A 16-year-old and his father share their impressions<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
Ben Felker<\/b><\/p>\n
It was like a page from one of the magazines. The arid landscape, punctuated by bush like trees that looked like spiky cotton balls, gave way to buildings made of the most common building material in the land, stone. It looked as if the land grew the buildings like we grow fingernails. Such were my first impressions of Israel as we drove through the countryside on that first day. The dig at Hazor was my first time overseas, and practically my first time outside the U.S. (Oh, I had been to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, but as one digger commented to me, that doesn\u2019t count).<\/p>\n
At the dig itself everything was positive. My career aspiration is to be an archaeologist, so not only was it valuable to have this experience, it was also fun to see how it really worked. Don\u2019t get me wrong, it was a lot of hard labor and toil, but it never felt like you were digging a hole. The most difficult part was waking up at 4 am every morning. I had an alarm set, so I heard Shaoul as he walked down the hall each day with his knife, banging on the doors until you responded. The first three days are the hardest, says conventional wisdom, and it\u2019s right in this case. After that it\u2019s all downhill, or, to put it another way, deeper into the squares!<\/p>\n
ABR Hazor dig group. 2004. Standing, left to right: Edward Bez, William Stowe, Paul Boesche, Patricia Stenger, Ben Felker, Benjamin Thomas, Connie Payton, Donald Bassett, Lilly George, David Eitel, Steven Felker. Kneeling, left to right: Krista Freiling, Nancy Bassett, Heidi Thomas, Virginia Toms. Not shown: Walter Pasedag, Sandra Souza.<\/b><\/p>\n
And the people that you meet and talk with are fascinating as well. I learned almost as much talking with my \u201ccellmate\u201d (my square partner was a Ph.D. candidate in archaeology) as I did from the dig supervisor. It was all fun. In my square I was constantly finding something, whether it was a 3500 year old sheep jawbone, a bronze needle, or a piece of pottery. It was all there in the ground. I learned how to dig and it was surprisingly simple: Take up 5 cm (2 in) or so with the pickaxe, pick through it until you have gotten out all the pottery and bones, then put it into the buckets. Then somebody shouts \u201cBUCKET CHAAAIIIINN\u201d and everybody gets into a line and passes buckets up and out of the square. That became something of an inside joke among the diggers. If you come up to a digger and say, \u201cbucket chain\u201d you\u2019ll get an interesting reaction.<\/p>\n
BSpade<\/i> 18:1 (Winter 2005) p. 30<\/p>\n
Choosing Sides at Hazor<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cAnd\u2026Solomon built Hazor, Gezer, and Megiddo\u201d (1 Kings 9:15).<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, he didn\u2019t!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, he did!\u201d<\/p>\n
So much tension, so few words! Some might ask, \u201cWhy Hazor?\u201d<\/p>\n
Friends of ABR know our interest in unearthing the Biblical record\u2014believing the Bible has much to offer in terms of guidance for the archaeological endeavor. Among Biblical archaeologists this is known as the maximalist position: that the Bible is accurate history and can be used reliably in concert with good archaeological science. The evangelical community shares a conviction with the maximalist position\u2014that the Bible is a book of integrity which can be relied on. \u201cThis is the hour for the church,\u201d said Dr. Ed Bez6 of our group. \u201cSecular money for archaeology is drying up. The church can partner with maximalists in the field and usher in a new age of evangelical archaeology. I believe archaeology should be part of every church\u2019s mission budget.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the first half of the 20th century, the maximalist position held sway. It enabled scholars such as Yigael Yadin, the first leader of major work at Hazor, to identify the identical construction of the gates at Megiddo, Gezer, and Hazor as \u201cSolomonic.\u201d<\/p>\n
But things are never so clear-cut when there are careers to be made! In recent times, some under the \u201cminimalist\u201d banner have sought to revise the conclusions of Yadin and his contemporaries, wanting to move the date of the construction of at least Gezer to the time of Ahab (ca. 850 BC). The result, if such a move were to stand, would be a turning on the head of all the conclusions about Hazor and Megiddo, a full revision of all the conclusions about pottery and it\u2019s dating, and an assertion that 1 Kings 9 is in error, and perhaps much of the story of Solomon is without substance.<\/p>\n
So, \u201cWhy Hazor?\u201d<\/p>\n
The Solomonic Gates of Hazor, Megiddo and Gezer seem to be the current front of the conflict between maximalist and minimalist positions.<\/p>\n
ABR has built a wonderful relationship with Dr. Amnon BenTor, newly retired from the faculty of Hebrew University, prot\u00e9g\u00e9 of Yadin, and director of the dig at Hazor over the last 15 years. Amnon is passionate about Hazor and about the future of Biblical Archaeology. Internationally, he is the leading voice of the maximalist camp. The opportunity to partner with such a leader in the maximalist community is something we cannot pass up. As a human being, he is roundly lauded for his excellent treatment of his volunteers. We certainly can attest to his passion and compassion in the field!<\/p>\n
Why Hazor? Why Archaeology?! Because the Bible is true, and it is the task of respectful scholars to show it as such to a watching and skeptical world. It is the ministry of apologetics at its most fundamental level.<\/p>\n
Steve Felker<\/p>\n
Amnon Ben-Tor, director of the Hazor dig.<\/b><\/p>\n
Authors Ben (left) and Steve (right) Felker take a break for the camera at Hazor. It is obvious that this dynamic father-and-son duo got down and dirty at Hazor! Which one do you think worked the hardest? In spite of the rigors of an ABR archaeological excavation, Steve is still smiling.<\/b><\/p>\n
But the best part was that the dig supervisors really wanted you to learn. One time my supervisor was talking to my cellmate about the layers we had been going through. He turned to me and asked if I could understand what he was talking about. And that was something I really appreciated; he cared about whether I understood what we were doing. My supervisor was a very good teacher when it came to pottery reading (when you sit down with a sherd and analyze how old it is and what type of vessel it came from). That was something I enjoyed immensely\u2014learning from a sherd whose rim curved just so and its groove was a particular depth, indicating it was an Iron Age krater (or serving bowl). It was kind of like a language, as Dig Director Amnon Ben-Tor explained one night. It has lots of rules, and then lots of exceptions to the rules.<\/p>\n
When you have just come back from a trip overseas, everybody asks, \u201cHow was the food?\u201d Well I\u2019ll tell you, it could be quite excellent. But it tended to be monotonous. After a week of tomatoes, cucumbers and bread, quite a few diggers went to the pizza place down the street for supper! That\u2019s another little inside joke among the Hazor diggers. Just walk up to one and say \u201ccucumbers\u201d and they\u2019ll either laugh or sit down and cry. And here\u2019s a tip for those of you who are going next year: put jelly in the plain yogurt; it tones down the sharp flavor.<\/p>\n
BSpade<\/i> 18:1 (Winter 2005) p. 31<\/p>\n
A City of no Small Measure<\/b><\/p>\n
The site of Hazor bears description. The largest archaeological site in Israel, the upper city, or acropolis, is 15 acres, sloping west to east, and resides on a footprint of 22 acres. To the north and west is an area referred to as the lower city, traversing some 200+ acres. In it\u2019s heyday (from Abraham to Joshua) it may have been home to as many as 30,000-40,000 people. Among the artifacts of this sophisticated city (at the museum at Hazor encompassing Yadin\u2019s work from 1955\u20131975) are sewer pipes! Correspondence from the king of Hazor has been located in the 14th century BC archives of Amarna, Egypt, and evidence of close ties with Assyria abound. Sitting in the north of the Jordan Valley, Hazor was positioned to control all the north-south traffic of the inland transcontinental route. Hazor was indeed the \u201chead of all these kingdoms\u201d\u2014 cited in Joshua 11 as the head of the kingdoms of the Galilee region.<\/p>\n
The upper city (acropolis) seems to manifest three different major configurations (though there are over 20 identifiable strata) that bear on the Biblical narrative. Of the original Canaanite city, the full area of the acropolis seems to have been developed, though there is a substantial amount of area remaining to research. Midway down the mound a large Canaanite palace has been unearthed. Further down the slope is a cultic area, and below that a residential area. Our digs were exploring the Canaanite period in each of these areas.<\/p>\n
Solomon\u2019s fortification of the city in the 10th century constituted a second major developmental \u201clayer.\u201d He concentrated on the upper half of the acropolis. Lastly, a final period of activity under Ahab and Hezekiah continued development of the acropolis by fortifying the highest point to meet the defensive needs of the city in the face of advancing military technology (in earlier periods, the height and grade of the slope of the western face were a sufficient deterrent to an invading force). This included, like other major cities of the day, a water tunnel dug 160 ft (50 m) through bedrock to secure a water supply in times of siege.<\/p>\n
So the treasures of Hazor go well beyond the debate around the Solomonic gates. Hidden in her secrets are the lives and lifestyles of an entire civilization overlapping 500 years of Biblical history. What yet exists of her treasures, her royal archives, her religious life, or her people\u2019s fate? Have we missed Biblical hints at encounters between Abraham and the population at Hazor? The astounding burn layer of the palace has provided the evidence of the conquest and burning by Deborah and Barak (Jgs 4). It was generously appointed with wood paneled walls, floors, and ceilings and stocked with the finest oils, so that the fuel load combined with prevailing winds generated sufficient heat to crack stone, melt mud-brick, and warp storage jars.<\/p>\n
The Hazor acropolis as seen from the south<\/b><\/p>\n
The story of Hazor in the Biblical narrative ends at 2 Kings 15:29 with it falling to the king of Assyria, Tiglath Pileser III. In the living story of Biblical Archaeology, the tale of Hazor is still being written!<\/p>\n
Steve Felker<\/p>\n
But a dig with ABR isn\u2019t always digging. They take you on tours to some of the great sites of Biblical history. We went to Azekah and saw the place where David fought Goliath. We went to Capernaum and visited St. Peter\u2019s house and Jesus\u2019 home synagogue. We saw the famous Solomonic gates at Gezer and Megiddo (and walked through the one at Hazor). We spent a day seeing the Biblical sites of Jerusalem and walked through Hezekiah\u2019s tunnel. The touring was extensive, visiting many places that were important during Bible times. Not all of them were tourist spots either. We would sometimes walk through the weeds to get to a site we were going to tour. The tours taught me so much I would never be able to write it all down. It gave meaning to many of the places you read about in Scripture; a picture to associate with the names.<\/p>\n
One thing that everybody was thankful for was good bus driving during the tours. In a Middle Eastern nation that has more traffic fatalities than terrorist victims, that\u2019s a big plus! Everybody cheered Oleg when he came to pick us up in his bus.<\/p>\n
And one thing I know; I\u2019ll be back someday. If I\u2019m lucky this will be my career and I\u2019ll get to do this for pay!<\/p>\n
Benjamin Felker is 16 years old and is extremely interested in Biblical archaeology, so he studies as much as possible. He participated in the Hazor 2004 dig with his father, Steven. He lives in Ithaca NY, and is home schooled.<\/b><\/p>\n
Rev. Steven Felker, B.A., M.Div., is ordained with the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference. After pastorates in Kansas and Massachusetts, he now serves Christ Chapel in Ithaca NY. He is an active duty firefighter and Chaplain for Cayuga Heights Fire Department. He dug at Hazor with his son Ben in 2004.<\/b><\/p>\n
BSpade<\/i> 18:1 (Winter 2005) p. 32<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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