Archeology
Although I received no education in archaeology either as an undergraduate or as a graduate student, I became fascinated with the subject when I began teaching a course in the Hebrew Scriptures while at Hamilton. I decided that if I were to really teach those writings properly I needed to be better acquainted with the discoveries that were being made on and under the ground in Israel. Reading William Foxwell Albright and other archaeological savants was not enough. So, in 1967 I applied to work on a dig at Arad in the Judean foothills between Beersheba and the Dead Sea. My plans were almost spoiled by the Six Day War, but as a result of that conflict, I was able to visit the old City of Jerusalem and its many treasures. The experience was a fantastic one in which we excavated an ancient Solomonic fortress in the desert. The ramp pictured below that I constructed of stones from an old Roman Wall in order to cart findings out of the rather deep pit is still there, I believe.
The chief archaeologist was Johannan Aharoni and one of his major assistants was Ruth Amiran, both of whom were very well known in the field. I had the privilege of becoming well-acquainted with both of them. There were also very fine classes on archaeology of the Holy Land that I was able to attend.
A few years later, I decided to return to Israel for another dig, this time in the far north at Tel El Qadi, better known as Tel Dan. This too was a fascinating excavation. I worked in the T area that contained the ancient temple site for the northern kingdom of Israel. We found sacrifical bones, and incense burners that had been imported from Cyrprus. Below is a picture of me in a pit that was published in Avraham Biran’s Biblical Dan (Israel Exploration Society, 1994), p. 171.
Next is a picture of an artifact that I myself discovered. Obviously it was the face of a man and that means that Israelis at the time did not observe the third commandment with any great care.
From Biran, Biblical Dan, p. 172
Subsequently, I took three groups of Hamilton students to Israel in January to study Biblical archaeology. Since I arranged all housing and meals and well as offering a regular course on archaeology in Israel, it was a very draining experience. Still I would have continued it had we not appointed a person more expert in Jewish Studies than I. She took a group to Israel once, but shortly thereafter Winter Term was abandoned and that wonderful experience came to an end.
My interest in archaeology then took a back seat until, several years later, I was given a great deal of material related to Edward Robinson who graduated from Hamilton in 1816. Subsequently he became, for all intents and purposes, the founder of the whole field of Biblical archaeology. It was he who went to Palestine, identified ancient sites, and through his writings, engendered great interest in the whole field of Biblical geography and archaeology.
As a result of the material given to me by his direct descendant, Edward Robinson, I was able to write the definitive work about his life and accomplishments. This study also engendered a gallery exhibit as well as several shorter articles about him. More recently my wife Hermine has written a biography of Robinson’s second wife who was, in her own right, a great writer and scholar. She is also preparing for publication letters Robinson wrote while studying in Germany.
Shortly after a summer at Tel Dan I wrote this poem:
TO DAN: A SUMMER SONG
tousling the red-tipped flame of time
stand I spread-legged
raw-cheeked
and doomed
athwart the moment
laughing the sweat-clogged
clawing
joyous
bitter
of the generations
the aviary pipes its boker tune
of sardis and carnelian
and wakes her to the ravishment.
one eye
horse open
insensate and dreaming
of a world
to be
her ancient babies
BEAUTIFUL
spawned helter-skelter
in her yielding womb
moth dust
eye dust
brain dust
the burning flies of blood
stinging
the tottered clay
that sings of Jezebel
and of the dogs that feed
on all the
bones
buckets of bones
propitiation to him
who loves her not
trampling
stamping
screaming out
vituperation
upon those youthful breasts
twice offered
NO MATTER
trickling bubbling gushing
the waters of her life dance forth
Avram’s journey
Adam’s journey
Death’s journey
to the Negev
to the seven sacred springs
of Yitzak
SHABBAT SHALOM
encompassing the land
chanting the land
welling the land
with Rahel laughter
silent
fiercely silent
his carping voices
NOW
the Ashtaroth bend shimmer sun
as the stallion
untamed and loose
neighs and gallops
night’s Orion away
She yearns for him
the Babe is born
And bending low
offer I adoration
to the mystery
of the Word made sherd
and celebrate the luck
as though it were the
Reconciliation
BEWARE THE SCORPION
Long after I returned from Israel, I wrote this poem.
The Thumb Print
Like some dark, vacant,
Ancient eye,
It peers, half- blinded
From the holy earth---
The handle of a common jug,
Once balanced on the head
By some young Danite ‘almah
(Or was she old and venerable?)
To fetch fresh water
From the Jordan’s welling,
Then dropped and smashed,
Through carelessness,
I guess,
For me to find.
Not smooth and glazed Hellenic ware,
This shard, slow-fired
And gritty crude,
Appears more Amos-ish
Than kingly,
A simple jug for daily use
In times of early iron.
No bounty for museums here.
Yet inside, smoothing out the clay,
Are finger marks,
And, by that vacant eye,
The proud creator’s special sign:
His thumb-print
Vaguely visible.
Then suddenly
All times collapse.
My thumb and thumb-print
Interface
And now we two,
So separate, it seemed,
By time
And place,
Are one at last:
Brothers
In the eternity of consciousness,
The enlivened, molded clay of
The Eternal Potter.