The first semester of classes for my MA in Archaeology at Tel Aviv University has finished; standing in front of me are papers and an exam. In classes we studied sites like Megiddo, Lachish, and Khirbet Qeiyafa in the context of the Bronze-Iron Ages and studying people groups like the Philistines and Canaanites and how they settled, which we see reflected in archaeology. I also studied how to look at objects in context and will continue to learn Hittite through next semester.
I am working on campus this semester to make money for rent and food. I want to thank those who helped with my tuition. Your gifts helped pay for this year's studies; I have one more year after this one and will write a thesis to complete the degree. If you want to give to help me fund my degree, here is the link to my GoFundMe page:
https://www.gofundme.com/manage/ma-in-archaeology-in-israel/donations. Any and all help is greatly appreciated!
Here are photos from our field trip to
Azekah (where we will dig this summer) and Tel Gath:
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| View from Tel Azekah |
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| View of Tel Gath |
Here are some photos from the day we went to visit and dig at the gigantic
Bet Shemesh Salvage Excavation that our professor is leading:
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| View from across the street of the excavation and modern town. |
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| View of the old excavations. There's a water cistern on this side as well. |
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| View of the salvage dig in progress |
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| Digging and recording |
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| Animal bones in the area we were digging |
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| Learning to section, which means creating straight lines for clean squares |
Zippori also made the news with a cool find from the Mossad Pool, where I was digging earlier this year. Read about the find
here.
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| Mossad Pool at Zippori |
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| Pagan Bull found in the pool |
The holidays included some meals with classmates from my program and time in Yafo:
I'm also continuing to work during the break, besides the other thing I'll be doing (which is below). Here's a photo from the university:
The exciting news is that I'm going to dig at Masada for a few weeks
over the break, so I'll make sure to take photos and blog about it
after!
Here are more photos from the Yafo port, in the area where I live currently:
