09/04/2026
A Bar-Ilan University dig near Hod Hasharon is doing something remarkable: applying archeology as healing.
Led by Dr. Amit Dagan of the Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology, in partnership with the Israel Antiquities Authority, the Tell Qana project has uncovered a site nobody had studied before, revealing history from the Early Bronze Age to World War I.
Recent finds include over 200 years of Philistine presence, an ancient Egyptian scarab, and a Scottish soldier's pocket knife from the trenches of the First World War.
What sets this project apart is its heart. Alongside the excavation, Bar-Ilan runs a Citizen Science program that welcomes people on the autism spectrum into the archaeology lab, and a Lab for Mending Fragments that uses artifact restoration as a form of healing.
Working with Dr. Ayelet Oreg of Bar-Ilan's School of Social Work, the team has also supported soldiers living with PTSD, Holocaust survivors, and midwives who care for families through stillbirth.
The idea is simple and powerful: restoring the broken pieces of someone else's life can help people begin to mend their own. As Dagan tells his students, people die twice, once when they die and again when they are forgotten. This project makes sure the forgotten are remembered, and helps the living heal in the process.
