For the third consecutive year, Arthur Bankoff, chairperson of the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, took his team of BC and CUNY students to Bet Shemesh (House of the Sun), an excavation site a few miles south of Jerusalem to continue his work in partnership with several universities in the United States and Israel.
      Although it’s a physically demanding job, students enjoy going to Bet Shemesh, in part because of the possibility of actually touching history. But to get there, they have to start digging every day from 5 to 8:30 a.m., when they break for breakfast, before resuming the dig until 1 p.m. As the day heats up in the fierce Middle Eastern summer, the students spend the rest of the afternoon washing the pottery found in the dig and classifying the pieces from the day before.
     To finance their trip and expenses, students can apply for fellowships; the Brooklyn College Foundation and the Archaeology Center have provided money and resources in the past as well.
      This summer, the Brooklyn College Magazine team was there to attest to their hard labors and also to bear witness to a most exciting find—a Canaanite scarab from about 1800 BC. The upcoming fall issue of the magazine will have interviews and more photos about this intersession program that helps BC students touch history.