The Little Phoenician Juglet

Jul, 2019

By M. Christine Walters

The Little Phoenician Juglet

What could be more wonderful than finding an almost perfect little juglet that has been buried for thousands of years, the very first week of my dig in Akko! Yes, I carefully dug out of the side of the wall within my square this beautiful little jug with only a small chip along the lip opening. Otherwise it was so perfect, filled with dirt and debris. It was like a little animal caught, but looking up at me with longing eyes saying, “free me, free me!” It was such a thrill to find it all intact, since so much of the pottery was broken and smashed around me in the square.

This experience is a once-in-a-lifetime drama that everyone should try. The reality of how hard it is to dig: the heat, the dirt, the bending over and heavy lifting, over and over and over just to find that one special find, fills you with refreshed enthusiasm. It is truly indescribable. A person has to feel it, do it, experience it, overcome it in order to understand the thrill of the hunt.

I am grateful for my early years of farm girl lifestyle which included chores of all kinds like gardening, plowing, and digging. So, I feel right at home with the tools. Years of shoveling out animal stalls and barnyard areas come back to me as we work around the dig. It is comfortable, but the passing of many years presents new obstacles to overcome. My knees don’t bend. My hips hurt. My stamina is just not there, and that frustrates me. I watch the young people around me jump into their work with such passion and focus. I miss those days of feeling like I can handle this job and get the site cleared TODAY!

Yes, the little juglet will always be MY little juglet because I was the first one to release it, to have it see the sun again after being in the dark dirt so very long. I have made a contribution I will always remember.

Akko, Akko Excavation, archaeology, juglet, tel akko, Tel Akko 2019, Tel Akko Excavation, Total Archaeology 0

Jul, 2019

By Lindsey Goes

Behold, The Underminer!

It was the second day of excavation – the sandbags were dumped, the weeds cleared, and it was finally time to start actually digging. I was beyond excited, of course; I have been dreaming of becoming an archaeologist since I was in first grade and thought it meant pulling up dinosaurs and fighting Nazis. Now, I know that archaeology is neither of those things, and I have known this for a while. But a harder misconception to shake was the image of one Dr. Jones running off with a golden idol, of the undiscovered monumental architecture that housed the Holy Grail. People want to find cool things, and I am no exception.

That day I used the soft brush to more delicately remove the dirt I’d loosened with the small pickaxe. We were leveling the square, because one side was significantly higher than the other. Some of the dirt blew into a dip in the ground, and as I swept it away, an exciting shape was uncovered. It was the side of a juglet, with handle fully attached and intact, and looked as though it could be complete. I called my supervisor over and we all got excited, and I named the small vessel the Underminer, after the villain at the end of the first Incredibles movie.

However, our job was still to level the square. And even if it wasn’t, digging is done in even passes, exposing material rather than wrenching it from the ground. The reasoning being that you can never truly tell how big an object is going to be, so pulling it up might disturb more than expected and/or break the artifact and those around it. Unfortunately, since the juglet was in a dip, it would be a while before we got to it properly. But I had firm dibs, so I didn’t mind the wait.

I didn’t wait long. The next day, another person working in the square was also brushing loose soil. I heard a surprised noise and turned to see them holding the Underminer in the air – but it wasn’t complete, not even close. It was only what we’d already seen. I nice piece, but not what we’d hoped for.

That’s not to say cool things don’t exist – a complete juglet was found the next day, not a meter away. But it was found incrementally, more exposed in every pass until it was free. Patience and a gentle hand were what retrieved it safely. So, I learned not to expect special finds – that’s what makes them special, after all – but nonetheless to treat every artifact with care. And not to name sherds after Disney villains.

Jul, 2019

By Heather Burrow

Always Making A Mark

All living things make their mark in this life—on their environment and on other living things. At the Tel Akko archaeological site I have found that animals and plants consistently make their mark on the environment, especially with their holes and seed pods. Moles, bees, ants, scorpions, castor plants, and cacti must be navigated and, in some cases, removed on the site. And we must not forget that the elements make their mark as well, with the rain, wind, and sun that deposit debris within the site that must also be removed. But none of this compares to humans’ ability to leave a lasting mark. Animals, plants, and mother nature have nothing on us.

All humans make a lasting mark—that is part of what it means to be human with our inherent creative and destructive capabilities. We cannot help but significantly modify our environment and each other. And that is what the Tel Akko dig is all about. We are attempting to uncover the ‘marks’ of other humans who came before us—the structures they built, the pottery they made, the coins they used—in order to learn about their lives.

And in the process of excavating archaeologists and excavators make their own marks on the environment by building paths, setting up storage sheds, and breaking found pottery. They also make their mark with how the site is set up in the beginning—what areas are excavated, what grid lines are placed where, and what is considered significant. And I make my mark with my troweling, scraping, and sweeping.

And found past ‘marks’ or artifacts such as pottery, bone, shell, and slag must be examined, interpreted, and given meaning, because it is also human to want and seek for meaning. Context is everything when determining significance and meaning—in archaeology and all other disciplines. We must cautiously and methodically remove dirt and artifacts in such a way to be able to determine the context. Otherwise, it is just dirt and refuse. As the saying goes, ‘one person’s trash is another person’s treasure.’

Thus, in the end, for me archaeology is the science and art of giving meaning to carefully unearthed historical human relics—also known as ‘controlled destruction’—in which we are making our mark through the process of examining the marks of past humans. And in the spirit of marking, with this blog post I make my digital mark containing what I have learned through this experience!

Jul, 2019

By Jennifer Munro

Season 2019 is in full swing

And we’re back!

Season 2019 started off well with all the sandbags removed by the second day and a big yellow JCB instead of the usual weed-whacker to clear the undergrowth.

Prof. Michal Artzy gave the students a tour of tel Akko on day one and gave them the benefit of her vast store of knowledge about the tel and the surrounding area.

On day two we have our first special find, courtesy of Helen, who found a small object (possibly ivory) with markings on it and a hole drilled through it.

Jihad is back making the best coffee in Israel – or certainly the most welcome coffee, and our students are prepped and primed for a month of hard, dirty work.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Apr, 2019

Monica Genuardi, Darcy Calabria, Jane Skinner for TEL AKKO at the American Society for American Archaeology conference

By Jennifer Munro

Tel Akko at the Society for American Archaeology

Oct, 2018

By Jennifer Munro

ÜMIT GUDER

I am an archaeo-metallurgist specialized in ancient iron production technologies. I work in the Laboratory for Archaeometric Studies at Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Turkey. I search for the traces of ancient metallurgists in excavation sites and try to understand their sources, skills and capacities. Also, I organize experiments to re-construct pyrotechnological settings in the field.

Aug, 2018

By Tasheana Bythewood

On Tel Akko Fear is Definitely not a Factor.

By Tasheana Bythewood.

Finding out I was going to be able to go to Israel and practice my passion for history and material culture up close and personal was a dream come true! Actually, going to Israel and living among the beauty of the old and new city for a month was life changing for me. I was able to explore my passions within archaeology and see what worked well for me and what didn’t. My biggest fear in coming to Akko was the bugs. I spent countless hours in the US googling “What kind of bugs can you find in Israel?”, this led to me falling down countless YouTube blackholes from videos of scorpions to tarantula hawk stings. While I did encounter scorpions on the Tel they were small and actually really underwhelming. I figured the best way to get over my fear of bugs in Israel was exposure therapy. I went to the Tel and oftentimes tried to find the oddest, grossest, and/or scariest bug that I could find and get a really close picture with my crappy iPhone 6 Plus camera (I refuse to give up the headphone jack).

Overtime the bugs became less frightening and more interesting. On the Tel I often told myself ‘just imagine you’re on fear factor and the million-dollar prize is getting to do archaeology’, It worked. Every time I got a picture of a bug I’d pretend I won and tell myself that “On the Tel Fear is not a Factor”. I had the absolute best time of my life on the Tel, I’ve met great people, and have a new love for pottery and archaeology thanks to my time in Israel, it was everything I could have asked for and more.

Facing my entomophobia was another plus side that I never considered could be a possibility on this trip. I don’t know if I’ll ever be 100% cured but I went in terrified and came out well… less terrified so I’m going to take that as a win! Thank you, Akko, for being the best time of my life and thank you Total Archaeology for broadening my horizons!

Akko, archaeology, tel akko, Tel Napoleon, Total Archaeology 0

Aug, 2018

By Quentin Stickley

I’m not going to lie, the last week at Akko was difficult. I was physically and mentally exhausted, almost every joint in my body was sore, swollen, and/or blistered, and I wanted nothing more than to sleep for at least a week straight. Going up to the tel each day was increasingly difficult, especially when we reached the midpoint of the week and prepared to stop excavating and start cleaning the site and putting protections in place for the next season. I like digging – sweeping up dirt, clipping weeds, and tossing heavy sandbags aren’t nearly as enjoyable.

Wednesday was the last day of excavation proper, and I hadn’t really found anything special, other than a tiny red bead and several cakes of iron slag. I was okay with that. Getting a special find is a huge morale boost, but I think if you go into the dig expecting one and you don’t find anything for a long period of time, it can actually slowly drain your mood. So I had gotten myself into a headspace where I was content with looking at the neat things the other diggers found – Egyptian scarabs, a nearly intact crucible, and even Tel Akko’s first in-context cylinder seal were all found in or adjacent to my square – and not expecting to uncover anything more remarkable than an ancient stone block. Imagine my surprise when a light sweep uncovered what looked like a twisting white fragment of something, possibly a piece of a seashell, with a strange, rounded blue protrusion. A few brisker sweeps, and the object came loose: a sitting figurine with large blue eyes, round ears, and yellow painted markings.

I jumped up and brought the object to my square supervisor, who seemed surprised. Both she and my area supervisor first guessed that the object was modern and had been planted by someone working on the site, because in addition to its very shallow location, none of the staff had ever seen anything like it and it was in very good condition, with only one ear and fragments of the hands broken off. The staff eventually decided that it was probably ancient. After we returned to our base camp and showed the object to the staff members who had remained there for the day, we learned that a very similar object had been found at the tel in 1977 during the excavations supervised by Moshe Dothan, although Dothan’s example had been in rougher shape.

Reactions to what quickly earned the nickname “the demon monkey” were mixed. People either found it adorable, or declared that I would now be cursed or haunted. Speculation intensified the next day when I was sweeping the square about a meter away from where I had found the “demon monkey,” and my brush turned up yet another figurine, which on close examination appeared to be an anthropoid baboon, possibly from Egypt. Although the two figurines were very different in style, the fact that they both seemed to depict non-human primates only fueled the rumor mill, and by the end of the day there were several running theories as to my true nature:

Cursed by “the monkey god.”
Blessed by “the monkey god.”
Chosen as prophet or servant of “the monkey god.”
“The monkey whisperer.”
Actually the god Thoth in disguise, capable of spontaneously generating ancient monkey figurines (from my ears, for some reason).

While it remains to be seen whether I am cursed or blessed, finding those monkeys was an experience I will never forget. I’m holding out to see if next year someone finds the barrel they came from.

archaeology, figurine, Miami University, monkeys, special find 0

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 Brandon Yang

Reflecting on Akko and its People

by Brendon Yang.

مرحبا, שלום, приве́т, hello. Even if Hebrew is now Israel’s official language, it doesn’t change the fact that people from all over the world will still flock to this country, whether it’s to visit holy sites in Jerusalem, clubbing in Tel Aviv, or sifting through dirt on Tel Napoleon. Despite my habit of dozing off in afternoon lectures, I do recall a statement about Akko being a case study for the rest of Israel in terms of being a land of many peoples and religions. While I admittedly was not the most attentive student in the lecture hall, this lesson was definitely reinforced as I explored and learned more about Akko.

Some typical interactions would be trying to learn Arabic from one of the Bedouins on the Tel as I attempt to pronounce صباح الخير. After baking in the sun, I might explore the Turkish Bazaar in the Old city where I would hear two tourists chatting in German. I would see signs that were written in Hebrew, Arabic, Russian, and English. I would respond with תודה or شكرا after buying something to drink. At the end of the day I’d say לילה טוב to my friends as I went to bed.

The variety of languages I’d see and hear pairs well with the various buildings and monuments. Akko is home to one of the largest mosques in Israel. The Bahai gardens house the most sacred site in the Bahai religion. The Akko prison museum commemorates Jewish martyrs during the British Mandate. There is also the beach which all peoples can relate to.

Whatever legislation is passed, Akko and subsequently, Israel, will still be home to a variety of cultures and religions. Ancient Akko has seen Phoenicians, Persians, Romans, Crusaders, and Ottomans within its walls. Modern Akko sees Jews, Arabs, Americans, Europeans, and people from all around the globe. I suggest that if you ever go to Israel, you should spend some time in Akko. Here is a city that has such a varied and unique history and by being one of a few mixed cities in Israel, Akko retains its diverse traditions. I have no doubt that this place will continue to attract people from all over the world

Akko, israel, Miami University 0

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