In Their Own Words

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Adam Zertal is professor of Near Eastern Archaeology at Haifa University. As director of the Manasseh Hill Country Survey, Zertal discovered hundreds of archaeological sites dating to the earliest periods of ancient Israel’s existence, including the controversial cultic site of Mt. Ebal.^a In this excerpt from a recent interview Zertal gave to Israel National Radio, he discusses the importance of the Manasseh Survey and its findings for understanding the history of ancient Israel.

Survey is mapping. We map and register every archaeological site, everything that was made by man, from all periods. I think one of the motives [for the Manasseh survey] was that [the northern hill-country] is the area most relevant for the beginning of Israel.

Look, you have the school of minimalists, you have the others schools, but none of them ever had the facts. You can claim that there is ancient Israel, that there is no ancient Israel, there is a Joshua, there is not a Joshua, but go to the territory and look for the facts. That was not done.

So for 30 years, beginning in 1978, a team of about ten people—students, scholars and myself—are walking systematically, and we have now found 1,530 sites—more than all the sites of Israel today—of all periods. But about 88 or 90 percent of them were unknown before. Therefore, you have a new map of historical Israel. Among these we have nearly 500 sites from the Iron I period [1200–1000 B.C.], which is the period of the settlement of Israel. And most of them are new. We have a new map, a new history, and in that framework we also found Mt. Ebal. Mt. Ebal is not solitary; it’s not just one. We have, I think, a full new map that one should now interpret and say, “Does it fit the Bible or does it not fit the Bible?”

Until now, I think most of these debates [between minimalists and maximalists] were ungrounded, without any factual ground. It was historical, maybe, or anthropological, but without real archaeological basis. Now we have that.

[Because of the Manasseh survey] I entered, probably against my will, into the debate, the monumental debate, about the beginning of Israel and the credibility of the Bible. But look, I’m a modest archaeologist. What I do is supply facts. And I think that everybody who is serious and who wants to take part in this debate should take into account these facts. This is what is important to me.