Students will meet at the Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology at the Hebrew Union College, Jerusalem, for a two day orientation to the field school. A visit to the Israel Museum is also planned. This year, the excavations are part of the new UCSD Nahal Tillah Regional Archaeology Project in Israel's northern Negev desert. Some of the aims of the expedition are to explore the beginnings of Egyptian influence on social change during the beginning of the Early Bronze Age and the rise of urbanism in the region around 3500 - 3000B.C. Project scientific staff present a weekly lecture series covering Near Eastern Archaeology, Bedouin ethnography, Biological Anthropology, Environmental Archaeology, Archaeozoology, and other topics. Students and faculty live in a tent camp near the site which is adjacent to a small forest.
Food is provided from the kitchen of a nearby kibbutz.
On weekends, students are encouraged to travel around the country. Following the excavation, students learn the basics of archaeological data analysis by helping to process artifacts from the Nahal Tillah Project in the laboratories of the Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology at the Hebrew Union College in Je rusalem. Overlooking the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, the Hebrew Union College has an outstanding library, classrooms, and research collections. Students live in a youth hostel near the college. Enrollments are accepted in the order received.