Caesarea Archaeology Project in Israel

DRC Sponsor: Don Holmertz

Robert Muller, a senior at Luther College, will share his experiences from this past summer when he accompanied Associate Professor of Classics Dan Davis and two other Luther students to the Caesarea region in Israel to participate in an archaeological expedition there from May 9th to June 2nd. They were part of a team that also included 22 undergraduate students from Vanderbilt University and a staff of six, including Davis as trench supervisor. The team started new excavations on the north side of a massive temple platform built by Herod the Great in the final years of the first century. The top of the giant platform held a temple of Roma and Augustus as a way for Herod to pay respects to Romans, who had set him up as a client king of Judea.

The students on the trip learned the fundamentals of field excavation: laying out grids; excavating and recognizing archaeological stratigraphy; recovering human remains; identifying diagnostic features of pottery and glass; washing, recording, and drawing artifacts; and interpreting cultural remains in their historical contexts. On weekends, the team visited a variety of sites including the Galilee region, Jerusalem, the Dead Sea, and Tel Aviv.