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Hundreds of Americans participate in the dozens of archaeological excavations in Israel each year. "About 95 percent of the workers on any typical Israeli dig will be American student volunteers," says archaeologist William Dever. "And the funding comes from American donors."

So why is Dever warning of the possible demise of biblical archaeology as an American discipline, as he did in a recent "Biblical Archaeology Review" article?

The reason is not because Israelis have taken over archaeology in their country. Dever does not begrudge them their ascendancy. But Americans have had a unique role in the field.

"I've argued that biblical archaeology, as most of us think of it, is a peculiarly American invention," he says, "especially with the work of William Foxwell Albright in the twenties and thirties and forties when the foundations of the discipline were laid."

SHARP CUTBACKS: One of the top programs in the country—the one started by Dever at the University of Arizona—will be discontinued after Dever's retirement. New students are no longer being accepted. In addition, other major American universities are cutting back or not keeping their biblical archaeology programs in top form, Dever says.

Another worrisome development has been reductions in support by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Scholars point out that at many universities the humanities programs are being de-emphasized in favor of business, technology, and engineering programs.

Evangelicals and others in the archaeology field find it ironic that Dever is rallying a defense of biblical archaeology. A decade ago—in an effort to professionalize the discipline and discard its religious overtones—Dever led the fight to jettison the term biblical archaeology in favor of Syro-Palestinian archaeology.

"Who's interested in Syro-Palestinian archaeology?" scoffs James Hoffmeier, Wheaton College archaeology professor. "The very thing that fueled interest in studying that discipline was the Bible. If you segregate the two, you discourage the people who would have the most interest in that discipline."

"Maybe we allowed that to be pushed a little too far," acknowledges Joe Seger of the Cobb Institute of Archaeology at Mississippi State University. "Now the pendulum is swinging back."

For many years, Wheaton College has had the only undergraduate major in biblical archaeology among evangelical institutions. There is no shortage of interest as Hoffmeier says enrollments are higher than ever. There were 24 declared archaeology majors at Wheaton this fall, double the numbers from two years ago. But when they graduate, they will have a small number of doctoral options and professional opportunities if they pursue archaeology as a career, which is Dever's chief complaint.

The University of Arizona's program, started by Dever and one of the top archaeology programs, is not accepting new archaeology students right now.

"We would like to replace [Dever] with someone who works in the Ancient Near East," says Holly Smith, dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. However, instead of an archaeologist it may be a textual scholar, so the program is in suspension until a decision is made. Smith acknowledges that there has also been a proposal to phase out the program due to financial limitations at the university.

Meanwhile, among theological seminaries, Gordon-Conwell, near Boston, offers a strong lineup of courses but as yet does not offer a graduate degree in archaeology.

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November 13 1995, Vol. 39, No. 13