Oakland University students discover ruin from biblical times in Israel

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An Oakland University group of students just came back after discovering a ruin from biblical times in Israel.

"It really was kind of magical, we didn't expect it at all we were just there doing work," said Sydney Wendling.

Since 2009, Oakland University led by Dr. Michael Pytlik, have been on archeological digs in Israel, searching for ancient biblical sights. Last week, they found what's known to be biblical Ziklag, a site given to David before he was King.  

FOX 2; "How did you know it was biblical?"

"How do we know? It all fits into a big puzzle which is do we have the occupation layers," said Dr. Michael Pytlik, director of Judaic Studies at Oakland University. "Do we have something the Bible can help us with, the Hebrew Bible? Can it tell us about the geo political system of the people who lived there, does it fit the chronology? That's a big part of it. So it's not one thing it's many things." 

So layer by layer they studied was under each layer. In just a small portion signs of entire civilizations. 

"We start at the Roman Period," he said. "And then we have to figure out what's going on there, the Christian Period. Maybe on top of that, below that, Roman and then any number of other civilizations. So we have a whole series of occupations that go back. We stopped about the 13th century BC." 

Thousands of miles away, thousands of years of history found and dusted off. The area attracted cameras from all over the US as well as South Korea. All there to see what our very own Oakland University students unearthed.  

"It was three weeks of really hard work that was going on that I personally have never put myself through," said Veronica Russell. "My body is still recovering. Everybody is talking about this and quite hasn't hit me yet, but we're getting there."  

A university trip meant for education turns into international news. It's anything but just a typical study abroad memory. 

"It was really exhilarating because it was hush-hush for a while," said Wendling. "We were hearing something was happening but we didn't know what yet, and they were kind of keeping it from us until they really felt confident about the answer."

"Knowing we actually contributed to something that made national news was kind of a magical feeling, you just didn't expect it," said Jared Inman. 

Look at all of the group's photos at on their Facebook Link: facebook.com/Oakdigs/