Dr. Cynthia Shafer-Elliot joins Mark to discuss her role as a field archeologist. Dr. Shafer-Elliot has been digging in Israel for over a decade and is currently part of the archaeological excavation team at Tell Halif, Israel. She just might be Mark's hero.

TRANSCRIPT

0:01

Welcome to Jessup think I'm your host Mark Moore. And I'm privileged today to sit down with Dr. Cynthia Schafer-Ellot, our resident Old Testament professor and Professor of archaeology. And today we're going to talk about her role in archaeology and the digs that she's on and the exciting and fun and maybe boring to some people, but not others, things that she's finding and the work that she's doing. So I hope you enjoy this episode as we kind of dive into archaeology of ancient Israel.

0:44

Alright, Cynthia, I'm excited to have you on the show. This is second time, second time the show. So you're now officially a friend of the show. Yay. Oh, he's been a friend. But now a friend of the show actual friend of the show. Because the show is like this impersonal you know, third party thing. Yeah, that, that I just get to be a part of and then now your friend of the show. So once we start, you know, getting merchandise, then we'll be able to send you as a friend of the show. You'll get merchandise, but we don't have any merchandise yet. When you do. Let's get to work on that. Yeah, I've got some ideas. I got some ideas that I think could go work. They may involve a T Rex. That would be great. And a coffee cup and a coffee cup. Or or a gray blazer? Yes. There we go. I think maybe a T rex integrate. blazer

1:34

There you go. Being with his tiny arm with the tiny arms a little coffee silver coffee

1:39

mug? Yes. That's what's happening now. I wouldn't be you exist. I would be the first to jump on that bandwagon. Right? We'll make it happen. Okay, whoever if you're listening, and you can make this happen, contact me. And we will we'll do it together. We'll make that a faculty of theology. Yeah, like, first thing to do? Yeah. We're getting on merchandise for just think we got some good ideas. I love it. But no, I'm excited to have you on and kind of talk about all the exciting things, exciting things that you've been doing in the field of archaeology, and been doing every summer you've been going on digs? How long have you been doing that?

2:18

Well, um, I started as a master's student. Okay. I won't tell you how far long ago that was. We're not doing math. Now. Now. So I've been I mean, part of what I do is I, you know, I teach Hebrew Bible and I teach archaeology. And I'm interested in the historical and cultural and social context of ancient Israel, right, as is reflected both in the Hebrew Bible and in the actual Earth. Right. So not just the text, but the artifact and everything else. So in order to do that, it's very important that you do what you teach. Right. So but I love excavating. So yeah, I've been excavating since. Gosh, I think my first full season on a dig was in 2001. And I've been doing most summers. So I've been on staff on several digs. am on staff on a couple of digs? And yeah, it's, it's great. I can handle being getting up at four in the morning for like, four weeks. Yeah. And that's, that's about it. For weeks, that's all I got. And then I turned back into a pumpkin. So

3:28

hey, I hear you. I I like getting up early. And then in the afternoon, I turned to a pumpkin. Early morning and a late night person. Afternoon. Well, then you would do well on a day. Yeah, I see. I think right. Well, you are like living my childhood dream. Really funny. I grant was one of my three things that I wanted to be showing up. One was third baseman for the Cincinnati Reds. There you go. And, you know, pursued that as long as I could. And then the second one, strangely enough, was a botanist, which a botanist deals with plants. Yeah. And I think I read it in the, you know, Encyclopedia Britannica that we had in our house