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I Volunteered for This?! Life on an Archaeological Dig

Digs 2000
Scholarship Winners

Edgar Hardesty

Edgar Hardesty
Edgar Hardesty is pastor of a small nondenominational church near Baltimore and an
adjunct professor of the Bible and doctrine at
Philadelphia College of Bible. He was educated at Philadelphia College of Bible and
Dallas Theological Seminary and is completing
his master’s degree in Jewish studies at
Baltimore Hebrew University. Hardesty
received a BAS dig scholarship to join the
excavation at Beth-Shemesh.

What was it like to be in Beth-Shemesh during Sennacherib’s siege? That is what I wondered as I dug down to the layer
that dated to the fiery destruction of the city in 701 B.C.
The excavation square to which I and three others were assigned lay next to a square that had reached the
Sennacherib destruction layer during the previous season. Between the two squares stood a balk—an unexcavated wall
of earth left in place to preserve the strata of occupation—that contained a cluster of storage jars embedded in a layer
of ash.
As I began to clear away material, my trowel soon uncovered what appeared to be the curve of ajar rim. I gently
probed the area, and I realized that there was more here than I had anticipated. Ash was also beginning to appear that

© 2006 Biblical Archaeology Society

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