Where Can Tel Azekah Take You?

An Interview with Lyndelle Webster

One of the greatest strengths of the Lautenschläger Azekah Expedition are the people who come from all over the world, and from all walks of life, to join us on the excavation. This week, we’d like to share with you our recent conversation with Lyndelle Webster, one of our Specialist Researchers, who – after catching the archaeology bug – dramatically changed her life’s course to follow her newfound passion.

Lyndelle, it seems, always had a focus on the outside world. Hailing from Australia, she completed her undergraduate studies in science and engineering (BSc and BEng) at the Australian National University and Melbourne University, later working as a civil engineer for four years. Lyndelle’s time in the corporate world took her abroad to China, where she lived and worked for some time. As Lyndelle puts it, she wanted to do more than just work for ‘big business’, and was looking for more meaningful experiences. Her engineering work inspired a fascination in ancient water systems, which piqued her interest and led her deeper into a pursuit for more history, entering archaeology, where she found a natural combination of her interests. Lyndelle’s past exposure to archaeology was more anthropology focused, and she wanted to contribute to integrating modern science and engineering into archaeological research. Looking for the next adventure, she moved with her husband to Israel and enrolled in the Tel Aviv University International M.A. Program, where she stayed for one year before returning to Australia to complete her M.A. thesis at Macquarie University.

While she started her fieldwork experience at Tel Megiddo in 2014, Lyndelle found her home at Tel Azekah. Lyndelle’s M.A. thesis focused on radiocarbon dating at Tel Azekah, and in 2015 she joined the Expedition as an Assistant Area Supervisor in Area S2, continuing in the role in the 2016 season. Lyndelle’s radiocarbon dating research afforded her the opportunity to take on the role of ‘Research Specialist’. The position offered her the ability to work within other areas, and a chance to experience the diverse archaeology present at a single site. Working with a more holistic picture of the Tel, Lyndelle was better able to understand the chronological research that she was conducting. Lyndelle’s M.A. thesis focused on dating seeds from a number of different contexts and periods at the site, mainly those of the Late Bronze Age in Areas S2 and T2. Her work at Azekah also led to the dating of the Monumental Building in Area S2, and the Late Bronze Age destruction in Area T2.

Lyndelle’s work at Azekah has led to a publication in the journal Radiocarbon, and she currently looks forward to publishing her current research, from Azekah as well as other Late Bronze sites. She is also having a crack at other techniques in the archaeological sciences, such as OSL (Optically-Stimulated Luminescence) dating. As she says, “Azekah is a great place for young scholars to learn and try out new techniques”. Lyndelle also credits Azekah with giving her the opportunity to learn the practical side of archaeological research, i.e. finding funding for academic research (radiocarbon dating is not cheap!), and preparing grant applications. Furthermore, Lyndelle successfully presented her findings at the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) conference in Boston, in November of 2017.

Today, as a PhD. researcher at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Lyndelle relies on the field skills and techniques for taking radiocarbon samples, that she developed at Azekah. She credits her research at Azekah for teaching her the art of working independently while collaborating with a team, to accomplish a research project and contribute to the wider research of the site as a whole.

When asked about her future, Lyndelle replies, “only time will tell”, but from our vantage point, the future is bright. Her experience at Azekah opened the door to a range of other opportunities, as she now also works at Gezer and Lachish. Lyndelle has been expanding her work on the radiocarbon chronology of the Late Bronze Age in the Southern Levant and specifically the Shephelah. Lyndelle’s research will contribute to her PhD in Vienna at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, in which she focuses on Late Bronze Age Chronology from the ‘Radiocarbon Perspective’ in the Southern Levant.

As a parting note, we asked Lyndelle what she was most excited about for the upcoming 2018 season, she cheerfully responded, “getting back in the dirt, and discovering more great contexts and material, which will add data towards the radiocarbon chronology!”

Authored by: Brett Cohen

Edited by: Alexandra Wrathall

How working in archaeology can change your life

We recently sat down with Sabine Kleiman, a PhD researcher at Tel Aviv University’s Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology, and Area Supervisor of Area T2 at Tel Azekah, to learn what inspired her get out from behind the books of biblical scholarship that she once studied in Germany, and uncover the archaeology of the Bible with her own hands as an archaeologist at Tel Azekah, Israel.

Sabine was originally a student of Theology at The University of Heidelberg, with a focus on Old Testament Studies. When her university offered a seminar with a field trip to Ramat Rahel (an archaeological site outside of Jerusalem), she jumped at the chance to try something new. With her focus on the Old Testament, Sabine decided that she wanted to go to the source of text, and realised that it was far more rewarding to uncover the source archaeologically, with her bare hands. In 2007 Sabine volunteered to excavate at Ramat Rahel for the first time, and was thrilled by the experience. As she explains, many Germans, such as herself, don’t travel outside of Europe very often. As such, the dig was an amazing opportunity to experience of how to live in a different culture and meet people from all over the world. Working with a diverse group of Jews, Muslims, and Christians, Sabine was exposed to different religious views; even those from among her fellow Christians, which exposed her to world views that she did not often encounter back in Germany.

Sabine found that her experience living and working in Israel had a huge impact on her because the country has so much to offer in such a small space. As she put it, in one day you can be in the desert in the south, and then later travel to the waterfalls of the north. She was also impacted by the openness of the Israeli people, which was quite different from Germany. After 2007, Sabine was hooked, and came once a year to excavate. By 2012, when the Tel Azekah excavation began, Sabine was invited to become part of the staff as an Assistant Area Supervisor from the outset. This motivated her to live in Israel full time, where she conducted her MA and PhD on pottery and ceramic production in the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age. Sabine’s work with Tel Aviv University has led to the completion of her MA at the Tel Aviv University International Program, and several publications.

“To be the first ones to touch such antique items, which are over 3000 years old, for the first time, was an awe-inspiring experience! When you excavate something like a destruction layer, you have this moment where you realise that what you are excavating there is real, and it happened. The remains of the destruction tell a vivid story that is very humbling. The destroyed pottery and other artefacts convey an emotional connection that doesn’t come when you are excavating something more abstract like a garbage pit or a floor layer. It brings you into greater contact with the subject and helps you to better understand how people lived and acted, and what decisions they made. You start to think on a different level, not thinking about the people, but with the people who lived there.”

Sabine is excited to continue to participate in the coming season as the expedition continues to explore the history of the Late Bronze Age, and uncover the mystery of what happened before Azekah’s Late Bronze Age destruction.

Sabine’s experience in the field at Azekah connected and grounded her in the archaeological work, and helped her to overcome the theoretical abstraction that she described of experience outside of the field. As she related, “when you realise that you’re standing on the same hill that someone stood on 3000 or 4000 years ago, where they too shared the same majestic view, you have a realisation that you don’t get when you’re sitting in your office in Germany working on biblical text.”

If you would like to get outside of your normal life and uncover the history of the Bible with your own hands, join Sabine by registering for the July 21 – August 16, 2018 Season here: https://azekah.org/register/, @LautenschlagerAzekahExpedition,    

To discover more about Sabine’s research, or research she has been a part of, check out:

Kleiman, S., Koch, I., Webster, L. Berendt, K., Linares, V., Sergi, O., Oeming, M., Gadot, Y. and Lipschits, O. Late Bronze Age Azekah – An Almost Forgotten Story. In: Maeir, A. (ed.) Proceedings of the First Annual Ackerman Family Workshop in Biblical Archaeology Bar‐Ilan University. April 15^th‐16^th 2015. Tel Aviv (forthcoming: 2018)

Koch, I., Kleiman, S., Oeming, M., Gadot, Y., and Lipschits, O., 2017. Amulets in Context: A View from the Late Bronze Age Tel Azekah. JAEI, Vol. 16, 9-24.

Kleiman, S., Gadot, Y., and Lipschits, O., 2016. A Snapshot of the Destruction Layer of Tell Zakarīye /Azekah. Seen against the Backdrop of the Final Days of the Late Bronze Age. ZDPV. 132/2: 105-133

Webster, L. C., Sergi, O., Kleiman, S., Lipschits, O., Hua, Q., Jacobsen, G. E., Tristant, Y. and Gadot, Y., 2017. Preliminary Radiocarbon Results for Late Bronze Age Strata at Tel Azekah and their Implications. Radiocarbon, 2017: 1-23

Article Authored By: Brett Cohen

Edited By: Alexandra Wrathall

The 2016 summer excavation season at Azekah is set to begin, July 16 – August 11. As the excavation plans to have a hiatus year in 2017, 2016 will be the last chance to excavate with the team until 2018.

To secure your spot with the team, be sure to register at azekah.org!