Scholarship Winners

Phillis-jane Stetser, Qumran

Phillis-jane Stetser, an assistant pastor in Mantua, NJ, used to be a professional pilot. That’s how she came up with the notion of applying airplane navigation technology to archaeology during her two seasons as a dig participant at Bethsaida. A breast cancer survivor, she and her husband, Robert, are the proud parents of two grown daughters and have three “absolutely grand” grandchildren.

You have to understand something about those of us who go out each year and excavate in the Holy Land: Archaeology is not simply our summertime hobby. It is our passion. We are exhilarated by the rare privilege of touching the past. We walk where those before us walked. Through the lenses of the many disciplines within archaeology, we see what the ancients ate, how they cooked and even how and when they died and were buried.

When I received the BAR scholarship I hoped to return to Bethsaida, but like many excavations, that dig was suspended for the 2002 season. Instead, Richard Freund, one of the Bethsaida dig directors, invited me to join a dig at Qumran, funded by the John and Carol Merrill Foundation and the Biblical Archaeology Society. It would be jointly directed by Freund, Hanan Eshel and Magen Broshi. I didn’t hesitate for a second!