The Quest for Early Christianity at Esbus

Narrating Archaeological Sites and Places - Fifty Years of the Madaba Plains Project at Tall Hisban, Tall al-`Umayri, and Tall Jalul - Douglas R. Clark

Darrell J. Rohl [+-]
Calvin University
Darrell J. Rohl (PhD University of Durham 2014) is an archaeologist and ancient historian who specializes in the borderlands of the former Roman Empire, the archaeology of place, and early Christianity. His first excavation experiences were with the Madaba Plains Project at Jalūl (2005) and Ḥisbān (2007), and he has subsequently conducted fieldwork and archaeological research in the UK, Italy, and North America. In 2018, he co-directed new excavations of the Ḥisbān North Church with Elizabeth Osinga and joined the Umm al-Jimāl Archaeological Project as Director of Excavations for the 2019 field season. He directs the Archaeology program at Calvin University.
Elizabeth A. Osinga [+-]
Umm al-Jimāl Archaeological Project
Elizabeth Osinga (PhD University of Southampton 2017) is an archaeologist and trained ceramicist (MA Ceramic and Lithic Analysis 2011) who has been a Senior Staff member of the Umm al-Jimāl Archaeological Project (UJAP) since 2012. Currently, she is a fulltime co-director of the UJAP, focusing primarily on research and publications to ensure that the many important past (and future) excavations are thoroughly analyzed and the information disseminated to the scholarly world. She remains the project ceramicist, and in 2020 published the first quantified pottery analysis from Umm al-Jimāl, revealing the major suppliers of the site’s ceramics and how imports changed over time. She works closely with Darrell Rohl, co-directing fieldwork at Umm al-Jimāl, as well as one season of excavation at the Ḥisbān North Church in 2018. In 2023, she co-authored Umm al-Jimāl’s UNESCO World Heritage Nomination file, working closely with the Department of Antiquities of Jordan and local stakeholders.

Description

To what extent was the quest for evidence of early Christianity an explicit goal of the original Heshbon Expedition? This chapter will inquire into the reasons why a partnership was formed with Calvin College and Calvin Theological Seminary, and members of their faculty, as part of the planning and execution of the original Heshbon Expedition. The excavations of the Acropolis Church and the North Church will be revisited and, in the process, the careers and contributions of two scholars will be highlighted: Bastiaan Van Elderen, Professor of New Testament at Calvin Theological Seminary, focusing on his role in leading the excavation of the basilica at the Ḥisbān summit; and Bert de Vries, Professor of History and Archaeology at Calvin College, whose diligent and detailed architectural drawings are indispensable records. This chapter contextualizes the important work at Ḥisbān in the light of more recent excavations of the Ḥisbān North Church and of early Christian contexts across Jordan, offering new directions for future research.

Notify A Colleague

Citation

Rohl, Darrell J. ; Osinga, Elizabeth A. . The Quest for Early Christianity at Esbus. Narrating Archaeological Sites and Places - Fifty Years of the Madaba Plains Project at Tall Hisban, Tall al-`Umayri, and Tall Jalul. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. Oct 2025. ISBN 9781800506558. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=46559. Date accessed: 01 Sep 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.46559. Oct 2025

Dublin Core Metadata