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The 2005 Dig: After a break of four decades,
excavations by the royal citadel of the Judean kings
at Tel Ramat Rahel in southern Jerusalem have
resumed and will continue until 2010. In
mid-July 2005, my friend Bill Creasy and I joined the
team of volunteers for the first week of the first
season. On site at 5:15 each morning before
sunrise, we were equipped with gardening gloves,
pick, shovel and bucket.
There were 58 of us, from Israel to Indonesia,
Heidelberg to Los Angeles, Boston to Basel and North
Africa (Tunisia) to North Carolina, all eager to
tackle the mysteries of the Tel and unearth
artifacts from the Iron Age/Israelite period.
As Dr. Oded Lipschits, director of the dig from the
Tel Aviv University put it during orientation,
“There are some hidden antiquities waiting for us
for 2,800 years.” |
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Photo: Bill Creasy |
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A full moon at dawn by the ruins
of the Royal Citadel, Ramat Rahel |
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"My week as a volunteer excavator at Ramat Rachel
was extraordinary. It is one thing to spend
seven years with Logos Ministries in a systematic,
verse-by-verse study of Scripture; it is another,
deeper commitment to travel to Israel to see the
places we study about and to read the stories in the
places where they occur; but it is a truly profound
commitment to wield a pick and shovel to unearth the
remains of history itself.
Next summer I will be bringing twenty Logos
Ministries' students to Ramat Rachel, ready for
work. Here, they will not simply study
Scripture; they will become a part
of it." |
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Bill Creasy, teacher of The
Bible, Plain and Simple, Logos Ministries
Los Angeles, California |
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Photo: Gila
Yudkin |
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Dr. Bill Creasy (in the purple
t-shirt) unearthing “the remains of history itself” |
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“I have been reading the Biblical Archeological
Review (BAR Magazine) for years and was intrigued by
the dig. It’s my first dig and also first time
to Israel. My wife Sandy, a US mail carrier,
and I came for two weeks. We’re clearing a square
with pick and shovel and taking a lot of photos.
We’re going to do a presentation in our church --
everyone there is praying for us.” |
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Louis Gaskins, 70, retired high
school science teacher
North Carolina |
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Photo: Gila
Yudkin |
Photo: Bill
Creasy |
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Amira from Tunisia in Area A |
Louis & Gila scrubbing pottery |
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“I’m a student at the Institute for the Study of
Judaism at the University of Heidelberg. My
friend Imen, also from Tunisia, and I are the first
Moslem students there. Oded, who’s in charge of
the dig here at Ramat Rahel, helped us get visas to
Israel. Everyone here is SO friendly, it’s
amazing.” |
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Amira, 23, M.A. student at the
University of Heidelberg
Gabos, Tunisia |
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“Half a year ago, I said to myself, stop dreaming
about digging. I did it for 4 years in my
twenties – at Tel Kabri in western Israel. Treasure
it as a memory. Then Manfred Oeming [Professor
of Old Testament studies at the University of
Heidelberg] said, ‘Would you like to come dig?’
I replied, ‘YES!!! I do!’
Digging gets us into history. When we found a
handle with the imprint of the potter, I felt
history with my own hands and I felt the person who
manufactured it.” |
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Sabina, 35, PhD student of
theology with a major in sports & religion
University of Heidelberg, Germany |
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“I’m here because I wanted to see Israel and
Jerusalem and the Land. Also, as a 5-year-old,
I wanted to be either an astronaut or an
archeologist. This is like a child’s dream
come true.”
“We have very tough topsoil. You have to work
very hard and be patient to get to the finds.
If we look across to Aharoni’s dig, [Aharoni
excavated at Ramat Rahel in the 1950’s] you can tell
that something is here. The walls must come
across here. It’s exciting to start at the topsoil
and see what happens. The finds come when it’s
not even that deep, less than a meter, even.” |
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Verena, 21, studying theology &
English
University of Heidelberg, Germany |
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Photo: Bill
Creasy |
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Monica, Agus, Sabina and Verena in
Area A |
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“I’m a graduate student in Old Testament. I’m
working on my dissertation now – it’s on apocalyptic
views in the Book of Daniel. This dig is very
important for my studies.” |
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Agus, 35, Reform Calvinist Pastor
Indonesia via the University of Heidelberg |
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“Right before lunch, I made my first real
find, -- pieces of a jug, imbedded in the
soil. I wanted to skip lunch when I made the
find and was ready to skip even the shower.
We got really curious and I felt a strong
need to go on. Now in my area, we need
to dig deeper to find the entrance to a
structure like a cave.” |
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Gesina, 20, theology
student
University of Heidelberg, Germany |
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Photo: Gila
Yudkin |
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Gesina, left, made the
first exciting pottery find in Area A |
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"My trip had two scholarly goals: to learn
about archeology and to reinforce what I had
learned in theology classes about the
history of Judah. As to the first
there certainly is no better way to
understand archeology than to start digging!
As to the second goal, when digging one
cannot help but have the history of Judah
implanted
in your brain because you are digging
through its layers of evidence. If you
are familiar with the many changes of power
in Judah, from Canaanite to Jew to Assyrian
to Babylonian to Persian to Greek to Roman
and on, a good site will reveal pottery and
other finds from multiple layers of history,
allowing you to see the evidence behind the
history.The best part of my experience
came from the workers I met and the places
we explored together. Jerusalem is a
place unlike any other; it is called the
center of
the world by possibly the largest and most
diverse collection of people in the world.
To walk through this city, plagued as it is
by religious differences and intolerance,
with a diverse group of workers as friends
was something I will never forget. I
was enveloped by promise and hope for the
future the night I looked at the Wailing
Wall, me a Christian from American, hand in
hand with a Muslim from Tunisia and a Jew
from Germany." |
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Chuck Joseph (wearing the
yellow shirt in the photo above)
Sparta, New Jersey |
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"I googled
the Archeological Institute of America to
find the dig at Ramat Rahel. In high
school I was in an archeology club and at
Mount Holyoke I plan to major in anthology
and ancient studies. I like to write
and I’m sure that this experience will
inspire my writing. There’s a LOT of
digging to do. This morning I found a
handle, from terra cotta clay.
Yesterday I sat at lunch with a Jewish rabbi
and a Christian Bible teacher. They
discussed things like, ‘Do you think God
changes over time’ and about interpreting
the Bible, whether literally or
symbolically. That’s no casual
conversation!
When I dug in Area D, we found a lot of huge
stones which were deposited about |
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Photo: Gila
Yudkin |
50 years ago
by the first kibbutz members |
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Box with R contains
Rachel’s find |
of Ramat
Rahel. I told the guys moving |
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the stones to
put them in a special |
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position so that in 200 years from now,
archeologists won’t be misled. I
suggested they lay out the stones to read,
“Nothing here.” Seriously, though, I did
find a very nice piece of ancient glass in
that area.” |
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Rachel, 19, student at
Mount Holyoke College
Rockville, Maryland |
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My highlight was the Thursday evening tour,
after the pottery wash. We toured
areas A, B, C, and D, with each area
supervisor explaining what had been found in
the first four days of digging and its
significance. The supervisor, who was
usually a graduate student, would then
propose questions that would hopefully be
answered in the digging of the following
week. The director of the dig, Dr.
Oded Lipschits from Tel Aviv University
would put the finds in a historical and
archeological context. Oded’s
knowledge of finds on other digs is vast.
And he’s warm, energetic, friendly, funny
and committed. At the end of the tour, Liora, Iron Age
pottery expert, and mother of four
daughters, would play “show and tell” with
the finds – coins, l’melech Iron Age
stamps on jar handles, a complete oil lamp
from the Byzantine period, the base of an
oil |
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Photo:
Gila Yudkin |
lamp from the
Iron Age, fragments of |
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Dr. Oded Lipschits,
director of the dig |
glass, and
jewelry. Two rings, one bronze |
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and one iron,
were found by a reformed |
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antiquities looter, now working for the
Antiquities Department with a
sophisticated metal detector and a
phenomenal sense of where
to look. |
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Although I’ve lived in Jerusalem for three
decades and have been a tour guide for two
and a half, every morning I was astounded by
the stunning views of Bethlehem, Herodion, and
the Old City of Jerusalem, as I walked out
to the dig at dawn.” |
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Gila Yudkin |
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Jerusalem, Israel |
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Photo:
Gila Yudkin |
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At right, Liora, is
showing a fragment of a proto-Aeolic capital
found in the dig. The capital once
graced the royal palace. |
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More commentary and photos on the dig at
Ramat Rahel at: “Holy Sites,
Gila’s Highlights.” Even
more testimonials from "team members" on the
2006 Ramat Rahel dig.
Get the latest update with testimonials from
team members on the
2008 Ramat Rahel dig. |
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Pilgrims talk about
excavating at Bethsaida
in Galilee. |
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