Story by Cailyn Derickson
Video by Gray Hurley
HUQOQ, Israel — It was almost the end of her senior year. Alex Udell and her friend decided to spend their last summer of college excavating an archaeology site. Her friend had taken a class with the lead archaeologist and persuaded Udell.
A few months before the dig, her friend backed out, but Udell decided to go on the excavation any way. And she’s thankful she did.
Udell, who graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in May with degrees in business administration and Asian studies, has spent her summer pickaxing and shoveling dirt at the excavation of Huqoq, an ancient Galilee village. The dig, which is led by Jodi Magness, Kenan Distinguished Professor for Teaching Excellence in Early Judaism at UNC, is focused on uncovering a synagogue.
Having lived in China for almost six months and visited South Africa, Udell knew she wanted to do more than travel before she started a job in July. She wanted to understand and experience a country’s culture, and she felt Huqoq was the best way to do that.
With no experience in archaeology, she had no idea what to expect on an excavation. But she quickly learned that business and archaeology are more similar than she thought.
“You have to be really adaptable,” Udell said. “A lot of the businesses that I know that people go and work on, they’re working on a team, and they have to be ready to work with others. We do too. That’s very similar.”
Two years ago, Udell participated in a Chinese immersion program. She signed a language pledge and only spoke Chinese. All her classes were in Chinese. She had a Chinese national roommate. That experience made her want to fully immerse herself in a different country’s culture again.
“The whole point of traveling is to learn,” she said. “Obviously, you’re going to be uncomfortable. You’re going to learn something, but when you’re putting yourself in the same places that everybody else has been to, you’re not making your own path in life. That’s what I would rather do.”
Udell traveled to Israel for birthright, so she was familiar with the country. But by excavating ancient ruins, she has learned more about the country’s past. On her first day at the site, she was nervous. She didn’t want to mess up any aspect of the excavation.
“I definitely felt inadequate, mainly because you’re just like, ‘What is going on?’” she said. “I have always been very athletic, and I can handle myself and I can pick things up easy. But it’s just like, ‘Am I doing this right? Am I doing it wrong?’ It’s just a lot of pressure, especially because you’re just like, ‘This is sacred ground.’”
But after her first day, she felt more comfortable on the site. And because all the students on the trip are close, she said makes the site more enjoyable.
“It feels like summer camp in the sense that you really do feel like you’ve known everybody for a really long time, like the days are really, really long,” Udell said. “A lot can happen when you’re digging for like seven hours, so you’re learning a lot about people because you can get agitated really easily.”
Udell works in the same excavation square as Dallas Taylor, a student at Brigham Young University. This is Taylor’s second summer at the site, and he said he enjoys working with Udell because the two students joke together while they work.
“She’s a really fun person,” Taylor said. “And it’s interesting to see someone who has no background in archaeology pick it up so quickly and so well.”
One day at the site, after scraping through a layer of dirt, Taylor discovered a rusted, round piece of metal. He looked up at Udell. “Hey, Alex. I discovered the bronze medal from the first Olympics,” he said.
She smiled. “Hey, Dallas. No way!” She went back to filling buckets with dirt.
Matthew Grey, a professor at BYU, is Udell’s main supervisor. He also enjoys Udell’s light hearted sense of humor at the site.
“She just brings a real positivity,” Grey said. “She’s so upbeat. It’s great for the area and great for morale and motivation.”
