First Person: In Praise of Published Excavation Reports

006

I write to celebrate something BAR readers understandably have little interest in: the publication of final excavation reports.

Still, I cannot let it pass. Within the profession it is customary to bewail the failure of archaeologists to publish final excavation reports. Archaeologists love to dig, but they hate the dull, laborious, time-consuming process of writing final excavation reports. Indeed, some years ago we published two small volumes on this problem; we called it “archaeology’s dirty secret.”^a

So it seems only fair to sing a few Hosannas when final excavation reports do come off the press covering excavations that took place many decades ago.

2011 was a banner year. Eilat Mazar has been publishing final reports of her grandfather Benjamin Mazar’s excavations at the foot of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem between 1968 and 1978.¹ In late 2011 came an elegant new volume, Volume IV in the series, covering the Tenth Roman Legion’s encampment at the Temple Mount.^{b 2} About the same time, Larry Stager (with Dan Master and David Schloen) came out with a hefty Volume 3 of the final report on the excavation Larry has led since 1985 at Ashkelon on Israel’s Mediterranean coast.³

Avraham Biran excavated at Tel Dan in northern Israel for a third of a century, from 1966 to 1999, then the longest-running dig in Israel. There was much talk about his failure to publish technical final reports. Biran died in 2008. Confounding expectations, however, in 2011 his devoted staff (led here by Rachel Ben-Dov) published Volume III of the final report of the excavation of Tel Dan.⁴

The finds at Tel Dan were spectacular. Perhaps that is why Biran couldn’t stop digging. There were so many exciting finds that he just couldn’t quit. Then he became incapacitated by age and frailty. Many of these finds from Dan are well known—the “House of David” inscription, the 4000-year-old city gate with its arched entranceway, the so-called Dancer from Dan kicking up his heels, the Charioteer Vase from the Mycenaean tomb, the eighth-century B.C.E. bronze and silver scepter head, the third-century B.C.E. inscription “to the god who is in Dan,” the Israelite “high place” that included a piece of one of the horns of the altar that was set up at Dan after the northern kingdom seceded from the United Monarchy of Solomon, and on and on.^c

In some ways the new Dan volume has profited by the delay in publication. In the meantime, new methodologies have become available. For example, the copper (bronze) artifacts can now be subjected to isotope studies that enable researchers to identify the likely source of the copper. This was not widely used when Biran was digging. Based on lead isotope analysis, we now learn that the copper in the items from Dan came from a number of sites, possibly including the copper mines in Wadi Faynan that have recently been featured in BAR^d and at Timna north of the southern port of Eilat. The copper in other items seems to have come from as far away as Sardinia and Turkey—all evidence of brisk mercantile trade during the Late Bronze Age (1550–1200 B.C.E.).

The Tel Dan volume also publishes a small bronze figurine of a female warrior in a striking pose. She’s lovely, but I wouldn’t 066 want to cross her.

Another thought impresses me: I was astounded to see how very little of the site has been exposed in 33 years. This is common but always surprising. Only 5 percent of this 50-acre site has been excavated. Imagine what treasures the unexcavated portion of Tel Dan still holds. There is plenty of work here for future generations.

Biran also excavated other sites, among them Aroer, a caravan town in the Negev desert.^e In 2011 the final report (by Yifat Thareani) came out in two volumes and includes contributions by 18 scholars.⁵

I cannot close without also mentioning that it takes money to publish these volumes—not just for the design and printing but especially for the technical research that goes into them (in his preface Larry Stager refers to this as a “grueling process”). The Ashkelon report was supported by the Leon Levy Foundation. The Jerusalem and Aroer reports acknowledge the critical assistance of the Shelby White-Leon Levy Program for Archaeological Publications.⁶ The Aroer report also acknowledges the support of “Richard Scheuer (of blessed memory).” Dick was a great supporter of archaeology in Israel and also a much-missed friend of BAR. He was the only one I knew who could sit through more talks at the annual meeting of archaeologists than I could.

I write to celebrate something BAR readers understandably have little interest in: the publication of final excavation reports.