Summary: The coronavirus has wreaked havoc on archaeological excavations this year, but it has also provided some unexpected opportunities.
And David built there an altar to the LORD and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the LORD responded to the plea for the land, and the plague was averted from Israel. – 2 Samuel 24:25I (ESV)
Looters Take a Toll at Israel Excavation Sites
The coronavirus has been unkind. Many have experienced loss – whether a death of a loved one, a business going bankrupt, harsh quarantines, or a high school senior who will miss graduation. Here is one more hurting sector you can add to the list: biblical archaeology.
Archaeologists in Israel are still processing the casualties the pandemic has wrought. Foremost among these are ransacked ancient sites that fell prey to looters taking advantage of minimal surveillance. Next in line is the disbanding of one of the foremost archaeological programs in the United States. Lastly, and arguably most heartbreaking, was the cancellation of almost every volunteer-based excavation scheduled to take place in the summer of 2020.
Israel enforced social distancing early and severely. Much of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) went into telework mode by March 15. That shutdown included the IAA’s Theft Prevention Unit, a group charged with protecting Israel’s 30,000 archaeological sites from looting and vandalism. In Judea/Samaria, the Israeli archaeological authorities cut back activity by seventy percent, furloughing employees. The organized networks of looters and traders were keen to take advantage of the lack of oversight.
A Jewish watchdog organization called the “Guardians of the Eternal” reported in the first months of the pandemic that at least 100 archeological sites in Judea and Samaria were ransacked during Israel’s first shutdown. The Hirbet Astunah archaeological site in the Shiloh Valley, Tel Parsin in northern Samaria, and the Mt. Kabir Nature Reserve are just three of the looted multi-period sites. What exactly was stolen from these sites may never be known, but the vandals inflicted permanent damage. At Hirbet Astunah, looters damaged standing structures when they tried to cart away ornate stones.
Looters are not the only ones taking advantage of reduced surveillance. The Palestinian Authority (PA) has also usurped control over Tel Aroma, an ancient Hasmonean fortress in northern Samaria. During an official ceremony, they declared the ruin a Palestinian heritage site. The Guardians of the Eternal reported that while illegally paving an access road to the ridge, the PA damaged portions of the ancient wall and reservoirs.
COVID-19 Shuts Down an Entire Archaeology Program
The coronavirus’s global economic impact has also wounded the academic world. In early April, the US’s largest archaeology program at a Protestant institution, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, closed its archaeology program permanently. Five professors, including renowned scholars Steven Ortiz and Tom Davis were let go, and 25 graduate students found themselves without a program. Southwestern Baptist said the closure was due to campus-wide budget reductions “necessitated by the financial challenges associated with COVID-19.”
Chris McKinny, historical geographer and archaeologist with the Tel Burna project in Israel, was saddened by the news. “Evangelical academic institutions,” McKinny said, “need to make a much greater commitment to support research and education in the area of biblical geography, customs and, especially, archaeology.”
“If Evangelical institutions with historical connections to biblical archaeology will not maintain their commitment to the discipline,” McKinny asked, “then who will?”
The 2020 Closure of Dig Sites
All the summer archaeological digs scheduled to take place in Israel this summer were canceled. Only Hazor fielded a team, and that team was comprised entirely of Israelis. Shimon Gibson, a Jerusalem archaeologist based at the University of North Carolina Charlotte, had to halt his Mt. Zion excavations for the first time in 12 years. Granted, archaeologists who work in Israel are accustomed to sudden stops due to the difficult political situation, but they expect war and rockets, not a microscopic enemy.
The Associates of Biblical Research (ABR) waited out the pandemic longer than almost anyone before making the heart-wrenching decision to cancel their season. 2020 would have marked ABR’s fourth year of excavations at Tel Shiloh. (See a report on ABR’s excavations at Shiloh, including the search for evidence of the biblical tabernacle.)
There is a business side of the archaeological world that was also negatively impacted. Oren Gutfeld, founder of Israel Archaeological Services, spends most of his spring and summer providing logistical and administrative help to excavation projects happening throughout Israel. It was a thriving business until the pandemic hit. “My company was supposed to give archaeological services to Tel Shimron, Acre, Abel Beit Maacah, Midras, and others. I lost all my income and had to furlough my workers.”
Despite the initial disappointment and shock that came from canceled digs, lost seasons, and wasted planning, archaeologists did not squander these last five months of downtime. In general, these are professionals skilled in playing the long game. Israeli Archaeologist Aren Maeir at Bar-Ilan University waited until after Passover but ultimately had to cancel his summer excavations at Gath, the possible hometown of Goliath. As Dr. Maeir said, “things that waited for 3,000 years can wait another year.”
A Silver Lining in the Coronavirus Outbreak
Another bright side to archaeologists having a free summer is that a concerted effort is being made to close the gap between excavations and publications. A well-known problem among the scholarly world is that archaeologists have been woefully neglectful of their publication duties for decades. One responsibility of an excavation director is to oversee the writing of a formal report detailing the finds made at the site each season. This builds a cumulative understanding of the site’s history that informs scholars in multiple fields. This is especially useful in comparing the evidence across many locations to get a sense of what was going on in the region during each archaeological period.
The reasons for delays in publication are numerous and often legitimate. Improvements in technology and methods has allowed archaeologists to know so much more than what was possible in previous generations. There is a vast amount of testing done in even one season of excavation at large sites. Items such as pottery, seeds, fauna, and residue undergo scientific testing. This means that the publication reports are no longer from a single author but rather produced in collaboration with relevant specialists. Final publications are multi-volume, expensive reports.
Taking a year off to research and write was almost unthinkable for many archaeologists who must fundraise and recruit volunteers all year for their digs. They do not want to lose their momentum once a dig is running successfully. Both native Israeli archaeologists and foreign archaeologists were equally negligent, as were established scholars from respected institutions. The IAA, very aware of the publication backlog, started in 2000 to withhold excavation permits from any scholars grossly behind on their publications.
The outcome of the IAA’s firm hand is that the percentage of archaeological projects that have fallen behind on publication went down from 90% to 70% in a ten-year period. Surely this year, a universal stop-order on excavations and a multi-month stay-at-home order did its part to close the gap. 2020 will forever be the year that publication outpaced excavations. (See the Shiloh archaeological discovery that matched descriptions of biblical altars.)
The Return of Biblical Archaeology
Remember those 25 graduate students from Southwestern Baptist who suddenly saw their program disbanded at the start of the pandemic? They were saved with the announcement in July that Lipscomb University in Nashville would absorb the entire program. Thanks to the generosity of Texan Christian philanthropists Mark and Becky Lanier, Lipscomb is now one of three American universities to have doctoral programs in biblical archaeology.
Until now, biblical archaeology programs were all part of seminaries. Lipscomb will benefit from the professorships of Dr. Ortiz and Dr. Davis, and the entire collection of artifacts and archives transferred from Southwestern Baptist’s archaeological program. A mix of creativity and generosity proved more powerful than a pandemic to protect and advance the study of biblical archaeology in America.
Coronavirus seemed to be winning for most of the spring, but archaeologists are gaining the high ground with large doses of work ethic, patience, and an appreciation for what it means to live through historic moments. How will archaeologists in two-thousand years interpret the material remains of this year? How will they try and explain the sudden closure of churches and schools? What will they think of all the disposable masks in our trash heaps?
As for Shiloh, our students at the Bible Seminary, our dozens of volunteers, and our partners at ABR all have our sights set on Summer 2021. It is time to get back to work.
TOP PHOTO: The ABR excavation at Shiloh. (© 2018 Patterns of Evidence, LLC.)
NOTE: Not every view expressed by scholars contributing Thinker articles necessarily reflects the views of Patterns of Evidence. We include perspectives from various sides of debates on biblical matters so that readers can become familiar with the different arguments involved. – Keep Thinking!
