Brent Davis

Current position

Lecturer In Archaeology and Ancient Egyptian, School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, University of Melbourne

Where did you study?

BA in Linguistics, Stanford University; PhD in Archaeology, University of Melbourne

How did you become interested in archaeology?

My father always wanted to be an ancient history teacher. He ended up being a meteorologist, but he owned a bookcase full of books on ancient history and archaeology. I discovered these books when I was 7, and decided then that I wanted to be an archaeologist.

What archaeological projects are you working on at the moment?

Tell es-Safi/Gath, Israel: Supervisor of Area B

Tell us about one of your most interesting archaeological discoveries.

In 2019 in Area B, we uncovered a number of structures that are clearly related to the city's outer fortifications--yet they make no sense at all: walls that slope instead of stepping (!), intermittent surfaces and pavements, walls that begin and end without apparent reason, and so on. We planned to get to the bottom of these mysteries in the July season this year, but this will now have to wait till the 2021 season.

Tell us about a funny / disastrous / amazing experience that you have had while doing archaeology.

In 2014, our part of Israel found itself under attack by barrages of Hamas missiles, which prompted many of our student volunteers to leave the dig. I stayed and continued to excavate with our skeleton-crew. When the air-raid sirens sounded, we just lay down in the bottom of the trench until the sirens stopped.

What’s your favourite part of being an archaeologist?

Understanding ancient people--who, it turns out, are exactly like us!