Tourists really dig archaeological work

JERUSALEM — Deep in a 2,000-year-old tunnel system outside Jerusalem, a young woman unearthed a rare oil lamp used in ancient rituals during an archaeological dig.

For Abby Krewson, the discovery is especially gratifying: Krewson is a 10th-grader from Philadelphia participating in a "dig for a day" archaeological experience with her family and a Bible college group.

"I didn't expect to find something like that, so it's very exciting," Krewson said.

Tourists like Krewson pay $25 to spend the day working in ancient tunnels in Israel's Bet Guvrin National Park, about 20 miles southwest of Jerusalem.

Participants do the dirty work, digging and sifting through the ruins, while their fees underwrite the more difficult parts of archaeological work: washing pottery shards, logging finds and publishing papers in academic journals.

Ian Stern, director of Archaeological Seminars, which is licensed by the Israeli government to do the dig, said it's a "Tom Sawyer-ish, paint-the-fence-white kind of a situation."

About 30,000 to 50,000 people pay to do the dig each year, raising about $1 million, he said. He says hundreds of thousands of people have participated in the experience since the project started 25 years ago.

Different "excavation vacations" exist around the world, from a medieval graveyard in Poland to plantation ruins in the Caribbean. Stern says the Holy Land dig, drawing all kinds of tourists in Israel, has been especially popular with Christian tourists and Jewish youths visiting Israel for the first time on the "Birthright" program.

"We've provided more people with a personal contact with archaeology than anybody else in the world," Stern said. "It helps them connect to their roots."

For Reynaldo Villarreal, a Christian tourist from Texas, the connection had special meaning. He recently learned that his ancestors were Sephardic Jews who left Spain during the Inquisition for Mexico and then immigrated to the United States. One year ago, he said his 17-year-old son died in a drowning accident and he said this trip was to help him and his wife grieve.

In the cool subterranean caverns, Villarreal lost himself in the dig as he uncovered pottery shards and animal bones.

"It's exciting to help in the excavation of this cave and think of the people who lived in this place," he said. "Maybe what we find can be of some help."