Archaeology Digs in the Middle East

October 13-November 15, 2012. Institute for Field Research. Use the latest in ground-based remote sensing technologies to reveal the secrets of the sacred city built by Pharaoh Akhenaten for the sun-god. Students will spend five weeks at Tell el-Amarna, Egypt, the once-great capital city of Egypt located halfway between Cairo and Luxor. Students will explore the well-preserved ruins of this great city and receive hands-on experience using non-invasive archaeological techniques including surface survey and near-surface geophysical prospection.

From the Biblical Archaeological Society, detailed excavation listings primarily from the middle and near east, a few from Europe as well.

June 20-July 24, 2010. Cotsen Institute, UCLA. Excavate Dvin – a major center of an Early Bronze and Iron Ages civilizations and the capital of Armenia from the end of Antiquity through the Early and High Middle Ages.

October 25-November 20, 2012. Institute for Field Research. Approximately 50 miles southwest of Cairo lies the Fayum, an oasis in Egypt’s Western Desert. The 2012 field school will concentrate on the Greco-Roman town of Karanis, founded in the third century BCE and abandoned during the seventh century CE.

October 1-November 6, 2010. Cotsen Institute, UCLA. Training in the analysis of ceramics, ranging from surface survey to geo-archaeological techniques to ethno-archaeology. These will include the illustration, cataloguing and systematic storage of pottery.

June 24-August 3, 2012 (two 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.

July 2012. 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.

The Institute for Field Research regularly conducts work in the Middle East.

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.

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.

June 24-July 28, 2012. Institute for Field Archaeology. Tel Bet Yerah (Khirbet Kerak) is a large mound dramatically situated on the Sea of Galilee at the outlet of the River Jordan, in Israel; occupied throughout the Early Bronze Age (3500 – 2300 BCE) and sporadically in later times. In 2012, an international team of students and volunteers will continue to investigate the monumental Circles Building (granary), excavating a nearby plaza and houses dating to 3000 - 2800 BCE.

June 28-August 5, 2011. Hebrew University and University of Washington, Seattle. The Tel Dor project is devoted to investigating one of the largest coastal cities in ancient Israel. The primary goal of the excavation is to provide a large and well stratified data-base for the study of the different coastal cultures and their overseas connections, from the SKL ('Sea People') culture in the Early Iron Age and the Phoenician culture.

TBA 2011 (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).

June 26-July 7, 2012. Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University. This is the location of the largest ancient Canaanite and Israelite site in the Beth-Shean Valley and one of the largest tells in the Holy Land. Nine seasons of excavations at Tel Rehov, from 1997-2008, revealed successive occupational layers from the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age I (12th - 11th centuries BCE). Tel Rehov - Ariel viewLarge and well-preserved buildings from three occupation layers were dated to the 10th - 9th centuries BCE (the time of the United Monarchy of David and Solomon and the Divided Monarchy under Omri and Ahab).

July 3-29, 2011. 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.

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.