Archaeology Digs in the Middle East
Field schools listed below with dates older than the current year may indicate an ongoing project that has not yet established dates for this season.
Biblical Archaeology Review's Find a Dig
From the Biblical Archaeological Society, detailed excavation listings primarily from the middle and near east, a few from Europe as well.
Fayum (Egypt)
October 17-November 22, 2013. Institute for Field Research (UCLA). The Fayum field school takes place at the Greco-Roman town of Karanis, a large mudbrick settlement founded in the third century BCE as part of the Ptolemaic expanse of agriculture in the Fayum region of Egypt.
Giza Plateau Mapping Project (Egypt)
January 17-March 12, 2014. Ancient Egypt Research Associates (AERA). The Giza Plateau Mapping Project (GPMP), under the direction of Mark Lehner, evolved from its beginnings in surveying and mapping the landscape at Giza (Egypt) into a large-scale project, which includes: settlement and burial excavation; experimental archaeology and conservation; geomorphology and geophysics work; and archaeological field training. Under the umbrella of Ancient Egypt Research Associates (AERA) we investigate the development of urbanism, labour organization, and the elementary structures of ancient daily life. The settlement dates to the Old Kingdom (c. 2450BC) and the cemetery dates from the Late Period (664 BC) to Early Roman Period (1st Century AD).
In 2014 we inaugurate a field training programme open to foreign students. This intensive eight-week field-study program, takes place at the Old Kingdom pyramid builder’s settlement site of Heit el-Ghurab, at the Giza plateau, as part of AERA’s muti-disciplinary archaeological project. The program provides eight academic credits awarded by American University in Cairo and will run from January 17 to March 12, 2014, providing six full-weeks excavation and one week’s work in the field laboratory. The program includes on site: excavation; site recording; survey; illustration and photography; and an introduction to bio-anthropology. In the lab and office: introduction to Archaeo-botany, Archaeo-zoology; Ceramics, Artefact, Lithics, Mud sealings, and GIS (Geographic Information Systems). The comprehensive package covers tuition, accommodation and on-site food, tool kit and supplies, medical insurance, local transportation, and special field trips to archaeological sites in Greater Cairo.
Applications may be downloaded here and should be mailed directly to Dr Salima Ikram, AUC: salimaikram@gmail.com
Contact details: Ana Tavares, tavaresaera@gmail.com, tel. mobile UK +44 77 1952 1359, tel. mobile Egypt +20122 335 6263, Skype name: anainegypt. Click Giza Flyer for further information.
Hazor (Israel)
June 23-July 31, 2013 (three sessions). Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Excavations at Hazor, the largest biblical-era site in Israel, will be concentrated on the Israelite and Canaanite periods. Excavations will resume at Hazor, a major site in the Galilee, located approximately 5 km. north of Rosh-Pinnah. In this season the levels of the Israelite and Canaanite period will be explored.
Hippos-Sussita (Israel)
July 2013. Zinman Institute of Archaeology, University of Haifa. Sussita, or as it was known by its Greek name, Antiochia-Hippos, was founded after 200 BC, when the Seleucids seized the Land of Israel from the Ptolemies. Excavations focus on Hellenistic and Roman sections of the ancient site. In Summer 2012 the Thirteenth Season of Excavations at Hippos (Sussita) will begin. The site is located on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, a short distance from Kibbutz Ein-Gev. The city of Hippos is naturally bordered by cliffs and slopes of the hill on which Hippos was built overlooking the Sea of Galilee. [slow server]
Institute for Field Research (Middle East)
The Institute for Field Research regularly conducts work in the Middle East.
Kinneret Regional Project (Israel)
June 17 to July 13, 2012. University of Berne, University of Helsinki, University of Leiden, and University of Mainz. The Kinneret Regional Project is an international archaeological expedition to the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee under the auspices of the Universities of Bern (Switzerland), Helsinki (Finland), Leiden (The Netherlands), Mainz (Germany) and Wofford College (USA) in collaboration with the Finnish Institute of the Middle East (FIME). Since 2006 Kinneret Regional Project is officially joined by students from Tartu (Estonia) and since 2010 by students from Bucharest University (Romania) with support from the Romanian Cultural Institute.
Ramat Rachel (Israel)
August 15–August 28, 2010. Tel Aviv University and Heidelberg University. The site of Ramat Rachel is located inside the international 1947-48 border of Israel, in Kibbutz Ramat Rachel, on a hilltop about midway between the Old City of Jerusalem and Bethlehem.
Shipwreck 43 (Egypt)
TBD 2013. Oxford University School of Archaeology. In 2011, a team from the Oxford Centre for Maritime Archaeology and the National Museum of the Philippines, supported by the IEASM during their annual mission to Aboukir Bay, began to excavate shipwreck 43, a vessel found in the northern section of the Central Harbour of Heracleion-Thonis. The wreck is one of at least 64 ancient shipwrecks discovered during Franck Goddio’s on-going survey and excavations at the port-city.
Jan 31-Feb 27, 2014. Trinity Southwest University. Tall el-Hammam, located eight miles northeast of the mouth of the Jordan River as it enters the Dead Sea, was the largest fortified city in the southern Levant for most of the Bronze Age. The site has been identified as the infamous biblical city of Sodom, as well as the location of Abel Shittim, one of the final camping sites of Moses and the Israelites before they crossed into Canaan (Num 33:49). In recent years, Collins’ team has uncovered extensive remains from Tall el-Hammam dating to the Early, Intermediate and Middle Bronze periods (3000-1700 BCE), terminating at the time when scholars believe Sodom would have been one of the doomed “cities of the Plain” (Gen 13-19). (See S. Collins’ article in the March/April 2013 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, “Where is Sodom: The Case for Tall el-Hammam.”)
The past eight seasons have revealed a vast history of continuous occupation beginning from the Neolithic period and extending into the Middle Bronze Age. After the MBA, a seven-centuries-long occupational gap ended with the construction of a fortified Iron Age 2 town on the upper tall, replete with a monumental gateway. Excavations on both the upper and lower tall have exposed impressive architecture including immense MBA ramparts, EBA gateways, domestic complexes, a sacred precinct, and a monumental Middle Bronze Age gateway system. During Season Nine we will continue work on the Bronze Age gateway systems and associated pillared architecture, newly discovered monumental architecture, domestic structures, and other exciting features.
Tel Bet Yerah (Israel)
June 30-August 2, 2013. Institute for Field Research. Tel Bet Yerah (Khirbet Kerak) is a large mound situated on the Sea of Galilee, at the outlet of the River Jordan in Israel. Occupied throughout the Early Bronze Age and sporadically in later times, Bet Yerah was a fortified city at the beginning of the third millennium BCE.
Tel Kabri (Israel)
June 23-August 1, 2013 (two sessions). Haifa University and The George Washington University. Tel Kabri was the center of a Canaanite polity during the Middle Bronze Age. Excavations conducted from 1986-1993 revealed the remains of a palace dating to the Middle Bronze period (ca. 2000-1550 BCE).
Tell es-Safi, Gath, Israel
July 1-27, 2012. Bar Ilan University. Tell es-Safi (Hebrew Tel Tsafit) is a commanding mound located on the border between the Judean foothills (the Shephelah) and the coastal plain, approximately halfway between Jerusalem and Ashkelon. Archaeological surveys indicate that the site was inhabited pretty much continuously from the Chalcolithic period (5th millennium BCE) until 1948.
Wadi ath-Thamad, Jordan
May 4-June 15 2012. Wilfrid Laurier University. Excavating the Iron Age town and Nabataean buildings at Khirbat al-Mudayana; Regional survey of the Wadi ath-Thamad area; documentation of ancient cemeteries.