Volunteers Write
Ein Gedi Oasis Excavations
Volunteers write of their experiences
Margaret W. - from England
In 1996 I arrived in Israel as a volunteer. The first home of the volunteers was a mountain-top ex army camp at Matzukei Dragot and this was my introduction to the wild and wonderful world of archaeology, Israeli style.
On being told I had to be up and out by 5.30 am each day I seriously wondered if I hadn't stepped from the frying pan into the fire. Daily as we descended down the mountain to the Dead Sea by bus and drove to the site,
the site teemed with so many volunteers, so many new faces from so many countries, it really was a mini united nations in those days. The first year we dug at the rocky, dusty ground level, so full of stones. My how the
dust blew, greater than any mistral (or so it seemed to us). A water mill was excavated up on a high terrace above our site. On a tour at the end of the dig, Yizhar Hirschfeld welcomed us there as the first modern tourists to Ein Gedi. I think we all felt very special that day.
Every year I return and the friendships made in that first year have endured throughout. I had the good fortune to dig with three Germans the first year and they have all remained special friends. The second year a very
special German volunteer, Hans, arrived and both I and the excavation have benefited from Hans’ friendship and financial support since.
Our lord and master in those days was Yizhar, and Anna De Vincenz was my supervisor, of whom I was mortally afraid!! Well, a little bit perhaps! She sure knew how to get us to work. But she was a good teacher and expert of all things pottery and her shared knowledge of the pots found and examined daily by her could not be bought.
And then there was Gideon, who did the excavations on the slopes above our site and who was an expert in the agricultural history of the area. Soon the straw hat and white bandana became an essential element of all the
excavations. The owner of The Hat turned out to be Gideon Hadas a kibbutznik from Ein Gedi, the archaeologist who now leads the excavations. Gideon will not tell you this in case we all move there but he truly does live in paradise.
Since Gideon took over the excavation under the shadow of the mountain we have had much fun and a lot of hard work, finding some pretty special and unique artefacts. For any would-be volunteer I can only tell you that even after 10 years of volunteering I still find the experience of excavating a wonderful experience and this year was exceptional. I was able to dig out of the ground the most wonderful jars, one was extremely large. Can you
imagine how much of a thrill it is help to take out of the ground such wonderful articles from almost 2000 years ago?
Hans – from Germany
My living room Ein Gedi
Ein Gedi is for me the perfect living room - the absolute lightness of being - the absence of any effort in breathing or difficulties in life - and the feeling of being completely secure under an open sky, in open space. . I feel this every time when I am at the excavations at seven o’clock in the morning or after our breakfast under the date palms or back in the dust - working - relaxing - uncovering finds – and laughing with friends from all over the world.
Michelle - from Sweden
Per and I caught a kind of Ein Gedi virus after a very very long experience of dust and little bits of green* (not to be confused with frogs) on the site of the Byzantine village, and we really felt a physical need to continue.
Digging – not very deep – cleaning – brushing - sweeping – and maybe finding something important – the dream. I speak of my own experience, as Per was working with Gideon on the terraces and Fort Knox.
This year we returned, and among the stones I almost uncovered a wall – I say almost because maybe it is not a wall, and in order to find out I shall return next year. Ein Gedi is the good ambiance – the sunshine – the volunteers – the laughter – the fun of being together.
* The American students asked: “How is it possible to recognise coins?” – my answer was: “If it is green and not jumping like a frog”.
Margot – from Switzerland
What is the reason I come back to Ein Gedi from Switzerland every year?
It’s the interest of history, the beautiful area of Ein Gedi, meeting good friends and also the secret wish of finding a precious object - Gideon's golden fish!
Last year I was digging with Cesare day by day in the "slums", admiring his clean walls and floors - wishing to do it the same way. Nothing has been found, except some tabuns [clay ovens]..... Gideon’s friend came from Jerusalem by night with his detector and then the "slums" became a famous place, as the detector found lots of coins and a beautiful medal! We would never have been able to find it with the naked eye.
Then I was allowed to clean tabuns in various places - also this year, it seems I become a specialist for it. I found hundreds of shards, beautiful, very dirty pieces, - while Margaret, next to me, could unveil a huge jar as well as an intact oil-lamp!
No chance for me this year, I thought and went down to help washing and brushing shards and writing exactly their numbers. What a business! We exactly know why we have to do it. At the end of the dig most of them end in the garbage bin!
To show my family and friends what my success was in Ein Gedi I took some of the tiles home - very proudly - having found and worked on 2000 years old tiles myself.
But still, I will come back, dear friends, and I thank you all for having prepared such a nice, unforgettable birthday - party for me!
Sandy – from Israel
Finds in the locus
S: Look Gideon - there's a pot here - I can see bits of it peeking out!!!!
G: Actually it's a jar - very nice! (positive feedback feels sooooo good, don't you think?) Work slowly around it, clean, and I'll be back later with a camera for a picture.
Quite a bit later....
S: Hi again - did you bring the camera? I'd really like to take it out to keep going and it's in the way (as I recall the episode of the small rocks that I was working around meticulously with great difficulty till the verdict came that they were to be removed)
G: Remember - "dhiyat sipukim" - (translating to postponing your satisfactions, but let's say something like patience being a virtue). Here I took the picture, now take it out - feel better?
S: Much - now I can really get going again...Check on us again soon , maybe we'll be lucky and they'll be something else to take a picture of (of course then it's usually when Gideon takes candid pictures of us!)
By the way, walking to and from the dig we always meet hyrax - (you would never believe the conversation that I had with one last time, but Iris actually got it on tape so it did happen!)
To all returning volunteers - looking forward to seeing you again soon; and to all newcomers - see you next season, and you'll realize the fun, the people, the scenery and the satisfaction of that special find that you've missed up to now.
Iris – from Israel
Digging at the En Gedi oasis excavations
Digging (as in archaeological dig) to me means not just the chance to get delightfully dirty and in the process just maybe discover that decisive oil lamp, coin, glass vial, complete cooking pot, etc., etc. Digging at the En Gedi oasis excavations means also
the pre-dawn walk to the site--catching the first glories of the rising sun over the Dead Sea, greeting the wide-eyed hyrax perched on their home bush and the nearby rocks, passing the ibex as they search for breakfast---just the delight of being in such a special spot among friends and friendships forged from dirt and shards, searching for clues to the past while enjoying the fauna, flora, and friends of the present. In short, digging means fun and hard work involving all your senses and emotions.
Carole – from Israel
The wall
It was my first hands on encounter with archaeology – a longed-for meeting and I was very anxious to do everything right. Terry, Kay and myself were allocated a locus which, after two unfruitful days, we named “The Poor Widow’s Veranda” having excavated by the wafer method and found nothing except for a few miserable chicken bones. Terry and Kay were sent off to a more hopeful locus and Gideon asked me to “clear up the locus and make it tidy”. I set to work and threw a line of big boulders down into the valley with the rest of the rejected stones and dutifully swept my now completely empty square. It looked rather forlorn but very neat. Along comes G. – “very nice – but where is that curved Byzantine wall which continued the other side of the bulkhead?” I showed him where it was now – resting down in the valley below! I think he’s forgiven me – the following year I left some very suggestive rocks, claiming that they were probably part of a pagan installation, which he took in good spirit!
Barbara – from Israel
In March 2003 Gideon took a small group of us to a stony field at the foot of the mountains. He had found a small piece of wall there several years ago – that was the only indication that maybe there was something worth excavating. A few squares were marked out and we began to dig. In a few days we had gone down 2,000 years!
We were mostly veterans of the 7-year excavations of the Byzantine village of Ein Gedi, a few hundred metres away. Each year we come again, go down further and open up new squares. Under the caked dust of the centuries the walls and floors of more houses appear, we find clay ovens, pottery and stone vessels – occasionally almost intact – and coins. What shall we find next year?
Cesare – from England
From rags to riches, but… a lot of postponed satisfaction and immediate frustration
I joined this site only on the second season and I was first assigned to a square where everybody found something (Claudia - a knife, Pauline - lots of iron nails, and so on).
My finds were lost in time but my consolation was supposed to be the interview with the television people who had come to see Gideon concerning his fantastic find of the Roman anchor. My wife Judith is not interested in digging and at the time had gone to pursue her passion of scuba-diving in Eilat. I could boast that I had gone much deeper than her mere 20 metres below sea-level - I was instead dry and at -359.95 metres. My remarks obviously did not impress the interviewer and I was duly edited out of the news.
The year after I was assigned to another lot with Margot and others. Again most people had good finds, but Margot and I were chasing a non-existing wall and finally cleaning two tabuns. We called our corner "The Slums", although in a search with the metal detector in complete darkness coins were found on the edge of where I was digging.
The following year, 2006, I was in a square full of jars and cooking pots, one Qumran jar and a fair amount of coins: the riches! Here the postponed satisfaction directed by Gideon reached its zenith! (G: "Clean around and leave it for the moment") At the end of the season though the frustration evaporated and the satisfaction materialized. He was right after all. It was just a question of time.
The group of people, veterans and newcomers every year, seem to be specially selected for Ein Gedi. Gideon is great with his dry humour, the catalyst of an incredible chemistry of human beings. The students from the Institute of Archaeology of Jerusalem blend their youth with us senior young people and with the Bedouin helpers in an atmosphere of collegiality during digging hours and beyond. Ein Gedi is paradise. Come to it and be rewarded even if you are not an angel but a mere volunteer.
