As the dig came to a close, we had one final task on our last day: cover up what we found. One of the problems with archaeology is that it’s inherently destructive. You can only dig something up once. Sometimes, an exposed area is left for people to see. Other times it is buried again to preserve it. Our area was in between those extremes.
First, we took some large rolls of material to cover over the major pieces of our area, steadying it with rocks and the jute bags that lined around our excavated area. Normally, this would be good enough. Unfortunately, the region around Tel Dan contains wild pigs which like to eat this material. Therefore, an additional precaution was needed. A backhoe drove in and picked away at our mountain of dirt, dumping some of it back in the hole a few inches deep. It was painful to watch with all those hours of work and scores of bucket lines! The archaeologist said it will take about two days of digging to remove.
This is how our hole should remain for about two years. They hope to get approval in the summer of 2018 for another season of digging. I’m glad I was part of this dig. I’d like to do it again sometime. Is this something that would appeal to you? It’s not for everyone, but I found it very satisfying.