I dig it

Do you remember watching Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, and countless other movies involving archaeology and thinking, “Man, it would be cool to be an archaeologist!”? Of course you do! Well, I’m here to tell you that it’s not all crystal skulls and fossilized velociraptors.

Let me tell you what it’s really like. It’s digging in the hot Israeli sun on top of a hill with no wind because you’re in a hole with dust viciously flying and clinging onto every spot of your body. It’s grabbing another empty gufa to put dirt in because you just filled the last one. Yeah, you probably don’t even know what a gufa is, do you? No offense meant, I used to be just like you before I was tortured by its presence. It’s sitting there starring at the prettiest, almost whole piece of pottery you’ve seen this entire time and not being able to dig it up because we “aren’t on that layer yet.”

THIS HAS BEEN VISIBLE SINCE 2014. But nope, we can’t move it. I look up from the pit to the director, who sits at the top, gleaming down at you like the Joker saying, “It’s all a part of the plan.” Honestly, I just want someone to hand me a shovel. Finally, you reach the point where you’re like, this hole experience is burying me.

Then something magical happens. You move your trowel through the dirt and a piece of chert pops out of the ground. This little stone was chipped away by a human to make tools and weapons around the tenth century B.C. He or she sat in the same place I am currently digging, chipping away at this stone around 3,000 years ago outside of a mudbrick structure. After that, a layer of ash springs forth from the soil. This place was burned down. Who burned it? Why? Did the person making the stone know of the structure or maybe even his own impending doom? Maybe. If you dig some more you might just find out.

This is why it’s all worth it. Those little moments when you realize you’re doing more than digging in the dirt. It may not be the crystal skull, but it is real; and it is humbling. Then, you pick up the stone and throw it at the person closest by who’s struggling right alongside you. Without fail, they roll their eyes and drop the chert in a tagged bucket. Like many things in life, it’s more than just the little moments. It’s sharing those moments with great friends.

Also, it’s taking a picture with a puppy in a gufa who wanders onto the site.