Archaeology as a Hobby and a Passion

I saw it shortly after graduation from college, when I was working as a radio news reporter in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. And I thought to myself, "I really should have an adventure before I settle down and saddle myself with a lot of family responsibilities."

As I racked my brain for an appropriate exercise I recalled one of my favorite professors who used to travel to Israel on a regular basis to participate in archaeological excavations. So I contacted professor Wilbur Williams, back at Marion College (now Indiana Wesleyan University). It took two more years but finally in July 1978 I was on an Alitalia jet with Professor Williams and a dozen other volunteers, headed towards Tel Aphek, at the headwaters of the Yarkon River, just east of Tel Aviv.

Part of the Aphek excavation, directed by Tel Aviv University archaeologist Moshe Kochavi, was exploring a 13th century BC palace inside the Turkish Walls that are sill visible today. Another part of the excavation was exploring a nearby hilltop settlement that had been tentatively linked to the Old Testament village of Ebenezer, connected to the battle of Aphek in I Samuel 4:1-2. But my assignment was in the first century Roman forum area outside the walls. At that time the city was called Antipatris, and is mentioned in the New Testament (Acts 23:31).

My first morning in the dirt yielded a seventh century Arabic lamp. As it turned out, that was my biggest discovery of the summer, except for an overturned column that surfaced a few weeks later. Along the way I also made a lot of friends, including a couple of Wisconsinites who were attending Rice University.

I thought at the time I might discover that a career in archaeology beckoned. But after four exciting and challenging weeks of excavation I decided to return to radio news. It was a lot easier and, I felt, better suited my talents and interests.

But I couldn't leave archaeology totally behind. I got involved in the Madison Biblical Archaeology Society (by this time I was working in Madison, Wisconsin). And four years later, when I became news director for an inspirational format radio station, I discovered I could combine radio news and archaeology in a 15-minute weekly news and interview program called "THE BOOK & THE SPADE."

University of Wisconsin professor Keith Schoville, the president of MBAS, joined me in the studio for a series of conversations we described as "backgrounders on the Bible through Biblical Archaeology." Before long we began to bring our MBAS lecturers into the studio to talk first-hand about their fieldwork. At last check we had featured over 150 archaeologists and Bible scholars.

In addition, someone suggested we should offer our listeners a chance to see the Holy Land for themselves. We've sponsored a number of Holy Land Tours, beginning in 1985.

When I left Aphek in 1978 I didn't know if I would ever come back. I felt I would be a very fortunate man if I did make it back once in my lifetime.

I feel the biggest blessing has been the ability to visualize the Biblical landscape now whenever I read the Bible. I have developed a certain intimacy with Jerusalem, Nazareth, the Sea of Galilee and the other Biblical sites that personalizes Bible study in a way that cannot be accomplished without going there.

And a complementary privilege has been the friendships that have developed with those on the front lines who are peeling back the layers of history that separate us from the Biblical world. For, as archaeologist William Dever has acknowledged, "the only new facts about the Bible and the Biblical world are coming from the ground, from archaeology."

Later I volunteered to join Northwestern College professors Charles Aling and Clyde Billington to edit a newsletter for their Institute for Biblical Archaeology. It has since merged with several other publications, is now called ARTIFAX, and is co-published with the Near East Archaeology Society.

In recent years CHRISTIANITY TODAY has called on me to report on a number of developments in Biblical Archaeology for their thousands of readers.

It is exciting and stimulating work, as well as an honor and a privilege, to be able to report from the front lines of Biblical Research.

Gordon Govier ><> scribe@xc.org ><> SCRIBE MEDIA ><> p608/271-1025 ><> 5606 Medical Circle ><> f608/271-1150 ><> Madison WI 53719 ><> http://www.msn.fullfeed.com/~scribe