In America, Biblical Archaeology Was—And Still Is—Largely a Protestant Affair

“American archaeological efforts in the Holy Land have been dominated by Protestants,” according to a prominent American Protestant archaeologist, Gus Van Beek. Van Beek is curator of Old World archaeology at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. and for many years was director of excavations at Tell Jemmeh in southern Israel.

Van Beek said that since World War I, the Protestant dominance of American archaeological efforts in the Holy Land has been reflected in the participation both of Protestant clergy and of the Protestant laity. It is a dominance which continues today, he said “and the prospects are that it will continue for some time to come.”

Van Beek made his remarks at a colloquium on the archaeological aspect of American-Holy Land Relations. The colloquium was sponsored by The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the American Jewish Historical Society at Brandeis University. Dr. Gershon Greenberg, Chairman of American University’s Jewish Studies Program, chaired the program held at AU’s Pollin Center for the Study of American Judaism.

Van Beek’s Jewish and Catholic colleagues on the panel agreed with him.

Professor Eric Meyers, head of Duke University’s Jewish Studies Program, Vice-President for Publications of the American Schools of Oriental Research, and one of the few American Jewish archaeologists working in Israel, told of his initial reaction when he was assigned the task of dealing with the topic from the Jewish perspective: “My goodness, there’s nothing to say about American Jewish archaeologists in the Holy Land. There aren’t any.”