The periodic sound of the train below the tel is the backdrop for archaeological work as
part of Total Archaeology at Tel Akko, a joint project of Penn State and Haifa University.
Excavations in their sixth season bring faculty and students from Penn State, Haifa University,
Trinity College, University of Massachusetts Amherst and the Clairmont Colleges
together to explore Greek, Phoenician and Cananite layers of a site that spans the Bronze Age
to the Helenistic Period.
The morning usually begins with photographing the entire excavation,
unit by unit, for input to our 3-d digital mapping program.
This year, due to heavy rain, more time and effort were put into cleaning the site than usual.
Once the sandbags were gone, there
were still piles of dead weeds to remove.
Excavations eventually began even before the sun shade was once more in place.
Work in a variety of areas, on floors, walls and debris piles continues throughout the mornings.
Though not glamorous, students quickly learn the use of brushes and dustpans
as well as handpicks, turias and trowels.
Diligent careful work sometimes uncovers artifacts like this broken vessel.
All the soil removed from the site is screened.
Once the loose dust and sand is gone,
what remains are searched for pottery, bone, shell and other artifacts.
Work in the field is only part of the day.
Lectures on topics ranging from prehistory to modern history,
economics and politics and archaeological conservation occur every evening,
presenting the information to understand
what is happening at the excavation and putting everything into context.
Something, of course, must be done with the  artifacts that are found.
Pottery gets throughly soaked, washed and sorted,
labeled, recorded and stored.
Bone from this and the previous excavations at Tel Akko get sorted and identified.
Botanicals like seeds and other plant parts are removed from soil samples by water floatation
and then identified.
The non-botanical portion of that sample is also sorted for shell, bone, pottery
and any seeds that might have escaped.
It's amazing what is found beneath the soil:
Buried cities, pottery, walls, ancient seeds,
iron slag and occasionally a scarab, bead
or other reminder of the people who once lived here.
