Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project
Israel
Summer 2010
Student Quotes
“I volunteered for JCHP (the Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project) in Summer, 2008 without any previous exposure to field archaeology, and it was an amazing experience. The JCHP allows you to experience all aspects of archaeology, and apply what you learned in class hands-on in the field. One thing that I really appreciated about JCHP was that the professors really try to meet your interests when assigning tasks. As a Biology major, I was more interested in faunal archaeology and one project I was able to do is sort and identify sea shells found in the soil at the archaeological site. The professors were very flexible and are truly concerned with teaching the student.
This was not my first visit to Israel, but I still learned so much about the country traveling with JCHP, from the video at the dig site about Jaffa (which I pretty much have memorized) to the visits to sites such as Caesarea, the City of David and Old City Jerusalem. We were also able to meet other archaeologists and learn about the projects that they are doing. On the weekends and in the afternoons on workdays, we could travel on our own, and everything was easily accessible. I don’t know a word of Hebrew and I was able to travel to Haifa, Jerusalem, Ramallah, Bethlehem, Lod, Hertzellia and so many more cities in my spare time. Tel Aviv beach was only a 10 minute walk away, and Jaffa’s marketplace is a great place to eat and bargain prices for gifts. All in all, this was an amazing experience, and I highly recommend it to anybody interested.”