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 …
Continue reading Remembering Bert de Vries
by Frans van Liere. In my last entry for Historical Horizons, I wrote about how archaeology can be a tool for colonialism. For the Palestinian inhabitants of the village of Silwan, the Israeli archaeological park of the “City of David,” situated right in their West Bank village, bears a clear message: you don’t belong here; …
Continue reading Building Community among the Ruins
by Frans van Liere. More than any history book, archaeology can create a powerful sense of the past. At the same time, just like history, archaeology can be used and abused for political purposes. It can create a sense of national or ethnic identity, or exclude others from that identity. This past summer, when my …
Continue reading Hezekiah’s Tunnel and the City of David
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. 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
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