Bert de Vries at Umm el-Jimal, Jordan. Image source: Darrell J. Rohl Our department mourns the sudden passing on March 28, 2021 of Professor Emeritus Bert de Vries, our deeply beloved and longest-serving colleague. A Calvin alumnus (’60), Bert returned to Calvin in 1967, after graduate study at Calvin Seminary and Brandeis University, and taught …
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by Bert de Vries. It is 70 years since the state of Israel was born out of the first Arab-Israeli War under the leadership of the much-revered founding father, David Ben Gurion. Thinking Israelis must wonder how political life degenerated from that heroic beginning to the corrupt and racist prime ministry of Mr. Netanyahu. Amos …
Continue reading “Betrayed by History?” Book Review of Judas by Amos Oz
By Bert de Vries. A Retrospective of the presentation made in Session 1D at ASOR's 2014 Annual Meetings in San Diego. In 2007 the Umm el-Jimal Project (UJP) made a thematic shift away from stress on academic archaeological research to site management with twin foci, preservation and community engagement. Site preservation on the ground was …
Continue reading Preservation and Community Engagement at Umm el-Jimal in 2014
by Bert de Vries. “Those who turned Gaza into an internment camp for 1.8 million people should not be surprised when they tunnel underneath the earth. …” Amira Hass, “Reaping what we have sown in Gaza,” Ha’aretz, 20 July, 2014 As I absorb the news of conflict in Gaza in the mainstream American media – …
Continue reading Missiles for Tunnels in Gaza: The Flattening of History
by Bert de Vries. Much of my career as historian-archaeologist has been focused on the question of how overpowered populations and culture groups - the conquered, the occupied, the colonized, the enslaved – coped, and how a historian could know that. This interest was actually shaped by my own experience as a child in occupied …
Continue reading Paradox of Power: How the Weak Prevail Against the Strong
by Bert de Vries and Jeff DeKock. The Umm el-Jimal Project, Open Hand Studios, and our partners continue to integrate the ancient archaeological site and modern community of Umm el-Jimal, Jordan. Therefore, we’re excited to report the launch of the Empowering Rural Women Project in January 2014. A joint program funded by UNESCO and UN …
Continue reading Empowerment of Women at Umm el Jimal, Jordan
Historical Horizons 