Horvat Tsalit flourished during the turbulent years from King Herod to the violent Bar Kochba War (circa 30 BCE to 135 CE). According to ancient historian Flavius Josephus, it provided sanctuary to Judean militias fleeing inland after attacking聽coastal Ascalon (now Ashkelon)聽and being repulsed by the Roman garrison there in the winter of 66 to 67 CE. That is the only reference in Josephus鈥檚 writing to the village.

When you鈥檙e digging up shards聽strewn around stone foundations scoured by desert sands for almost two millennia, this kind of information can bring a site to life. That鈥檚 why two archeologists at Ben-Gurion University in Beer Sheva invited 91亚色聽Professor Steve Mason to be the excavation historian.

Right: Steve Mason at Masada

Mason holds the in Greco-Roman Cultural Interaction at 91亚色. He is an expert on Flavius Josephus, chronicler of turbulent first-century Jewish history, including the Judean-Roman War that featured the guerrilla attack on Ascalon and led to the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE.

鈥淚 will try to construct the big picture鈥� for Israeli and 91亚色 students participating in the dig, says Mason, one of whose聽current聽projects neatly dovetails with the dig. He is nearing completion of a book about the聽Judean-Roman War of 66 to 74聽CE聽for Cambridge University Press.

Archeologists and , experts in the Roman-Byzantine era, will lead daily excavations and offer lectures and workshops on field methods. Mason will lecture on the ancient context of the site.

Horvat Tsalit was an unwalled settlement of perhaps 1,000 to 2,000 inhabitants situated in the hills of ancient Judea. In the 1980s, archeologists excavated the watchtower that stood sentinel over the village through three Judean-Roman wars. 鈥淭he site has the potential of turning up valuable evidence of these wars,鈥� says Mason, who will do a little digging himself. 鈥淵ou never know what will turn up. It鈥檚 fascinating.鈥�

Above: The site of Horvat Tsalit, the ancient village where聽excavations begin this summer

The excavation at Horvat Tsalit will run for three seasons, beginning this summer from July 10 to Aug. 6. As many as 20 Israeli and up to 20 Canadian students could be wielding trowels on daily digs. Daytime temperatures typically spike at 33 degrees C at this time of year but canopies will shade the diggers from the intense sun.

91亚色 is co-sponsoring the dig with Ben-Gurion University. Funding for Mason鈥檚 Canada Research Chair聽and from 91亚色鈥檚 Israel & Golda Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Studies are supporting聽the project.

91亚色 undergraduates seeking credit and graduate students seeking adventure are welcome to apply. will offer transferable half-course credits for a fee to 91亚色 students who complete the four-week season. Non-credit volunteers who cannot stay for the entire four weeks must commit to the first or last half of the dig.

For US$1,600, Canadian students receive accommodation in Beer Sheva, two meals (breakfast and lunch) and transportation to and from the Horvat Tsalit site daily for the entire four weeks. The fee does not include airfare.

Application forms are available by e-mailing tsalitexped@gmail.com. General queries can be e-mailed to Steve Mason at smason@yorku.ca.

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin

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Professors Caitlin Fisher, David Hood, Joel Katz, Steve Mason, Wendy Taylor and Peer Zumbansen will continue their respective research in digital culture, cell physiology, health psychology, Greco-Roman cultural interaction, experimental particle physics, and transnational economic governance and legal theory.

With the renewals, 91亚色 maintains its total of 28 research chairs. 鈥淔ederal research investments are crucial to attracting and retaining the world's best researchers,鈥� said Stan Shapson, vice-president research & innovation. 鈥淭he Canada Research Chairs program allows us to sustain 91亚色鈥檚 globally competitive research across health, the sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities. Our researchers鈥� findings help improve the quality of life, economic, and social well-being of Canadians and people around the world.鈥�

Caitlin Fisher, Canada Research Chair (CRC)聽in Digital Culture and film professor in the Faculty of Fine Arts, investigates the future of narrative, interactive storytelling, and interactive cinema in the emerging area of virtual reality research. Her research develops techniques and narrative strategies for use in augmented reality (AR) environments, which is increasingly important for Canada's culture and entertainment industries as AR and associated technologies like smart phones become more commonplace.

Left: Caitlin Fisher

Under her direction, 91亚色鈥檚 AR Lab, part of the in 91亚色鈥檚 Faculty of Fine Arts, is conducting research at the forefront of art and science collaborations. The聽lab makes use of聽both established and emerging technologies to produce innovative research methods, expressive tools for artists and award-winning content that challenges cinematic and literary conventions while enhancing the ways in which people interact with their physical environment and with each other.

David Hood, CRC in Cell Physiology and kinesiology & health science professor in the Faculty of Health, is an internationally-recognized authority in muscle health, exercise and mitochondria. His publications have expanded on the important role that mitochondria play in muscle, and the beneficial effect of exercise in enhancing energy production, preventing cell death and attenuating disease processes.

Right: David Hood

Hood operates one of the world鈥檚 most advanced laboratories in the cellular physiology of mitochondria. In January 2010,聽he became the first director of the newly opened 91亚色 Muscle Health Research Centre (MHRC), which is unique in Canada. The MHRC integrates research in mitochondria with biomedical research across the University.

Joel Katz, CRC in Health Psychology and psychology professor in the Faculty of Health, is a world-class researcher in the study of pain. His research has significant impact on the way pain is understood and managed in both preventative and rehabilitative medicine.

Left: Joel Katz

His major accomplishments include using a preventative approach to advance the treatment of acute post-operative pain, increasing our understanding of neonatal pain and how to manage it, identifying factors that predict the transition of acute to chronic pain, and discovering previously unrecognized gender differences in the experience of pain. Katz is coordinator of the 91亚色 health psychology Graduate Diploma Program, the only聽program in Canada offering specialized training in health psychology leading to a diploma.

Steve Mason, CRC in Greco-Roman Cultural Interaction and history professor in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, explores issues of cultural identity among the peoples of the eastern Mediterranean under Hellenistic and Roman rule (200 BCE to 300 CE). He focuses on Judea and the Jewish Mediterranean diaspora in the context of other diasporas.

Right: Steve Mason

The most important literary sources for these questions are 30 surviving volumes by the first-century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (37 - c. 100 CE), and Mason is at the forefront of research into these works. He leads an international team of 14 scholars in supplying Josephus with a new translation and the first comprehensive . He has published five books and many articles on related subjects while editing and co-authoring another seven. He manages the popular online database, , and is completing a volume on the fateful Judean-Roman War of 66 to 74 CE.

, CRC in Experimental Particle Physics and聽physics professor in the Faculty of Science & Engineering, studies the high-energy particle collisions at the and at the accelerator. Her research aims to understand matter鈥檚 smallest indivisible components and the forces of interaction between them. Taylor is recognized by her peers as an expert in b-quark physics analysis and particle detector electronics development.

Left: Wendy Taylor

Her primary analysis found the first evidence of spontaneous matter-antimatter transitions of B0s mesons, composite particles that contain both a b-quark and an anti-s quark. She contributed to developing a new calorimeter trigger, which allows high-rate data collection. She is now developing low-noise radiation-hard readout electronics for a new particle detector and algorithms to search for the Higgs boson, the particle believed to be responsible for why matter in the universe has mass.

, CRC in Transnational Economic Governance & Legal Theory and professor in聽Osgoode Hall Law School, explores globalization鈥檚 impact on national political economies, concentrating on changing forms of production and on the politics of privatization and deregulation.

Right: Peer Zumbansen

Zumbansen's聽research is advancing the development of both a comparative and methodological perspective of globalization on national political economies.聽His work聽also explores broader questions concerning political sovereignty and the changing relationship between the state and the market, particularly in the European Union, Canada and the United States. Widely published in both German and English,聽Zumbansen is the co-founder and co-editor-in-chief of the .

Gary Goodyear, minister of state (science聽& technology), announced the nationwide renewals in Ottawa on March 26. 鈥淥ur government is investing in science and technology to create jobs, strengthen the economy and improve Canadians鈥� quality of life,鈥� said Goodyear. 鈥淭he Canada Research Chairs program is helping our universities develop and attract talented people, strengthening our capacity for leading-edge research, while creating jobs and economic opportunities for Canadians now and in the future."

The CRC program attracts the best talent from Canada and around the world, helping universities achieve research excellence in natural sciences and engineering, health sciences and social sciences and humanities.

For more information, visit the Web site.

By Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer.

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