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BYU Students Help Make Archaeological Discoveries

The Khirbat Ataruz Project

For BYU students Jacob Bellows, Emily Buss, Cory Clay, Emily Mehr, Chris Miner, Warren Park, Brandon Pritchard, and Mary Proteau, the summer included an archaeological, cultural, and religious experience in Jordan focused on mentoring and learning.

A significant component of the mentoring and learning experience was the opportunities for the students to engage in hands-on work in the field with daily application, discussions, and mentoring. This included implementing archaeological methodologies of excavation and the meticulous recording of data in the form of locus sheets and photographic progress and locus shots. From a mentoring perspective, our pedagogical goals were meant to produce skills, increase qualifications, and provide an academic training that would enhance and bolster our students’ success in their future academic and professional goals.

In sum, the student mentoring and learning process achieved at ‘Ataruz provided an environment of intellectual and spiritual growth that enabled students and faculty to work together in an atmosphere of discovery. The experience facilitated learning in various spheres, ranging from archaeology and history to language, culture, and religions, all in a multicultural environment. As friendships were forged and new knowledge and skills acquired, students and faculty returned home having been enriched with a diversity of experience that will last and be cherished for a lifetime.

For more information about these students’ experience, go to: https://rsc.byu.edu/review-magazine/fall-2022
For more information about the Khirbat Ataruz Project, go to: http://www.ataruz.org/

Khitbat Ataruz Project
Khitbat Ataruz Project #3
Khitbat Ataruz Project #2

The Tel Shimron Excavation

The Tel Shimron Excavation seeks to understand the ancient world, including the world of the Bible, through the rigorous archaeological investigation, in order to provide resources for the study of Levantine history and culture over the last five thousand years. Shimron is mentioned in the conquest narratives (Joshua 19:15) and was known as Simonais in the New Testament period. As a neighboring village to Nazareth, the site would have been known by Jesus as He grew up. Fieldwork is currently focused on areas with Middle Bronze Age (Canaanite), Iron Age (Israelite), and Second Temple Period (1st century AD) architectural remains. Student volunteers have the opportunity to excavate in the field, process and analyze artifacts, practice database and mapping skills, and tour sites in Israel related to both Old and New Testament events. BYU is a member of the academic consortium that consists of Wheaton College, Tel Aviv University, Boston College, and Cairn University. Dr. George Pierce heads up the Geographic Information Systems and LiDAR teams to digitally record the digs and run spatial analyses, and Dr. Krystal Pierce serves as the registrar and works to catalogue, conserve, research, and archive each artifact found in the course of excavations. While archaeological work at Tel Shimron is intellectually challenging, the location of Shimron in the Jezreel Valley near Nazareth affords the opportunity to reflect on the experiences and teachings of the Old Testament prophets Elijah and Elisha and the life and ministry of Christ while being embedded in the landscape in which they lived and preached.

For more information, go to: https://www.telshimronexcavations.com/

Students listening to a surveying expert at the Tel Shimron Excavation
A student examining pottery shards at the Tel Shimron Excavation

The BYU Egypt Excavation Project

Wilfred Griggs led the excavation project from 1980 – 2011. Kerry Muhlestein has led it since that time.

There are two main parts of the BYU Egypt Excavation Project. The older remains are from the excavation of the Seila Pyramid. Our discovery of a stela with two of the names of Snefru, first king of the Fourth Dynasty, revealed who had built the pyramid. It lies 10 km due west of the Meidum Pyramid, and in terms of its elevation and the ratio of its construction, there are some clear links between the two pyramids. The Seila Pyramid has evidence for ritual activity on both the north and the eastern sides. It has a causeway on the eastern side, but no valley temple. It represents an important witness of Snefru’s innovations in regards to pyramid complexes, and play an important role in the development of pyramids. Besides the stelae, other important artifacts include an altar, the remains of a small statue, a foundation deposit jar, a model oar, and the remains of several limestone tables or altars.

The other part of the excavation is a Graeco-Roman cemetery called the Fag-el-Gamous cemetery. This is a very, very large cemetery with burials beginning at about 300 BC and spanning until about 700 AD. Many tombs have been discovered, though the majority of the burials are buried in the sand. Many of those are in shafts carved into the compacted sand that lies about a meter below the surface. This cemetery has done much to help us learn about the daily life of its inhabitants. The cemetery witnesses the conversion to Christianity of most or perhaps all of its inhabitants. The team is attempting to study funerary markers for this religious shift.

In the field students have worked at the cemetery, the pyramid, on the conservation of objects, and on determining the extent of the cemetery. We also work with students here on campus. We have textile samples here that we train students to analyze and conserve. In addition, we work with students on creating an archaeological database. We also work with students to analyze old fieldbooks and do research with that material.

See more at https://www.arce.org/project/fag-el-gamous-excavation-project and https://egypt.byu.edu