OPENING SHOT: At first sunlight and before the day's dig begins, Dig Photographer Tim Snow (on ladder) takes photos to chart the site's progress. Right: Emily Saunders wears a keffiyeh to help shield the sun while taking part in the 2009 excavation. Below: Since the work day can begin at 4:30 a.m., a "second breakfast" served at 9:00 a.m. helps with much needed nourishment. Here Abu Hajar, who has worked for KRP since 1997, helps prepare a mid-morning favorite, watermelon. CARSON-NEWMAN STUDENTS have been moving from the known to the unknown for generations. That's what the college experience is all about! But some students have lived this principle, literally and figu- ratively, in their experience of a real archaeology dig in the Middle East. Since 1995, Carson-Newman has been a charter member of a consortium of schools and indi- viduals who comprised an archaeology team to excavate an Old Testament era ruin in southern Jordan. Under the title of the "Karak Resources Project," the consortium has done field work in the Karak Plateau which is the biblical land of Moab. A group of eight from the U.S. represent- ing seven colleges, universities and seminaries explored the region in the summer of 1995 and selected a site to excavate. Two years later the group returned with a large team to "open the ground" at the site of Khirbet ["ruin"] Mudaybi' ["little hyena"], an Old Testament-era walled fortress with an impressive entrance gate. 1997 Paul McClelland '97 graduated with a sociology major in May of that year, joined the dig in the desert of Jordan during the summer, and was working in the rain forests of Brazil by early fall. A key member of the first KRP excavation team, Paul drew the assignment of helping to excavate the gate threshold area. Across those weeks of work, he was a part of several exciting discover- ies that help us understand both the site and its history. He found some of the first significant pottery remains at Mudaybi'.
