10th Archaeology Discovery Weekend celebrates 50 years of Jordan excavations

On Saturday, Nov. 10 and Sunday, Nov. 11, La Sierra’s 10th Annual Archaeology Discovery Weekend will highlight key discoveries and knowledge gained during these five decades of digging and analyzing artifacts unearthed at three primary sites. Collectively known as the Madaba Plains Project, these sites -- Tall Hisban, Tall al-‘Umayri, and Tall Jalul -- are situated on a highland plateau overlooking the Dead Sea, between the cities of Madaba and Amman. 

The digs were respectively initiated in 1968, 1984 and 1992 and over the years have attracted more than 2,200 archaeologists, students and volunteers throughout 56 collective dig seasons. Archaeology teams have unearthed Bronze and Iron Age remnants of major settlements, temples, a massive defense system, evidence of the biblical Ammonite and Moabite kingdoms, and many artifacts from later eras.

This year’s Archaeology Discovery Weekend, organized by La Sierra’s Center for Near Eastern Archaeology, will celebrate those successes and evaluate progress and future goals. Themed “Reinventing Biblical Archaeology: Results of 50 Years of Excavating in Central Jordan,” the weekend’s events will be anchored by a series of lectures and panel discussions featuring prominent archaeologists from La Sierra and eight other institutions in six states and Canada. Their presentations will address extensive insights gained as the Madaba Plains Project evolved from a singular focus on proving biblical history to encompassing broad, technology-enhanced scientific research into multiple aspects of the cultures of ancient societies. 

A family-oriented event, Archaeology Discovery Weekend will also offer a simulated Kids’ Dig led by an experienced archaeologist; an authentic Jordanian banquet; hands-on activities; and Middle Eastern refreshments in a goat hair Bedouin tent imported from Syria and Madaba, Jordan.

Events on Saturday will begin at 3 p.m. with lectures featuring key finds and insights gleaned from each of the three sites of the Madaba Plains Project. Sunday’s activities will begin at 1 p.m. and will feature two main lectures and a panel discussion delving into the relationships between the Bible and archaeology. 

The weekend’s speakers will include Professor of Archaeology and Biblical Backgrounds Tom Davis, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas; Susan Ackerman, a professor in ancient religions at Dartmouth College, N.H.; William Dever, emeritus professor, and Beth Alpert Nakhai, professor, both of the University of Arizona;  Andrew Vaughn, executive director, American Schools of Oriental Research, Boston, Ma.; Øystein LaBianca, professor of anthropology and Bob Bates, archaeology professor, both of Andrews University, Mich.; Larry Herr, professor emeritus, Burman University, Lacombe, Alberta, Canada; Kent Bramlett, associate professor of archaeology, La Sierra University; Monique Vincent, publications manager at La Sierra’s archaeology center; Doug Clark, archaeologist, former religion professor and director of La Sierra’s archaeology center; and Larry Geraty, archaeologist, former religion professor and president emeritus of La Sierra University.

Clark and Geraty are among five founding members of the Madaba Plains Project. The MPP, as it is called, originated with the dig site at Tall Hisban which is the biblical site of Heshbon. The late Seventh-day Adventist biblical archaeologist Siegfried Horn of Andrews University initiated the excavation in 1968 hoping it would allow researchers to uncover a timeline for the iconic biblical story of the Exodus. Geraty joined the Horn dig in 1968 while studying with the archaeologist. Andrews and La Sierra universities are among 13 Adventist colleges and universities in the United States and Canada.

“It was exciting to be in on the ground floor of a new excavation, in this case, the very first dig sponsored by an Adventist archaeologist from an Adventist university,” said Geraty. He is also a past president of the American Schools of Oriental Research, or ASOR, a 118-year-old nonprofit which sponsors and supports research and education of the history and cultures of the ancient Near East.

“We fully expected to find evidence that would help us date the exodus/conquest since Heshbon was the capital of Sihon, the Amorite king, mentioned in the Book of Numbers where the story is recorded of the Israelites’ first battle when coming into the Promised Land,” Geraty said. “We learned that archaeology doesn’t necessarily solve all one’s historical problems or answer all our questions. What it does do is provide a context for the biblical story. Our work at Tall Hisban and the other MPP sites has given us cumulative information about the Ammonites and their history, language, religion, and way of life—far more than was ever known before.”

Clark also is a co-director of the multinational USAID-funded Madaba Regional Archaeological Museum Project in Jordan and a past executive director of ASOR. He joined the Tall Hisban excavation in 1973 and became a director of the Tall al-‘Umayri dig in 1987. “My first visit to Tall Hisban was transformative,” Clark said. “While we endured hot days, crowded accommodations and a long season, I was where I wanted to be. I was finally in Bible lands, finally in a position to uncover more of the history I had been reading all my life.” 

His expectations of the MPP dig sites and the ancient pasts they reveal have evolved in parallel with changes in the field of biblical archaeology, Clark said, “sometimes with the jolts of seismic shifts in thinking, sometimes in the gradual settling into new perspectives.”

Archaeology Discovery Weekend admission to lectures, panel discussions and hands-on lab activities is free. Jordanian banquet admission is $50, and Kids’ Dig admission is $5. For information and advance event registration visit https://lasierra.edu/cnea/discovery-weekend/; email archaeology@lasierra.edu; or call 951-785-2632. La Sierra University is located at 4500 Riverwalk Parkway, Riverside.