A Volunteer in the Negev

When I told my friends that I planned to spend the summer of 1979 on an archaeological dig in Israel’s Negev Desert, I got one of two responses: “You’ve got to be crazy!” or “Gee, that sounds like a lot of fun!” Both turned out to be true.

I had been to Israel twice before, participating in directed tours, but this time I had decided to fulfill a lifelong urge to indulge in an archaeological expedition.

Carefully reading about the project possibilities in the March/April 1979 BAR, I was drawn to the section entitled “Rescue of Archaeological Sites in the Biblical Negev,” BAR 05:02.

The article explained that because of the necessity to relocate military installations from the Sinai to the Negev as a result of the Israeli-Egyptian peace agreement, many important unstudied archaeological remains may either be destroyed or become off-limits for security reasons. Therefore, the Israeli government allocated funds for a massive effort to “save” such sites as Tel Ira, Tel Masos and Tel Malhata.