Inside BAR

Despite the current crisis in the Gulf, archaeologists are determined to get on with business as usual in planning for next season’s digs. Indeed, the 1991 installment of BAR’s annual survey, “1991 Excavation Opportunities,” presents a record number of digs: 27 sites in Israel and Jordan that seek volunteer workers. As always, the sites span the landscape from seaside to desert and span the millennia from the Chalcolithic period (c. 4500 B.C.) to Crusader times. Volunteers can choose from a variety of accommodations, ranging from tent camp to hotel, and from a variety of excavation dates, February through October. Our descriptions of the history and digging plans for each site will help you find an interesting excavation and will be enjoyable to read even if you’re not planning to dig this summer.

Archaeology in books and magazines is often a succession of results, but all of it, even the digging, is only the result of planning. A dig director shifts mountains of papers before shifting any earth, raises and spends a treasure before finding a treasure and, perhaps hardest of all, has to figure out exactly where to dig if he or she hopes to find anything. In “From the Director’s Chair: Starting a New Dig,” Kenneth G. Holum shows you how it’s done.