•4 rridayi• lune st 1982' 11

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Holy Land Archeology Reviewed in 'Digging for God'

(Continued from Page 1)
three religions, Christian,
Jewish and Moslem, the
story is inevitably one of
confusing claims as to exact
locations of sacred sites, a
problem not helped by the
tendency of peoples to build
religious monuments in the
same sacred area.
The thrust of the book is
to
present the rival at-
-
.?.mpts of European and
American funded groups to
sponsor exploration, map-
ping and excavation in the
Holy Land for the recovery
of artifacts, for confirming
biblical history, for glory,
for additions to museum col-
lections, for knowledge, for
profit and for political ad-
vantage.
What could have been a
dull review of the various
individuals who survived
the hostile climate, the dis-
eases prevalent in the area,
and the unfriendly tribes to
satisfy these cravings- has
become, in the mature writ-
ing of Silverman, a series of
episodes in an exciting ad-
venture story. The book
reads like a novel.
After a brief resume of
interest in the Holy Land
from the time of the Ro-
mans through the Byzan-
tines, the Moslems and
the Crusaders, Silverman
clearly limits his work to
the story of the rediscov-
ery of Palestine by the
nations of the West, of its
inextricable involvement
with religion, science,
politics and Empire iri the
19th and early 20th Cen-
turies.
"Spurred on by the pres-
sure of religious
enthusiasm, national
prestige and diplomatic in-
trigue, the various nations
of the Western world strug-
gled to gain political advan-
tage in Palestine through
an unlikely medium — bi-
blical archeology. Not until
1917, and the British con-
quest of Jerusalem, did the
struggle end. Its lingering
effects can be felt in the
Middle East today."
Napoleon's conquest of
Egypt and the coast of
Palestine brought in its
wake mappers to survey the
land. This assault on the
Holy Land was resisted by
the Pasha al-Jazzar, as-
sisted by the British, who
sent battleships to help de-
feat Napoleon. As a result,
the British were the first to
fly a Christian flag in
Jerusalem since the
Crusades.
The first British explor-
included Daniel Clarke,
ho in 17 days completed an
archeological report of all
the sites in the life of Christ,
a trip accompanied by the
soldiers of al-Jazzar. Ulrich
Steezen, a Swiss physician,
disguised as an Arab, col-
lected artifacts for a Saxon
duke and for Tzar Alexan-
der II.
Another Swiss, John
Burchardt, disguised as
Ibrahim ibn Abdullah,
traveled extensively in
the land, discovering
Petra in Jordan.
However, the most
notorious of the European

travelers dressed as Orien-
tals was Lady Hester
Stanhope, the niece of
William Pitt. In her delu-
sions of being "Queen of the
Jews," she began excava-
tions at Ashkelon, only to
unearth, not a golden trea-
sure, but a Roman statue.
Frustrated, she ordered the
statue smashed and the
pieces cast into the sea. Re-
tiring to Lebanon, she spent
the rest of her life in the
Near East, dressing in
Oriental attire and receiv-
ing guests from both worlds.
Silverman, himself an ar-
cheologist and research
scholar, has assembled the
contributions of the legen-
dary figures whose names
have left their mark on the
city of Jerusalem.
Attempts to verify Chris-
tian sites and to gain con-
verts to Christianity drew
American Protestant com-
munities into sending
foreign missionaries to the
Holy Land. From Andover
Theological Seminary, Ed-
ward Robinson was sent out
to begin his work. A scholar
in both Greek and Hebrew,
Robinson brought a vast
knowledge of texts to bear
on the archeological monu-
ments. He identifited the
projecting stones from the
Western Wall of the Temple
Mount as belonging to the
arch supporting a monu-
mental entrance to the area,
as described by
Josephus.

The Mount, known today
as the Haranash-Sharif on
which the Dome of the Rock
was built in the Seventy
Century CE, was to be the
scene of constant archeolog-
ical interest.
Robinson and Eli Smith,
who had made a first trans-
lation of the Bible into
Arabic, eventually pub-
lished "Bible Researches in
Palestine,Mount Sinai and
Arabia Petra," the result of
their wide exploration. The
art and science of biblical
archeology had begun.

Western.
Expeditions

In successive chapters,
Silverman describes
American and French ex-
peditions to scout the Dead
Sea, whose strange waters
and climate caused sickness
and even death in a search
for such biblical sites as
Sodom and Gomorrah. In
Jerusalem, an on-going
concern to all scholars was
the site of the burial of
Christ, for the Church of the
Holy Sepulchre seemed to
lie within the walls of the
ancient city, where no bu-
rial would have been per-
mitted. Disagreement over,
and rival claims to, the sites
of the birth (in Bethlehem)
and burial (in Jerusalem)
of Christ caused many
clashes.
Nor were the attempts to
reconstruct history limited
to the cities, for rises in the
terrain, large hills called
"tells," were found to be the
sites of ancient cities such
as Megiddo (ancient Ar-
megeddon) and Gezer.
When Napoleon III

entered the archeological
scene to find biblical an-
tiquities, says Silverman
with wry humor, "hun-
dreds of French soldiers
armed with picks and
spades attacked the sites
of the ancient Phoenician
cities of Byblos, Tyre and
Sidon." A flood of ar-
tifacts was sent back to
adorn the halls of the
Louvre.
The water system of an-
cient Jerusalem was inves-
tigated by Pierotti, a Sici-
lian mercenary soldier
turned amateur ar-
cheologist. Employed by the

Pasha, Pierotti was allowed
to photograph for the first
time the conduits and cist-
erns under the Dome of the
Rock, claimed by Pierotti to
be atop the Jewish temple.
A Britisher, George
Grove (the same Grove who
wrote the dictionary of
music and musicians) spon-
sored the sending of a de-
tachment of the Royal
Engineers under Captain
Charles Wilson to map the
old and design a new water
system for the city, which
was suffering from out-
breaks of cholera because of
the polluted water supply.

INSTANT

Grove also wished Wilson
to discredit Pierotti. In his
work, Wilson measured all
of the Haram-ash-Sharif
and its underground cist-
erns, unearthing the entire
biblical water system.
Eventually another arch
projecting out from Temple
Mount was given his name.
Money was raised in
England, donated prin-
cipally by Sir Moses Mon-
tefiore, who even sought
from the rabbis in
Jerusalem permission
for Wilson to excavate
beneath the Jewish sec-
(Continued on Page 12)

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