Tell Akko: Reflecting on the Importance of Teamwork

Jul, 2019

By William Branson

Tell Akko: Reflecting on the Importance of Teamwork

Participating in the Tell Akko archaeological field school has been a fantastic experience. The program provided is packed full of opportunities to learn. From the actual work up on the Tell to the lectures from many distinguished speakers of diverse backgrounds to the excursions every weekend, opportunities for growth as an individual are easily acquired. While all these wonderful ideas and opportunities are frequently expressed in many places already though, one facet less telegraphed is the opportunity to work here as part of a team with a clear objective.

While everyone will find their own personal friend groups and people they like to hang out with once here, ultimately living together for four weeks at the Nautical Academy in Akko really creates an atmosphere of unity and teamwork. Together at the Tell, we all strive towards the same goal, and we all also share that experience through the constant interaction off the Tell.

Upon arrival you are assigned two other roommates, every meal is set out at a regular specified time, you wash pottery (for many hours) collectively, you travel together on the bus, and you sit together listening to every lecture. Between the newcomers and the staff, almost everyone participates fully in each activity in some capacity. The first day here, Dr. Ann Killibrew explained how the staff attends every lecture because they truly do care about the program. After a month here, I can confidently say the sense you should get from the leadership is that this truly is a labor of love for them, and they work to support the dig and you in any way they can.

While there is certainly some friction occasionally (not everyone will get along with everyone), overall it is difficult not to feel the pressing unity of the program. The dig itself is just an inherently teamwork-oriented process, and the close proximity with your co-workers for the remainder of the day across the month just adds to the total feeling of everyone working towards the fulfilment of this singular goal.

For myself personally, this togetherness and sharing of a goal bigger than yourself eases the burden in a sense, and creates a way to feed off the energy and momentum of others. An obvious but under-appreciated point, the dig here at Akko would not exist if we could not come together as a cohesive unit. Finding success together as a team always feels sweeter, and the teamwork necessary here is an important aspect everyone should be aware of.

Jul, 2019

By Giovanni Flores

When finding good food persistence is key

Israel has laws that ensure that restaurants and other food serving establishments follow the rules for Kosher food. This generally means that most of my favorite foods are unavailable here. My favorite source of protein, pork, is simply not served at any restaurant I’ve been to. Pork also cannot be found in the local food market. You also won’t find any melty cheesy sandwiches except for the grilled cheese or the grilled cheese with assorted vegetables. Shellfish are also eliminated from the menu nearly everywhere.

What you will find are foods like: hummus, cheese spreads, a type of Greek yogurt, any form of carbs you can think of, lots of creative ways to eat sesame seeds, and plenty of eggs. While the ingredients get quite repetitive it is not a terrible diet. First and foremost, the way vegetables are served is creative and tastes much better than eating the same veggies in a salad. Eating healthy has never been as easy for me as it has been in Israel. The only struggle is getting sufficient protein without getting tons of carbs and sugars. I would say that the cuisine of Israel is tasty although it is not for me. The laws of kosher eliminate many of the foods I have been fond of for many years and the lack of pork makes the prolonged stay in Israel saddening. However, for short visits of 2 weeks or less I believe that the cuisine is more than adequate. For anyone without the deep-seated love for pork or meat and cheese in the same meal as me, I’m sure you will find Israeli cuisine delicious. For my pickiness I still find the cuisine to be good, I just don’t think it is better than other cuisines around the world. This being said the fish restaurants are amazing especially Uri Buri and Shakshuka is one of the best ways to eat eggs I have ever had the pleasure of eating. While the cuisine as a whole may not be for me, i believe there is at least one or two dishes you will find you love in Israel.

Jul, 2019

By Giovanni Flores

My first impressions of Archaeology as an Engineering student

My first week at Tel Akko has been an interesting and new experience. Coming into the program I knew there would be a significant amount of physical labor but the shape the labor would take was still a mystery for me. After this first week on the tel I realized that the labor was going to take the form of a lot of sweeping dirt and wheeling wheelbarrows. The work is quite intense and is a bit lackluster. However, it is still an enjoyable experience and there is always something to do which is perfect for my personality type. I was never bored or sitting idly around. The work environment is very relaxed and calm. On the tel you don’t feel like you are at a normal job, the supervisors don’t hover over you looking for more productivity. It is the opposite; they walk around making sure you have had enough water to drink and are resting when you need it. They try to have work conditions be favorable for people, meaning we work in the shade when the sun gets hot and deal with anything outside of the shade before the sun gets hot.

The dig site is not particularly efficient for getting work done but it is efficient as a learning environment ensuring that everyone gets a chance to participate in every job there is on the tel. Even though I am not an archaeology major or related field I am treated equally and am given equal learning opportunities. I just started actual excavation and it seems much more engaging than cleaning up the site. There is more thought required and more need to be gentle and careful while digging. The entire experience is enhanced because the people we dig with are all amazing and wonderful people to talk to and spend time with.

Jul, 2019

By Iraise Garcia

Survey:More Than Big Picks

Survey
Wheel barrel…check. Five big picks…check. Five turiyas…check. Fifteen smuggled buckets…check. It’s time for SURVEY!! At first glance, an archaeological survey can look like nothing more than numerous amounts of mysterious holes being dug up all day by individuals seeking grueling labor-intensive undertakings and the ability to swing a big pick. While there is a thrilling sensation in swinging a forged steel tool overhead and hurling it toward the ground, field survey is so much more than just big picks, holes, and brute force. Survey is a type of field research that archaeologists use to collect information about the location and organization of past human cultures across a large area.
First, we start by digging a small pit that is 40 centimeters by 40 centimeters by 40 centimeters on a grid every 5 meters across the site. In the first top 20 centimeters, we collect materials such as pottery sherds, shells, bones, glass beads and tabun ovens (if you’re Bryn), loom weights and cannons (if you’re Sugerman), rocks and walls (if you’re Iraise), pendants and Egyptian beads (if you’re Bret), and more pottery sherds (if you’re John Michael). A separate collection is made for the bottom 20 centimeters. These pits help archaeologists to get a general idea of which parts of the sites were occupied at specific periods. Through examining the pottery and unique finds in the pits, we can determine which material was used in the Bronze Age, Iron Age, or Persian Period.

Tel Akko started this process nine years ago, and every year a slice of the site is surveyed. In more recent years, the survey team has been able to understand what happened at the site after it was abandoned. The top 40 centimeters reveal how the site was used in the last 2,000 years after people moved away from the Tel. We get a sense of what people did on the Tel after they moved toward the coast and there was not a town directly on it. For example, there are traces of farmlands, vineyards, fruit orchards, and watchtowers, which are all discovered through hundreds of small holes in the ground.

After digging over 200 pits as a team, I would also add that not only does survey discover patterns in the distribution of materials in various cultural regions and historical periods, but when you survey you become part of a family. Every day we worked alongside each other, not just digging holes and discovering the past, but also sharing our life stories, joys, hardships, and plans for the future. I want to thank Michael Sugarman, Bret, and John Michael for inviting me into this incredible welcoming family. We dug, we laughed, we surveyed!
As stated by Jamie Quartermaine (the survey master), survey is not about building big muscles, but a revolutionary field that gives the world greater access to the discoveries of archaeology… and I would add, a time for long-lasting friendships.

Jul, 2019

By Paul Wilson

The Single Thing

“When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.”
– John Muir

My life has been a journey in and of itself, traveling the world, learning, listening, and absorbing all I can with those who walk similar paths. This trip has multiple facets I have experienced before, yet not altogether like this. The early mornings, gear checks, manual labor, and even the Middle Eastern weather. Tel Akko has taught me more though, and left me with curious questions that I do not plan on leaving unanswered. I started this blog with a quote and believe it to be true with Akko. Everything we uncover in this ancient soil lets us put together a query, to which no one is quite surety have a perfect answer. But each artifact shows us that Akko is indeed attached to the rest of the world in so many ways. I remember the first few days. I was a little hesitant towards liking this area, exploring my new temporary home. When I arrived here, I knew no one except some staff from Penn State University and I knew even less about the country or detailed history. Now as I plan to depart, I leave with friends, acquaintances, and a new perspective on the people and region of Akko and Israel. I am glad I tugged on that single thing, and I am even more humbled to see it attached to not only the excavation but the people on this amazing journey. They have come from all over and are willing to share their knowledge with each other. As a non-archaeologist on this dig, I feel I have also found a greater love for archaeology being in the field; not only seeing the history of it, but feeling it physically and metaphorically. I hope to return one day to this country, it’s people, and get more questions and fewer answers (as life has), which would only drive me more and more to follow through again and again. I hope I will be able to tug again at that single thing and learn how it is attached to the rest of the world here at Tel Akko.

Jul, 2019

By William Branson

The Taste of Dust & Smell of Dirt: Participating in Two Archaeological Field Schools 5500 Miles Apart

Last year during the summer of 2018, I took part in a four-week long dig over July and August, excavating on historic Huguenot St. in New Paltz, New York. The site where we dug was about 45 minutes away from my home, so every morning, Monday to Friday, I would leave my house around 5:45am and not return until nearly 3pm. This summer, I have been participating in a similar four-week long program over July in Akko, Israel, where the digging begins at a similar hour and ends just past mid-day as well.

Other than the time slots though, not much has been the same. While I certainly expected the two experiences to vary significantly, the differences in both feel and actual work differed almost completely and this caught me off-guard. While the proper techniques of the archaeological work varied of course, the most visceral difference between the two field schools I have felt has been in the experience of my senses, namely in taste and smell.

When I think back to the work I did last summer, one of the foremost things that comes to mind is the smell of the cool, fresh, and damp soil. I bought gloves for the dig, but hardly found myself using them. The dirt itself became a protective and hydrating layer over my hands. It became less of a nuisance and more of a comfort somehow. It was damp in such a pleasant way that few things achieve – and it is the smell of that dirt that stands out most in my memory of that time.

Conversely, for Akko, I find the taste of the dust is the easiest thing to recall, and expect this to be true for the future as well. At the sift, in the square, anywhere on site, the dust and sand blow everywhere. Upwind, downwind, with my head turned away, the dust always found its way into my mouth and across my face. As most people reading this will know, getting a face full of sand is about as unpleasant as it sounds. Given we excavate in one of the driest and hottest places on earth, during one of the driest and hottest times of the year, this should have been completely expected by me of course, but sometimes you just can’t prepare for everything.

That being said though, this was an experience I would never want to give back (face fulls of sand included). While the dust may be one of the first things that comes to mind in the future when I recall the dig here at Akko, the second, third, fourth, fifth and so on things I recall will be about all the great people I met and the times shared across the city, dining hall, pottery cage, lecture room, beaches, restaurants, field trips, and up on the Tell itself with all the dust. So while the smell of dirt will remain a comforting memory, the taste of dust will always be bittersweet.

Jul, 2019

By Casey Sennett

Finding My Home at Akko

I have always struggled with homesickness. Whether I am away from my parents for a night or a month, I typically suffer from separation anxiety. I thought, however, that I had outgrown that anxiety when I spent spring break this year studying abroad in Paris. Since I suffered no separation anxiety in Paris, I thought I could manage a longer study abroad experience this summer.

I managed to fly to Israel with no problems and spent hours in the Ben Gurion airport with no signs of anxiety; however, when I arrived at the Nautical Academy, I began to feel the separation and struggled to suppress my anxiety. I spent the first couple days at Akko missing my parents and American food dearly. I was not optimistic about my stay at Akko, I wanted nothing more than to go home to my parents and my cats. I knew, however, that I could not leave. I had committed to the program and I knew that I would never be able to travel the world and pursue my career aspirations if I could not spend time away from my parents.

I began to cope with the distance with long phone calls home and promises of taking me to Chili’s and to see Spiderman: Far From Home when I got home. As the days went on, I began to feel more comfortable with the other students, participants, and faculty at Akko. I had been worried about coming to Akko and not knowing anyone, but most of the students and participants were in Israel for the first time and did not know anyone else in the group prior to coming to Israel. I met a majority of the group at the airport, but I slowly began to meet and interact more with others at meals, on the Tel, during pottery washing, and on excursions in Akko and Israel. When you spend six hours a day in a square with someone or at least two hours a day washing pottery with someone you tend to learn a lot about them.

I was worried about not finding my place at Akko, but it found me. After the first couple of days I had not anticipated to be comfortable at Akko. I thought I had resigned myself to counting down the days until I could go home. I, however, reached outside of my comfort zone and began to meet and learn more about the other people in the program. Those interactions slowly began to make me feel less lonely and foreign. Although I do still miss home on occasion, I have become comfortable with everyone in the program and feel good about being away from home.

archaeology, conservation, Penn State, study abroad, Tel Akko 2019, Tel Akko field school 0

Jul, 2019

By Whitney Hall

Perfectly Imperfect Pottery

When I first began excavating I was told that one good way to tell pottery from rock was from the ridges on the inside. These ridges come from the artists fingertips as they shape the inside of the clay. I remembered the ceramics class I took in highschool and the way that our fingers would make impressions in the clay as we molded it on the wheel, making it pretty recognizable. Today most things, like glass bottles, and plates, are not handmade. This means that a lot of what we make today bears no personal touch. Because the pottery we found was made with hands, even if it was on a wheel, the artist leaves his or her own signature. A lot of this personalization can be seen in the pottery handles (photos attached). A technique for making the curved handles on pots was to pull and stretch the clay into a curved shape. These handles differ from a lot of handles that we find that have perfectly smoothed handles. While these smoothed handles are more aesthetically pleasing, the more imperfect ones have more character. The artifacts that we find are from a time that was very different from the one we live in now. This can make it hard to connect with, as it is not from a way of living that we necessarily understand. A lot of the pottery we find is broken as has been discarded, similar to the way that plastic is thrown away today. As we excavate for scientific purpose, we also take a more removed viewpoint. While we find lots of different artifacts on the tel that can be hard to connect with, I think that the more imperfect pottery is the artifact that I can connect with most. The imprints of the artist hands allow me to imagine just who made the artifacts that we excavate and wash.

Jul, 2019

By Bryn Hudson

A Hole New World

I’ve taken many archaeology classes, but this was my first summer excavating. Articulating, pillaring, brushing, sweeping, and bagging artefacts etc were new experiences for me. If I’m honest, I struggled with the monotonous work. Thankfully, I was allowed to participate in photogrammetry, GIS, survey, and archeozoology – all of which were fascinating! I photographed the squares, constructed digital maps and 3D models, pick axed and dug pits, and identified animal bones. I honed important career skills and developed new academic interests which I hope to study soon.

Jul, 2019

By Bryn Hudson

A Whole Lot of Bull

During the last few weeks, I’ve been privileged enough to travel all over Israel. Accompanied by the Tel Akko field school professors and students, I’ve visited Akko, Sepphoris, Magdala, Capernum, Qastrin, the Sea of Galilee, Caesarea, and Jerusalem. Although I’d studied all of the sites at Trinity, no article could have prepared me for the wonder I experienced. However, Professor Risser’s classes did prepare me to teach at Caesarea.

In approximately 10 BCE, King Herod the Great of Judah finished constructing Caesarea Maritima. At the time, it was the largest artificial harbor every built. During Caesar’s Civil War, Herod had supported Marc Antony and Cleopatra. When Octavian (who later renamed himself Augustus), defeated Marc Antony and became the first Roman Emperor, Herod built the harbor to appease his anger and express his gratitude for his continued survival and rule.

During our visit to Caesarea, Professor Sugarman challenged me to lecture about Mithraism. Apparently, jumping up and down gave away my excitement to visit the cult’s site… So I did. Initially I was terrified to speak in front of our group, but sharing my knowledge brought me incredible joy.

Professor Risser, I could not have done this without you. Thank you for originally lecturing about Mithraism and capturing my interest.

Professor Sugarman, thank you for trusting me to speak.

Iraise, thank you for videotaping me and allowing me to share your video.

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