Excavating a fifth century synagogue: Brad Erickson

Story by Cailyn Derickson

Video by Gray Hurley

Photos by Will Melfi

HUQOQ, Israel — Brad Erickson was scraping through the dirt with his trowel and heard a clink. He found something. “Everybody stop,” he said. The other diggers ran over. He brushed the dirt away and saw it was an intact pottery vase. 

He immediately remembered the protocol. Stop. Assess the situation. Dig everything around the artifact. “Come on,” a digger said. “Take it out already.”

Erickson took samples of the dirt. He called over the dig photographer. 

“OK. OK. We can take it out now,” he said. Erickson placed his hands around the pottery. Dirt fell away and inside the vase, he could see gummy candy. The group erupted with laughter. He let go of the pottery, stood up and shook his head. 

“Good job,” he said. “You really had me. It’s really hard to trick me and you did.” 

Erickson, 32, a doctoral student in Ancient Mediterranean Religions with a focus in material culture at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, works as the 3-D modeling and photogrammetry specialist for an excavation of an ancient Galilee village named Huqoq. 

Although Erickson, a self-proclaimed prankster, likes to have fun at the dig, his biggest role has been incorporating 3-D virtual modeling in his archaeological research to aid in the visualization of ancient synagogues, which has how technology is used on archaeological sites.

After graduating from Duke Divinity School in 2012, he started at UNC in 2013. He has worked on the Huqoq excavation since 2011, which is led by Jodi Magness, Kenan Distinguished Professor for Teaching Excellence in Early Judaism at UNC. The excavation is/ uncovering an ancient village and synagogue. 

Four years ago, Erickson thought it was inefficient to document to dig information with paperwork, so he suggested the team record information in a database. 

“I kind of just got like, ‘OK. Sure. Whatever,’” he said. “I just went home, downloaded a trial to the software and taught myself how to use it, and made something that I thought would be user friendly, geared toward archaeologists. It wound up working. When I showed it to Jodi, she was in favor of it and we slowly started implemented.” 

The database had a few bugs, but now, the team has fully adopted the system and documents information on iPads connected through hotspots in the field. 

Erickson, who said he has no computer science training, has also changed how the dig the visualizes the finds. He uses photogrammetry, the science of making measurements from photos, to produce 3-D models of the site. 

In its ninth dig season, this is the first year Erickson has used photogrammetry at Huqoq, which he then optimizes for virtual reality. He has built 3-D models of all the mosaics and visualizations of what the synagogue may have looked like. 

“Students can put the headset on and get a sense of how big the space is,” he said. “If we see on a page, it’s hard to get a good idea of the space. But when you put a headset on, you can stand there and look around and see it and explore the scenes for yourself.”

Erickson experimented with a 3-D computer graphics software, called Blender, when he was a teenager, but it wasn’t until 2014, when Erickson attended a UNC photogrammetry workshop that he enjoyed working with the technology. He still uses Blender to make models today. 

“I grew up loving to mess with software,” he said. “I built a computer when I was in high school because I like tinkering with things and figuring out how things work.” 

His first 3-D modeling project documented gravestones in the cemetery on UNC’s campus. Then, he practiced making models of art at the North Carolina Art Museum. He even made a 3-D model of a patient’s tumor for a doctor at UNC Hospitals to measure the tumor’s volume. 

“You can never reconstruct an archaeological site,” Erickson said. “But technology is letting us get closer and closer to being able to see things and visualize things after they’re already gone.”

On the site, Erickson is also the assistant to Dennis Mizzi, an area supervisor at the dig. Mizzi, senior lecturer in Hebrew and Ancient Judaism at the University of Malta, said before Erickson was his assistant, it was impossible to get all his work done. He said now, with Erickson’s help, he is able to get all his work done quicker. 

“Now at least I can usually retire at around 8,” Mizzi said. “I can sometimes take you know go out and socialize and play cards in the evening. In past seasons, I was like in the office till 9:30 and then go straight to bed, wake up and repeat. Last year — because Brad became my assistant last year — was the first time I would say that I started to have a sort of a social life at Huqoq.”

Mizzi and Erickson work on the northern end of the site and as a reference to Game of Thrones, Erickson dubbed Mizzi the “King of the North.” So last year, Erickson made Mizzi a hoodie as a birthday gift that had “King of the North” printed on the back.

Mizzi said it’s becoming his favorite sweatshirt. 

Chloe Scattergood, a rising senior at UNC, works as a registrar in Erickson’s square. She worked on the dig last summer and returned this year. Scattergood makes sure every find is numbered and it is located properly, which can get stressful. 

“If I am ever too stressed, Brad always makes me laugh and helps me calm down,” she said. “He just makes the job so much more fun. He’s so smart and he always knows what’s going on.”