Story by Caroline Bass
HUQOQ, Israel – “Where’s home?” For Sofia Pitouli, her answer varies from month to month.
This summer, Pitouli’s answer was Huqoq, Israel. The 23-year-old from Athens, Greece, worked in the dirt and clay, helping to excavate a fifth century synagogue in Galilee.
The first excavation at Huqoq began in 2011 under Jodi Magness, archaeologist and religious studies professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Magness is leading a group of students and scholars to unearth the 1,600-year-old synagogue and its intricate mosaics depicting biblical stories.
The professional and amateur archaeologists are up and at work before the sun rises so that they can beat the intense June heat.
Pitouli is used to the summer heat, though. She attended Baylor University on a track scholarship, and holds several records in her home country of Greece. She transferred to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst to study art history and fashion. She quickly realized that she wanted to pursue a field of study that took both her mind and body to different places beyond the classroom.
After graduation, she worked in textiles in Boston and Washington, but wanted to pursue her education further. She is starting graduate school for art history at UCLA in the fall. But first, she’s at the excavation in Israel. And what she is doing is all a part of her art education.
Pitouli meticulously handles each mosaic tile found beneath the modern surface floor. With a background in textiles and curation, Pitouli treasures the connection between art history and archaeology. Her work at the George Washington textile museum differs greatly from archaeological tasks.
“In a museum, you work with what has already been found, whereas, in the field, you are the finder,” she says.
As an Athens native living amid so much history, Pitouli respected that connection at an early age. But she wanted to broaden her ancient world history knowledge beyond her own country.
Pitouli views this hands-on approach to art as essential to understanding the meaning behind every piece, big and small. This archaeological excavation has granted Pitouli the opportunity to interact with textiles before a museum transfer, private auction, or appointment with an art dealer.
“You don’t always know where the art comes from, but here, you know the exact place it was found, with every detail, rather than seeing it behind a glass wall,” she says.
When her competitive running career came to a close, she found a different kind of mile marker, one that allows her to go the distance to seek art before the rest of the world gets a closer look.
