Milton C. Fisher
Each of our scholar-heroes has been outstanding in some particular manner, noted for some special contribution to the fascinating story of archaeology as it relates to the Bible. Although as an Egyptologist Reisner’s work in the Holy Land itself was very limited, his gift to the science of field archaeology was in the refinement of the techniques of excavation. Careful work and record keeping procedures which he perfected in Egypt were, in a manner reminiscent of the great Flinders Petrie, applied to the excavation he conducted in partnership with the architecturally trained Clarence S. Fisher, at Samaria.
G. A. Reisner with an ostracon, sitting at Samaria’s West Gate round tower.
So exemplary was this Palestinian excavation at the Israelite capital (that is, the Northern Kingdom) that the “Reisner-Fisher method” of digging and recording became the standard. For three decades to follow it was the procedure officially prescribed by the government in the granting of permissions to dig. Continuing over a three year period, 1908–1910, under sponsorship of Harvard University, it was actually the first American-sponsored large-scale dig in Palestine.
Born a midwesterner (Indianapolis), George A. Reisner was Harvard educated, and he advanced his specialized training under the German Egyptologist Kurt Sethe, in Berlin. He established his claim to fame by becoming Harvard University’s first and only Professor of Egyptology. Like Petrie he initiated his career as an archaeologist in Egypt. The year was 1897, and he was called upon two years later to head up an Egyptian expedition for the University of California. Reorganized in 1905 as the Joint Expedition of Harvard University and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, this enterprise continued under Reisner’s direction until his death. It covered seven sites in Egypt (including
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the pyramid of Mycerinus and the surrounding necropolis at Giza) and the shorter excursion into Palestine mentioned above.
Biblical scholars such as Albright-trained G. Ernest Wright credit the Reisner and Fisher team with actual refinement of the stratigraphical method of excavation, following the lead of earlier pioneers such as Schliemann and Petrie. They insisted on careful surveying and recording of all finds in “squares” dug, instead of a more hasty chopping out of random trenches. So meticulous were their measurements and notations of the exact horizontal and vertical locations of artifacts, walls, etc., which were uncovered, that one could have literally ret urned them to their former graves, were that desired.
The Samaria dig, at the site now known as Sebaste (Greek for Augustus, the Roman emperor from whom it took its “modern” name), was of course historically significant in its own right. It is a good example of how archaeology gives tangible evidence of the reality of Bible history. In this case, it supports the account that Israel’s King Omri (876–869 BC) purchased a hill from Shemer (hence, “Samaria”) and moved his capital there in the midst of his reign (1 Kgs 16:23–24). He did so, apparently, to compete with Judah’s capital, Jerusalem. So successful was he in making a name for himself, in fact, that Assyrians call Israel “House of Omri” some time after his descendants had lost the throne. And his son Ahab (Jezebel’s husband) extended his father’s building projects.
The exquisite precision with which Reisner’s campaign was conducted has proved valuable. It has shown that this location was so desirable that it was not only renovated a century later by the last strong Israelite king, Jeroboam II (786–746 BC), but it was rebuilt in Hellenistic and Roman times, bridging the earthly lifetime of our Lord. These later massive constructions were laid solidly on bedrock, so the workmen had cut right through earlier Israelite remains in places — without leaving us any Reisner-Fisher style records of what they may have found!
Later excavation at Samaria-Sebaste in 1931–35, under the supervision of an Englishman, J. W. Crowfoot, made some adjustments to Reisner’s proposed datings. But again, it was only the care with which the earlier team had noted and described everything in their reports that made these reconsiderations possible. It was by some of the Crowfoot crew’s discoveries that the Bible’s seemingly preposterous remark about Ahab’s prosperity is clarified for us. 1 Kings 22:39 speaks of his building an “ivory house.” At Samaria, not only were many fragments of ivory inlay from boxes and furniture recovered, but a large number of pieces were found along the foundations of one building, as though the walls themselves had been elaborately decorated, leading to expressions like “house of ivory,” “throne of ivory,” and “ivory palaces.” (See also 2 Chr 9:17, Ps 45:8, and Amos 3:15 and 6:4.)