The Big Dig

Year Published: 1973

Copyright: Registered 20Dec73 · MP24939 (Jan-Jun 1974) Copyright holder: Consumers Power Company

Complete Record: 1) this film recounts events in the 8th season of excavation at Gezer in Israel. Gezer is a rich and important archeological site containing a record of more than 140 successive generations of occupation. Adding to it’s importance is the Via Maris, or “Way of the Sea”, a highway passing nearby. Among those using this highway were Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, and even Napoleon’s army. The staff for the expedition to Gezer is a mixture of professionals and amateurs. They are here for a variety of professional and personal reasons, but regardless of their individual motivations they share an awareness of the elusive but profoundly attractive mystique of archeology. They all work willingly under the blistering sun for long hours in order that they may come closer to their past, which lies buried in the earth beneath their feet. During this season’s dig the staff is examining the strata that contain remains from the Philistine and Canaanite periods of excavation, recording, and analysis of the site, both in the field and in the laboratory. Excavation is governed by the cautionary principle that “to discover, we have to destroy”. Because of this, great care is taken to make a complete record of the site during the process of excavating it. Records and drawings are made both of the chronological history of the site as recorded in successive layers of soil and of the distribution of objects on each particular level. But this is only part of the work that goes into analyzing the material recovered in a dig. Advice from geologists and environmental archeologists rounds out part of the picture, while ceramic analysis and the comparison of finds with historical and literary sources-including the Bible-add other dimensions to the fragmentary evidence gathered in the field. After long hours in the field and laboratory, the archeologist, whether professional or amateur, will have helped to recreate a piece of history from the apparent chaos of the buried past.