Video: Groundbreaking Discovery

February 2, 2023

Last summer, Carolina undergraduate students Jada Enoch and Chrissy Stamey joined Jodi Magness, Kenan Distinguished Professor for Teaching Excellence in Early Judaism, on an excavation of 1,600-year-old mosaics in an ancient Jewish synagogue at Huqoq in Israel’s Lower Galilee. From their morning commute to the excavation site to making breakfast for the team, washing pottery artifacts and more, Enoch and Stamey took us through a day in their life on the dig site.

Eric ’80 and Lori Sklut are champions of the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies  — funding professorships, graduate students, internships and experiential learning in Jewish studies. One of their generous gifts, the Lori and Eric Sklut Undergraduate Experiential Learning Fund, provides eager students with opportunities to venture outside of the classroom through study abroad and faculty-mentored research. In summer 2022, the fund sent Christine Stamey ’24, an anthropology and archaeology double major and classical humanities minor from Concord, North Carolina, to Israel’s Lower Galilee to assist Jodi Magness, the Kenan Distinguished Professor for Teaching Excellence in Early Judaism, in unearthing nearly 1,600-year-old mosaics in an ancient Jewish synagogue at Huqoq.

Stamey shared, “Participating in dig sites is one of the most important parts in establishing a future career in archaeology, in terms of receiving technical experience, immersing oneself in research and making connections with amazing classics and archaeology professors across the world.” Stamey’s experience in Israel solidified her passion for Jewish studies and archaeology, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the Skluts’ generosity. To learn more about Stamey and fellow undergraduate Jada Enoch’s experiences at the Huqoq dig site, see the video below: