A Typical Day at Tel Shimron
For six weeks, the Tel Shimron team will be in the field learning about the past. It is hard work — the past doesn’t give up its secrets easily — but together, our team will make new discoveries that tell the story of Tel Shimron, the Jezreel Valley, and all of northern Israel.
The day starts at 5 a.m. with a bus ride to the site.
We’re on the bus before the sun is up. Once we reach the site, the work begins. Sometimes we use small tools, sometimes we work with larger tools, but always carefully excavating dirt that is filled with the clues to the ancient past. After you’ve been with us for a while, a find from 3,000 years ago will become your new normal.
Five days a week, we work from 5 a.m. until 1 p.m., uncovering Tel Shimron’s secrets.
We break for breakfast at 9 a.m and lunch at 1. After lunch, we wash the pottery and bone and perform a quick analysis.
After the work in the field is complete, we head back to Nahalal.
The day’s pottery is clean and now it’s time to clean ourselves up, relax awhile, or take a swim in the pool. We meet together one last time in the early evening. One of the scholars on the team or from the region will give a lecture. The lectures explain archaeological techniques and survey the history of the Jezreel Valley. As evening comes, we have dinner together, but it’s a short evening. We’re up again tomorrow at 5 a.m.
We spend our weekends having fun.
Early in the season, we arrange tours, so that you can see some of the important sites in the region. Later in the season, you’ll have weekends that are all on your own — to hike with the friends you’ll have made, to enjoy the cities of Israel, or just to relax in Nahalal. Your accommodations are yours, even on the weekends.