During an archaeological excavation you can learn much about the methods of excavation as well as the history of the place and the region of the site in general. But what you learn the most is about yourself. You learn how to approach new and difficult situations in a new and unknown environment with new and unknown people.

Of course if you are a senior excavator and this is not your first season on the site you have some experience and you know all the other seniors. Dig director and field supervisors mostly know each other from previous seasons or simply because they are working at the same institution. Most of the square supervisors also know each other from previous seasons or from the classes they took together before coming to the site.

But most of the volunteers are “fresh”. That means that more then half of the team hasn’t got a clue about the work or even if they have taken the classes and know the theory they are still inexperienced in field work. Working at a dig includes not only gaining working experience in archaeology, but also adjusting to “becoming a team”.

The backgrounds, the age differences and all other characteristics that makes us all wonderful individuals are always unimportant. We all came with one mission and that is to participate in the dig! That is the glue that holds the team together.

We enjoy day trips to historical sites as much as working on our site.

We all work together. We eat together. We explore together. We share are knowledge and our stories and by the end of the season we become not just “a team” but “a family”.