Video by Natasha Laguer
Story by Caroline Bass
Photo by Adriana Diaz
HOQOQ, Israel—Growing up in Elkin, North Carolina, Cameron Beals has read about the biblical history of Israel for as long as she could remember. Sunday School and Vacation Bible School lessons featured stories from Nazareth, Galilee, Jerusalem and Capernaum. Although she knew these places were real, they always seemed distant because she couldn’t see them, touch them, experience them.
Until this summer.
“Seeing isn’t believing,” Beals said, “but having the chance to physically be in the region that Jesus once lived and breathed in, to see what you’ve believed for so long, that is special. It’s all become so real to me.”
Beals is helping excavate a fifth century synagogue in Huqoq, Israel, and places such as Nazareth are near and Capernaum or Jerusalem are an easy day trip.
Jodi Magness, archaeologist and religious studies professor at UNC-Chapel Hill, began the first excavation at Huqoq in 2011. Beals is spending her summer under the direction of Magness as this team unearths 1,600-year-old mosaics that depict biblical stories vastly different from other archaeological discoveries in the Middle East.
A junior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Beals’ areas of study span public policy and religious studies. For this 21-year-old Tar Heel, the rich religious history found in eastern Galilee sparks her interest, from spiritual and academic perspectives.
Whether it’s the meticulous back-and-forth of a trowel in her right hand, seeking the extraordinary within layers of clay, or rolling a wheel barrel full of dirt, Beals finds the joy in every laborious task. It brings her closer to the past, a past that illuminates stories from her spiritual youth.
Beals’ career interests are all focused on the study of people: how they work, how they communicate, how they better themselves. While she finds herself gravitating toward public service and social justice, Beals’ spirituality is always within no matter what her next professional step may be.
Being a part of this archaeological team gives her the chance to further her educational goals while stepping outside of her comfort zone and traditional area of study. This North Carolinian has found a deep connection to her religion and her majors. Although most cannot claim the excavation of an ancient Jewish village on their resume, Beals’ interest in merging the spiritual and the physical motivates her.
With two more years of college remaining, Beals does not plan a career in archaeology, but she realizes that working with people from all walks of life before the sun rises while leaving the comforts of home behind is, in fact, the best way to learn how people communicate, how they interact, and how they progress in an environment vastly different from their own homes and cities.
Beals didn’t realize until now, as she stands in the middle of a hole in the ground, that it’s not just about understanding the purpose behind the discovery, but the purpose behind the team. Beals knew she’d get up close and personal with her religious upbringing, but she didn’t realize she could study concepts found within her majors thousands of miles away on a dig site in Galilee.
