Introduction

In The Time Machine, H. G. Wells took his fictional Time Traveler to the future, but we suspect that readers of BAR would prefer to visit the past, especially the Biblical past. Now you can! You can walk in the footsteps of Jesus along the long-buried streets of Bethsaida, stand in a Middle Bronze Age palace at Tell Kabri or penetrate a temple where Canaanites worshiped at Tell Beth Shean—to name just three of the many sights that the ordinary tourist never sees. Your time machine will consist of a shovel, trowel or brush, and instead of traveling through the fourth dimension, you will journey through layers of earth. In short, volunteering for an archaeological dig can be the time machine that carries you into the Biblical past.

The price of this journey into another era, aside from the cost of room and board, is a commitment to work at a variety of jobs suitable to your abilities, perhaps wielding a pick, sifting earth or washing potsherds. Depending on the site you choose, your accommodations may be a tent in the desert, a hotel on the beach or something in-between. Your companions in this unique form of temporal tourism will be people of various backgrounds and ages—college students to vigorous retirees—from all over the world.