June 9 Gezer Update

By Dr. Dan Warner

Well today was our last day of digging and for the first few hours we were able to penetrate the cavern another foot. So we are into the cavern about 17 ft. from its entrance. As mentioned the cavern is filled to the roof with silt. But the roofline is continuing upward which is great to see and the roof looks very solid. This of course was one of our big concerns that once we entered the cavern we would find the ceiling of the cavern collapsed that we could not precede, this of course was not the case.  As we moved ahead with the probe we did find a large amount of boulders on the southern side which seems to match well the description of what Macalister saw as he explored the cavern. These boulders were not fully exposed but they appear to rest on the interior southern wall.

Since the beginning of our dig this summer we have dug down 66 ft. moving over 1,100 bags of debris (each one averaging 3-400 pounds of dirt and stone), and we are thankful that no one was seriously hurt this season and all will return home healthy.  So next summer our task will be to widen the entrance and clear out the cavern and it explore it fully while at the same time look for the source of the water. Our deepest appreciation goes out to all who helped make this dig possible from the diggers to those who helped financially. This truly will go down in the history books as a tremendous accomplishment.  We have already had the dig mentioned in the Israeli news and different radio shows so we trust some of you will join us next summer in this project.


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The Gezer Water System project is co-sponsored by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary under the direction of Tsvika Tsuk, chief archaeologist at INPA, and Dan Warner, co-director of the Center for Archaeological Research at NOBTS.

June 8 Gezer Update

By Dr. Dan Warner

Today we continued our probe (only opening a small probe of about 3 ft. square to save time since the dig is coming to a close) into the entrance of the cave. We did find the ceiling of the cavern and followed it backward into the cavern for about 16 ft.  The roofline is moving upward as we had hoped it would so we are for sure were in the cavern. The only problem we see is that it is filled to the roof with silt. As mentioned our probe is about 3 ft. square and according to Macalister the cavern is about 14 ft. wide and 80 ft. deep, so we have a way to go.


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The Gezer Water System project is co-sponsored by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary under the direction of Tsvika Tsuk, chief archaeologist at INPA, and Dan Warner, co-director of the Center for Archaeological Research at NOBTS.

June 7 Gezer Update

By Dr. Dan Warner

Today was an interesting day, after removing about 49 bags of debris it is the day we believe to have broken through into the entrance of the water source. We were not exactly sure what we were looking for since Macalister never fully described what the entrance would look like but after digging through very tough debris filled with large stones and boulders we reach a very sharp curved ceiling and it leveled off after entering it. So we believed we have penetrated the passageway which according to Macalister is only 4 ft. high and although it width or depth we do not know since he never gave its dimensions he did give the length to it as being 55 ft. from the second mantel which we found last year and we are approximate 63 ft. passed the mantel so we have come to the conclusion we are there. 

After digging a small trench in front of the entrance we entered the passage way for about 4 ft. in and soon encountered large slabs of what we believe to be roof collapse from the ceiling of the cavern. These large slabs soft limestone prohibited us from going further today so tomorrow we hope to break through them and enter the cavern and determine the feasibility of exploring the cavern to return next year.


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The Gezer Water System project is co-sponsored by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary under the direction of Tsvika Tsuk, chief archaeologist at INPA, and Dan Warner, co-director of the Center for Archaeological Research at NOBTS.

June 6 Gezer Update

By Gary D. Myers

If I were to write a fictional story called “The Dig at Gezer,” I’d write in a day like today. Every story needs a crisis point. I felt that crisis today. We entered the tunnel with hopes running high. We believed that this would be the day – we thought that both Friday and Sunday. Based on the information left by Macalister and Vincent, who excavated here, we knew we had to be very close to the cavern. From the first swing of the pickax when we entered the tunnel around 6:30 a.m., we knew this would be a difficult day. Nothing came easy. The ground was very rocky and filled with larger boulders. Progress was slow … very slow. The end of the dig is coming soon and that is adding pressure to the crisis.

We only were excavating half of the tunnel’s width today to save time and that was a big help. We did clear about 6 feet of rocks. We are nearing 56 feet from our measuring point, close to 140 feet from the mouth of the cave. But today’s bag count was only 64, though many of those were filled with heavy rocks.

But you know what comes after crisis in the story – resolution. That’s what we are hoping for tomorrow. As a writer, I might chose to keep the crisis going another day … inching ever closer to the deadline. But as a participant: Come resolution, come. We are very hopeful that tomorrow will be the day. I can’t wait to hear the shouts of jubilation ring up through that massive tunnel.

Digging rock by rock

The process for digging today was to hit a rock with the pick, grab the loosened rock with your hand and toss it in a bag. Each time you hit a rock, the shock rings in your hands, wrists, elbows, biceps and shoulders. At supper this evening, all of us who worked “down in the hole” were complaining about joint pain. We are hoping for better digging tomorrow


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The Gezer Water System project is co-sponsored by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary under the direction of Tsvika Tsuk, chief archaeologist at INPA, and Dan Warner, co-director of the Center for Archaeological Research at NOBTS.

June 5 Gezer Update

By Gary D. Myers

The good news is that whole team was well enough to go Tel Gezer today. The lingering sickness was beginning to slow our work. The health team members were wearing down from the increased work load. It was a blessing to have a healthy crew.

With a healthy crew and another innovation – pulling two bags at once with the wench – the team removed 127 bags of dirt and debris. We were elated with total because early on the digging was quite difficult. And during the afternoon, large rocks hampered our digging.

Just after 4 p.m. we called it a day. We had reached 50 feet from our measuring point. Because of the long wait time (5 minutes) for the wench to travel down the tunnel and pull a bag, someone decided to hook one bag and tether another with a heavy-duty strap. The plan worked like a charm and helped us reach our largest bag total in over a week.

The bad news is that we have yet to reach the cave/cavern opening.

We must be close

Dr. Dan Warner and Dr. Parker are confident that the end of the tunnel is near. They believe we will reach the cavern before this year’s dig is over in less than a week. In fact, they are hopeful that tomorrow will be the day. With hopes running high, Warner and Parker are employing a new strategy – cutting a probe. Thus far the team has been clearing out the entire 9-feet width of the cave to about 7-8 feet deep. Rather than clearing the entire width, tomorrow we will only clear a portion of the width in order to speed our progress toward the cave entrance. There will be much rejoicing when we reach the end!


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The Gezer Water System project is co-sponsored by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary under the direction of Tsvika Tsuk, chief archaeologist at INPA, and Dan Warner, co-director of the Center for Archaeological Research at NOBTS.

Week Two Update (May 29-June 3)

By Dr. Dan Warner
Even though this was a challenging week between many still being sick and other various activities (like giving tours to several groups at the site i.e. archaeologists from Hebrew University and special invited guests from the Israel National Parks and the Israel Antiquities Authority) we still managed to average going down over a meter (3ft) per day. Even though we went down over 15 ft. we still have not located the entrance to the cavern which is the source for the water tunnel. Several reasons account for this one being the measurements of the original excavator Macalister, whose plans we have been following are off. We have come to realize that his calculations do not exactly fit our revised measurements and some of his own measurements do line up. So we are not exactly sure of the depth of this cavern from the surface, it could be off as much as 10 ft.  Our projections right now put us somewhere between 4-10 ft. to the entrance of the cavern with one more week to go to reach it before the season shuts down.

But we have learned some things as we continue to penetrate the tunnel, one being that the limestone is softer as we go down, which may account for the large amount of ribbing like features in the roof of the tunnel. Another word’s,  as one looks up in the ceiling one notices a series of cuts that continually go down creating a reverse set of steps but up in the roof, hence one could theoretically hit their head on them if they did not duck. These ribbings looked like steps on Macalister’s plans (since he did not give us a clear isometric view) but we now know they are in the ceiling and not a part of the floor. As well they have no structural significance since the limestone is softer, the original tunnel makers, as they chipped their way down, chunks of this soft limestone fell from the ceiling creating these series of ribs and we believe the tunnelers just continued on down to the next level.    

In addition we are not at this time uncovering the entire system down to the steps (which are about 3-4 ft. below our feet).  This is because we are still conducting a probe to make sure that once we reach the cavern opening  it has not totally collapsed so that we cannot enter the cave. We believe that this will not be the case and that next week which is our final week, we can reach it. One of the favorite quotes in archaeology is “the best finds always come on the last day”, we hope this is not the case this year.


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The Gezer Water System project is co-sponsored by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary under the direction of Tsvika Tsuk, chief archaeologist at INPA, and Dan Warner, co-director of the Center for Archaeological Research at NOBTS.

June 2 Gezer Update

By Gary D. Myers

Thursday was low attendance day at the Gezer Water System …a lingering sickness continues to thin our ranks. Three were taken to a clinic nearby. Two other team members had meetings to attend. Only nine team members made it to the tel. Even with low numbers we made great progress – 85 bags of dirt and debris were removed and we moved another 6 feet deeper into the tunnel. That is 43 feet from our measuring point – well over 100 feet from the mouth of the water system. However, we still did not reach the cave at the end of the tunnel. Maybe tomorrow.

Special thanks to Jason and Luke

A team from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary has been conducting archaeological surveys around the tel. Two of their team members – Jason and Luke – heard that our numbers were down and volunteered to help in the afternoon. They worked hard digging and bagging dirt and allowed our healthy team members get some much-needed rest. Thank you Jason and Luke! You guys are top notch.

A feast at Asi’s

We could not excavate the Gezer Water System without Asi (spelling?), the crane operator. He is a great worker and a great guy. Asi invited us all to his home for dinner June 2. It was quite a spread that Asi and his family (his wife and two daughters) shared with us. It was a great, festive evening. We were humbled by their hospitality and their generosity. As always, Asi and Tsvika kept us entertained with their humor. It was a great evening after such a hard day of digging.


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The Gezer Water System project is co-sponsored by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary under the direction of Tsvika Tsuk, chief archaeologist at INPA, and Dan Warner, co-director of the Center for Archaeological Research at NOBTS.

June 1 Gezer Update

By Gary D. Myers

Another day and another 4 feet deeper in the cave and we feel that the end is near. Based on the Dr. Jim Parker’s calculations, this year the team would need to dig down 42 feet to reach the end. We are currently at 37 feet. Because the drawings left by R.A.F. Macalister are not to scale, Parker’s estimates have a margin of error of plus or minus 5 feet. Perhaps we will reach the end Thursday afternoon or Friday morning.

A number of team members are still sick. They have fever, body aches, fatigue, coughs and runny noses. Please pray for a speedy recovery.

Is this the end?

May 31 the team encountered a nicely carved rib or mantle in the roof of the cave, one of about 12 we have uncovered to date. The one we found that day was the most pronounce one since those found near the mouth of the tunnel – until yesterday.

About 2:30 in the afternoon we noticed what seemed like the end of the tunnel. The adrenaline kicked. However, after about 15-20 minutes of digging we were able to determine that this was only another mantle. This mantle dropped down much further than the previous ones – around 2.5 feet. Until we worked our way underneath it looked like a solid wall.

An Experiment?

Strange thoughts cross ones mind down in the hole. A day or so ago I thought: “What if this was a big psychological experiment to see how people would respond? How long would the team continue to dig before quitting?

Words of wisdom by Tsvika Tsuk

Yesterday Tsvika was out most of the day and arrived shortly after we had uncovered what looked like the end of the tunnel, but was yet another mantle. Tsvika said something like – “You can’t be an optimist or a pessimist in a dig like this, only a realist and keep digging.” Good word. And that is what we will do today – keep digging.


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The Gezer Water System project is co-sponsored by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary under the direction of Tsvika Tsuk, chief archaeologist at INPA, and Dan Warner, co-director of the Center for Archaeological Research at NOBTS.