Hundreds of Americans participate in the dozens of archaeological excavations in Israel each year. “About 95 percent of the workers on any typical Israeli dig will be American student volunteers,” says archaeologist William Dever. “And the funding comes from American donors.”
So why is Dever warning of the possible demise of biblical archaeology as an American discipline, as he did in a recent “Biblical Archaeology Review” article?
The reason is not because Israelis have taken over archaeology in their country. Dever does not begrudge them their ascendancy. But Americans have had a unique role in the field.
“I’ve argued that biblical archaeology, as most of us think of it, is a peculiarly American invention,” he says, “especially with the work of William Foxwell Albright in the twenties and thirties and forties when the foundations of the discipline were laid.”
SHARP CUTBACKS: One of the top programs in the country—the one started by Dever at the University of Arizona—will be discontinued after Dever’s retirement. New students are no longer being accepted. In addition, other major American universities are cutting back or not keeping their biblical archaeology programs in top form, Dever says.
Another worrisome development has been reductions in support by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Scholars point out that at many universities the humanities programs are being de-emphasized in favor of business, technology, and engineering programs.
Evangelicals and others in the archaeology field find it ironic that Dever is rallying a defense of biblical archaeology. A decade ago—in an effort to professionalize the discipline and discard its religious overtones—Dever led the fight to jettison the term biblical archaeology in favor of Syro-Palestinian archaeology.
“Who’s interested in Syro-Palestinian archaeology?” scoffs James Hoffmeier, Wheaton College archaeology professor. “The very thing that fueled interest in studying that discipline was the Bible. If you segregate the two, you discourage the people who would have the most interest in that discipline.”
“Maybe we allowed that to be pushed a little too far,” acknowledges Joe Seger of the Cobb Institute of Archaeology at Mississippi State University. “Now the pendulum is swinging back.”
For many years, Wheaton College has had the only undergraduate major in biblical archaeology among evangelical institutions. There is no shortage of interest as Hoffmeier says enrollments are higher than ever. There were 24 declared archaeology majors at Wheaton this fall, double the numbers from two years ago. But when they graduate, they will have a small number of doctoral options and professional opportunities if they pursue archaeology as a career, which is Dever’s chief complaint.
The University of Arizona’s program, started by Dever and one of the top archaeology programs, is not accepting new archaeology students right now.
“We would like to replace [Dever] with someone who works in the Ancient Near East,” says Holly Smith, dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. However, instead of an archaeologist it may be a textual scholar, so the program is in suspension until a decision is made. Smith acknowledges that there has also been a proposal to phase out the program due to financial limitations at the university.
Meanwhile, among theological seminaries, Gordon-Conwell, near Boston, offers a strong lineup of courses but as yet does not offer a graduate degree in archaeology.
GRADUATION, THEN WHAT? For Jill Baker, her decision to become an archaeologist came at an early age. At 13, after digging up colonial-era artifacts in the back yard of her family home in Greenwich, Connecticut, she was hooked on the profession. While seeking a master’s degree in Old Testament at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, she began working summers with the Harvard excavation at the Philistine ruins of Ashkelon. Now in a doctoral program at Brown University, Baker wants to continue excavating in Israel and perhaps lead her own dig some day.
An even greater challenge will be digging through the want ads for a job as an archaeologist. After watching colleagues with obscure specializations flounder on the job market, Baker has tailored her degree to be able to teach a variety of subjects, including archaeology, Old Testament, and Hebrew.
Another young scholar, Ron Tappy, has worked with Baker at Ashkelon. After receiving a master’s degree in Old Testament, he entered a doctoral program to enhance job prospects.
Looking back, Tappy says, “It was a rude awakening for me to leave Harvard and get into the job market and realize what a glut there was and how few positions there are.”
Tappy landed at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California, where he developed a four-year undergraduate archaeology major with the school’s blessing. He believes more evangelical colleges and seminaries should develop archaeology programs. “Somebody is going to be practicing archaeology; why shouldn’t it be Christians?”
Tappy has received a green light from his institution to mount a new excavation project, but he admits that fundraising is going to be crucial. He may have to invite others into the project to maintain the high level of interdisciplinary expertise needed on a modern excavation. He will also have to partner with an Israeli institution in order to obtain a permit to dig in the country.
POISED FOR A COMEBACK? Contrary to Dever’s doom-and-gloom assessments, Tappy does not believe biblical archaeology is a dying profession.
While the program at the University of Arizona is expiring, he believes the programs at Pennsylvania and Chicago are only temporarily on the wane and will soon rejoin Harvard as major centers of the discipline.
At Valparaiso University, a Lutheran-affiliated school in Indiana, archaeologist Walter Rast also is not alarmed. While saddened at the cutbacks, he says, “as long as people are interested in the Bible and the past, out of which it comes, I don’t see where we’ll shut down shop.”
Many students attending evangelical colleges have an opportunity to study biblical history, ancient Hebrew, and related subjects through a cooperative program at the Institute for Holyland Studies in Jerusalem. Having such a unique and respectable facility available may also be a disincentive to schools to develop their own expensive programs.
It has become clear that in order to maintain the health of their profession, archaeologists must become better at selling the importance of their work, particularly to companies, foundations, and individuals with the deep pockets.
The public passion for archaeology should make it easy to drum up support, according to Bastian Van Elderen, acting chair of the advisory board of the Scriptorium Center for Christian Antiquities in Grand Haven, Michigan.
The Scriptorium is an example of an educational and research program that includes an early Christian era excavation in Egypt, all underwritten by philanthropist Robert Van Kampen. Van Elderen says he hopes Dever’s alarm “will alert evangelicals they’ve got to marshal their forces and get busy.”
Dever, perhaps by exaggerating the peril, may inspire new devotion to a very important discipline. Dever asserts, “The only new facts about the Bible are coming out of the ground.
“Biblical studies has never been more ready to accept the contribution of archaeology. To see the prospects vanishing before our eyes drives me to distraction.”
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