Based on my original LinkedIn posts from 2016
I have had the privilege to visit the Tell es-Safi excavation for two days this summer (July 12&14, 2016). Even better than the visit itself was the opportunity to interview a few archaeologists, each responsible for either this or other sites.
As a Jewish Educator, it really interested me to learn about their perspectives on the importance of archaeology in general, and specifically towards Biblical studies. What we learn from archaeology? For the teachers among us – not limited to classroom teachers, but a parent, spouse or friend, planning a museum visit – what can we do differently, with this knowledge in hand? Even if we can’t actually be on the site, ourselves?
Before I get on with the interviews, I’d like to share a personal thought. I am developing Jewish Programs in Museums. For the high school level, this includes lessons in class, which culminate in a museum visit, with a focus on archaeological artifacts which relate to a Jewish idea, be it a biblical story (Assyria, Babylon, etc) or a concept (Art, Wisdom, Destruction, etc.). For adults, it means visiting a museum with text in hand.
When I tell people that I’m going to visit, say, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, they often respond in wonder “What is there to see in the Met, which has any Biblical significance?” Most of us just go straight to the overwhelming amount of art galleries, and perhaps walk through the Greek and Roman art, without contemplating the significance they might have to the encounter of Judaism with those cultures. Those statues are decorative, otherwise the hallway to the big pond with the coins would be boring. Perhaps if your kids are reading Percy Jackson (Rick Riordan’s five-part series, 2005-2009), there might be something closer to home about Greek art. It amazes me that people don’t realize the wealth the museum has to offer in terms of archaeology of the ancient world, that that there would be any Biblical significance there. I just found out, for example, that the Ancient Egyptian collection at the Met is the largest in the world, after Cairo (if what their plaque says is accurate). The few hours I’ve spent there were not enough to even scratch the surface, and I can’t wait to go again.
It is here that I wonder: What can we as parents, teachers and friends, share with those who would hear us? How can we show – not just what has been found – but what has been found out, how it impacts our understanding, and how it connects us to a broader scheme of things? After all, if we are not part of this grand story of unfolding history, then what is the point?Please join me, as we hear from three different archaeologists. I’ve decided against grouping their answers based on the questions, and am giving the stage to each one separately, so you may enjoy the entire interview. These articles will be followed up with the edited video footage, but that will have to be no earlier than October 2016. However, I will be providing some pictures, and if you get to the end of the article – an exciting youtube link awaits you. Let’s begin.
I recommend checking out the other interviews from this experience, including: Prof. Jill Katz, and Prof. Daniel Warner
(Disclaimer: Some of the information about the professors is taken from Wikipedia, even if slightly modified)
Interview with Professor Aren Maeir
Professor at Bar Ilan University
Director, The Tell es-Safi/Gath Archaeological Project (gath.wordpress.com)
Director, Minerva Center for the Relations between Israel and Aram in Biblical Times (aramisrael.org)
Co-editor, Israel Exploration Journal
In addition to Tell es-Safi, Professor Maeir has participated in, and directed, numerous archaeological excavations in Israel, including at the following sites: Jerusalem, Hazor, Yoqneam, Tell Qasile, Beth-Shean.
Transcript of the interview:
What is the value of archaeological excavations in general, and specifically for Biblical studies.
Archaeology, in general, is a science in which we study the past. It is not just a study of the past, I think, all people are interested in their roots. Old cultures, old people – it is important to understand where you come from, your past, who your grandparents were, etc. And archaeology allows us to extend this generations behind. And it helps us sort of understand the basic roots of who we are, what we meant to do, where we came from, etc.
What is nice about archaeology is that, not only do we know about the past, but we know about the past in a tangible manner.
You get a tangible way of seeing the past. You can actually touch the objects from the past. I can see buildings people lived in thousands of years ago. I can pull out a pottery vessel someone used 3,000 years ago. So I think it’s a very, very powerful tool to study the past.
In the context of Jewish heritage and Jewish studies, it provides a way to not only study texts and speak about our heritage in abstract manner, but to be out in the field, or see it on a webcam the actual remains. And it turns something from being theoretical to something dusty – and real. And these things are dusty here, because they are just uncovered, but not because they are old and forgotten. And I think that the power and experiential processes that people go through when they are discovering things from the past – and you can pick up shard – and this shard is from the time of Yeshayahu, and this shard is from the time of David haMelech, this one is from the time of Ezra and Nechemia, or the Maccabees, this gives you an experience that you’ll never forget. And I think that that’s the power to connect between the archaeological remains and the heritage.
And I think that the power and experiential processes that people go through when they are discovering things from the past […] gives you an experience that you’ll never forget.
What has Tell es-Safi contributed to our understanding of the Biblical narrative?
First of all, it is a site which is identified as Gath, one of the five cities of the Philistines known from the Bible (Introduced in Joshua 13:3, and then several times throughout Judges and Samuel), and we find here substantial remains of the Philistines and their culture. And more specifically, we can talk about various historical events that are mentioned in the biblical texts, such as the conquest of Gath by Hazael which is mentioned in II Kings 12:18, and we can find the remains of the destruction of the site at the time. We know of the importance of Gath to the Philistines in the stories relating to David, and after David, and we can find the remains of a very, very impressive city at the time. We hear the story of David who is escaping from Saul, and meeting Achish king of Gath – faking mad – and we excavate the gate of Gath. Even though it is not necessarily the gate in which that happened (David writing on the doors of the city – I Samuel 21:11-16) – nevertheless it gives us a nice idea of what a gate at that time looked like. Again, to a certain extent, it is as if we are taking the biblical story, and putting flesh on the bones. Whereas the biblical story is a brief description covered in many, many meanings. And when you can actually put the physical remains and connect them to it, it makes it much more understandable and much more vivid.
Based on what is found here, what can a teacher do differently in their classroom?
I think, first of all, I think the fact that you can say “Let’s read this chapter in Sefer Shmuel (Samuel), and then I’m going to show you these find about the people that we talk about – the Philistines – what is more vivid than that? And for kids, you can show a picture of a house – that’s a little boring – but if you shore the picture of a jar, or a big collection of pottery found on the destruction level, that fires their imagination.
What is your message to a student or teacher who are thinking about coming to a dig?
First of all, they’ll have the experience of their lifetime. They’ll have an experience that they’ll tell their children and their grandchildren about when they’re older. Second of all, it will allow you to have a direct way of connecting between the text that you read – whether it is the Tanach or the Mishnah – whatever you are dealing with, any ancient Jewish text – and the actual lives of the people who were involved in it. It is turning something – not into a text that we read and feel in our time – but we can see the lives of the people who wrote the text in front of us. And it turns it into something more tangible and more alive.
This is an issue, particularly, I think, for educators; this is the problem today of attention span. With a 3.5 second attention span that most young kids have, if you don’t provide something that catches their imagination, it is not the regular thing that we see – of you can move them out of the regular classroom, the regular pedagogical tools that you have, and suddenly pull out an object, or through the web bring them to an excavation, or actually bring to an excavation, it changes the whole way that they’ll look at the text. It changes their attention. It moves them, it takes them away from screens in many cases. And this is a tool that I think can turn – you can stay within textual studies, but still do something different, you know, do something which is combining textual studies with the physical aspect, whether the actual work, or the feeling that the text has also a physical representation. Because very often the texts are looked at as dusty pages from 2,000 years ago. What is its relevance to me today? So besides trying to explaining the relevance from an ideological point of view, you can show that these texts represent people and things and objects. We can come here and live the context!