Archaeology Under The Shadow Of Terrorism

Here's a dispatch in the Louisville Courier-Journal from one Ken Stammerman, describing his fieldwork at a Galilean archaeological dig while the surrounding towns are rocketed by Hezbollah.

Twice in the past four days, our afternoons at Kibbutz Ein Gev on the Sea of Galilee have been disrupted by the loud bangs and shaking windows resulting from nearby rocket blasts. The closest so far was at Ramot, an Israeli town a few kilometers up the road, though the sirens and sounds of numerous hits at Tiberias, the largest Israeli town in the area, a scant five miles across the sea, have also rattled nerves and walls at the kibbutz.

And he bids defiance to the terrorists:

Meanwhile, as work occasionally pauses, as it did this morning when we watch a puff of smoke from an explosion rise from Tiberias across the Sea, I sit on the walls where Hellenes, Romans and Byzantine guards manned their watches and saw the sun glisten off the sea. I have no intention of leaving before this season ends.

I visited a few Israeli tels as a student, and have always been intrigued by the thought of going back as a volunteer excavator. So, congratulations and stay safe to this plucky chap.