little book has gotten me through many a stressful situations, and it came through again here in Akko. When I was preparing to come to Israel, I had come up with a research project for my scholarship grant. I worked for months with my professor, coming up with a plan that included me working with the archaeometallurgist here at Tel Akko. Archaeometallurgy, or the study of ancient metals and metal working techniques, has intrigued me for years, and I was so excited to come and work on a subject I was so passionate about.

However, when I stepped off the plane at Tel Aviv, my entire project fell upon its head. The specialist who was supposed to be working at Tel Akko was unexpectedly called off the dig, and would be in Jerusalem the entire project. I was freaking out. However, I pulled out my book of tricks and decided not to let the stress of my project get me down. I was here to learn, and I could still do that while not knowing what my project would be. So I threw myself into learning whatever I could. And in doing so, I was given amazing opportunities to talk to specialists, and I got first-hand experience in field archaeometallurgy. Due to this, when my amazing professors and I finally figured out a project, I felt completely and totally prepared for the academic challenge. This was my silver lining. I had become an amateur expert because instead of focusing on one project, I was absorbing as much information as I possibly could.

Despite learning all of this amazing information about archaeometallurgical practices here in Akko, I feel like I learned an even greater lesson. I learned how to adapt to situations I never thought I would be in. I learned to find the silver lining in a seemingly endless dark sky.

Aug, 2017

By Caroline Sausser

7 Reasons Why You Should Go to Tel Akko

You’ve read all about our experiences. You’ve seen the pictures. You’ve had the travel envy. So now you’re wondering, “Should I too go on this trip? Is it right for me? Will I also have an amazing four-week experience?” Well wonder no more, for I am here with the 7 reasons (inspired by our favorite hang-out, “7 Days Café”) why you should definitely go on this trip.

7 Reasons, Fun Times, Miami, Miami University, Promotion, tel akko 1

Aug, 2017

By Megan Ashbrook

Surrounded by Archaeologists

“I love travelling with archaeologists!” I know I said this phrase multiple times throughout my four weeks in Israel. I was usually referencing when someone made a funny history/archaeology joke. But now reflecting back on Tel Akko it extends beyond just jokes.

I also really enjoyed tours of Galilee, Caesarea, and Jerusalem given by professors on the excavation. They pointed out things like architecture or provided details on excavations of the site I wouldn’t have found in a “normal” tour. They also pushed us to question how the sites we were visiting were presented to visitors. Were they presented religiously, scientifically, or another way? In Zippori, we were asked to notice the differing levels of conservation given to mosaics and think about why this was. The last ancient mosaic we saw, a synagogue mosaic, was the best conserved and had a building built around it. In the building, there was an impressive video about the mosaic. This made me think about how the most care was given to the religious mosaic while others were left out in the open.

In the field, I loved being surrounded by archaeologist with different interests and expertise. I valued being able to learn from each one. My square supervisor knew a lot about the tabuns (ovens) we were excavating. While the square supervisor next to me wrote his masters on metallurgy and could answer my questions on things in that area. Another person knew a lot about lithics. Back in the labs, I learned about achaeobotany, zooarchaeology, and pottery from the Tel Akko specialists.

The pottery specialists and the pottery lab were special to me on the excavation. I am completing my independent study from Tel Akko before schools starts. My project is based around an Attic imported ceramic plate that was found this season. Having no knowledge on the pottery in the Levant before traveling to Israel I have the pottery specialists and everyone else on the dig to thank for teaching me a lot before I could even attempt to write my independent study.

Coming back to Miami University and regular classes I will try and remember all that I learned from the archaeologists this summer. I hope to continue to be able to question and analyze in my classes liked I was asked to in Israel. Being surrounded by archaeologist on the Tel Akko Total Archaeology Project was a great way to spend my summer.

Aug, 2017

By Jennifer Munro

Let’s go fly a kite

Eden Orion of The University of Haifa has a great hobby! In his spare time he likes to do aerial photography from a kite. He flew his kite over Tel Akko after the shade cloths were removed, and the resultant pictures were very interesting. What do you think?

Aug, 2017

By Jennifer Munro

One Thousand Days and Nights – Akko through the Ages

There is so much more to Tel Akko than this one season that I and others have been writing about on this blog. The tel has been excavated since the seventies, and many wonderful discoveries have been made over the years. If you’d like to read more, go to this page and have a look through the document called “One Thousand Days and Nights – Akko through the Ages”. It is the catalogue for an exhibition held at the Hecht Museum edited by Ann E Killebrew and Bered Raz-Remeo, and includes information about the Crusader town of Acre as well as the lengthy and varied history of Akko and its mysterious tel.

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