Milton C. Fisher<\/b><\/p>\n
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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
G. A. Reisner with an ostracon, sitting at Samaria\u2019s West Gate round tower<\/i><\/b>.<\/b><\/p>\n
So exemplary was this Palestinian excavation at the Israelite capital (that is, the Northern Kingdom) that the \u201cReisner-Fisher method\u201d of digging and recording became the standard. For three decades to follow it was the<\/i> procedure officially prescribed by the government in the granting of permissions to dig. Continuing over a three year period, 1908\u20131910, under sponsorship of Harvard University, it was actually the first American-sponsored large-scale dig in Palestine.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s 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\u2019s direction until his death. It covered seven sites in Egypt (including <\/p>\n
BSP<\/i> 5:1 (Winter 1992) p. 3<\/p>\n
the pyramid of Mycerinus and the surrounding necropolis at Giza) and the shorter excursion into Palestine mentioned above.<\/p>\n
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 \u201csquares\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
The Samaria dig, at the site now known as Sebaste (Greek for Augustus, the Roman emperor from whom it took its \u201cmodern\u201d 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\u2019s King Omri (876\u2013869 BC) purchased a hill from Shemer (hence, \u201cSamaria\u201d) and moved his capital there in the midst of his reign (1 Kgs 16:23\u201324). He did so, apparently, to compete with Judah\u2019s capital, Jerusalem. So successful was he in making a name for himself, in fact, that Assyrians call Israel \u201cHouse of Omri\u201d some time after his descendants had lost the throne. And his son Ahab (Jezebel\u2019s husband) extended his father\u2019s building projects.<\/p>\n
The exquisite precision with which Reisner\u2019s 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\u2013746 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 \u2014 without leaving us any Reisner-Fisher style records of what they<\/i> may have found!<\/p>\n
Later excavation at Samaria-Sebaste in 1931\u201335, under the supervision of an Englishman, J. W. Crowfoot, made some adjustments to Reisner\u2019s 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\u2019s discoveries that the Bible\u2019s seemingly preposterous remark about Ahab\u2019s prosperity is clarified for us. 1 Kings 22:39 speaks of his building an \u201civory house.\u201d 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 \u201chouse of ivory,\u201d \u201cthrone of ivory,\u201d and \u201civory palaces.\u201d (See also 2 Chr 9:17, Ps 45:8, and Amos 3:15 and 6:4.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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\u2019s work in the Holy Land itself was very limited, his gift to the science of field archaeology was in … Continue reading “GEORGE
\nANDREW REISNER (1867\u20131942)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15110\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}