Summer time is upon us and the excavation season in Israel is starting.

There are several blogs that I visit where I can find out information about new discoveries or just read about the daily life on a dig.

My favorite archaeology blog is  Ferrell’s Travel Blog. I learn a lot about archaeology and the land of the Bible when I read his posts. Many of you have read about my trip to Israel last year. Ferrell conducted the trip that I went on and I learned so much from him.

This picture is of Lachish where Ferrell worked on a dig many years ago. It was one of the places that we stopped at in the Shephelah during the last day of our tour. In fact all of the pictures that you will see in the post today are from that area. It is a place where there are a lot of active digs. At this time there is no active dig at Lachish, but I have heard that they may start an excavation there again soon.

Another blog I follow is The Tel Burna Excavation Project.

The excavation at Tel Burna this year has started and they have been posting updates on their blog. It is really cool to see what is going on at a dig.

Tel Burna is possibly the site of Libnah.

The Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he heard that the king had left Lachish. (2 Kings 19:8 ESV)

You can follow the Tel Burna blog and see what they find this year. Perhaps they will be able to find out if it is Libnah this year.

I really enjoy following The Tell es-Safi/Gath Excavation blog.

Prof. Aren M. Maeir does a great job of sharing information about the excavation at Tell es-Safi and also covers other items of interest in Israel. He also posts videos of some of his lectures and also injects some good humor into some of his posts. He shares information not only about field work, but also what happens back in the lab during the off season.

I also enjoy following Luke Chandler’s Blog.

Luke Chandler has been one of the dig supervisors at Khirbet Qeiyafa. I recently wrote a blog post about Khirbet Qeiyafa. They released a very nice video about the dig that is taking place there and about the history of the site.

I have heard that Luke Chandler will be working at a new site next year. Tel Socoh is just across the Elah Valley from Khirbet Qeiyafa. I am looking into the possibility of going on an archaeological dig sometime in the next couple of years and this is one of the places I am looking at.

The last site that I will share in this post is The Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon.

This site is just an information site and does not update on a regular basis. However, this expedition interests me as I have two friends who are working on this dig this year. They have just begun the season and I am looking forward to hearing from Trent and Rebekah about their adventures. They will probably not have too much time during the dig, but I know that later they will start updating their blog. They were with me on the tour last year and I really enjoyed getting to know them.

Writing about Trent and Rebekah makes me also think about Barry Britnell, who was also on the tour. He has a blog called Exploring Bible Lands that I follow and is also putting together a tour of the Bible Lands for next year.

I hope that you take the time to visit some of my favorite archaeology blogs. I really enjoy them.

Steven