Eric H. Cline
Title — Professor of Classics and Anthropology; Departmental Chair and Director of the GWU Capitol Archaeological Institute
Address — Department of Classical and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, 801 22nd St. NW, Phillips Hall 335, The George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052
Office — Phillips Hall 302
Phone — 202-994-0316; Fax: 202-994-2156
E-mail — ehcline@gwu.edu
Areas of Expertise —
Biblical Archaeology
Military History from past to present in the Levant
Late Bronze Age Trade in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean
Current Research
Megiddo Expedition, Israel (Co-Director)
Cline has been a member of the Megiddo Expedition, excavating biblical Armageddon, since 1994, rising through the ranks from volunteer to Co-Director. The expedition is run by Tel Aviv University and The George Washington University (Israel Finkelstein and Eric H. Cline).
Tel Kabri, Israel (Co-Director)
Cline has served as Co-Director of the Kabri Archaeological Project since its inception in 2005. The project is run by the University of Haifa and The George Washington University (Assaf Yasur-Landau and Eric H. Cline).
Education
University of Pennsylvania; Ph.D. in Ancient History, 1991.
Yale University; M.A. in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures, 1984.
Dartmouth College; A.B. in Classical Archaeology modified by Anthropology, 1982.
Background
Dr. Eric H. Cline is currently Chair of the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations as well as Director of the GWU Capitol Archaeological Institute. He is a National Geographic Explorer, a Fulbright scholar, and an award-winning teacher and author with degrees from Dartmouth, Yale, and the University of Pennsylvania. An archaeologist and ancient historian by training, he is a specialist in biblical archaeology, the Late Bronze Age Aegean, military history of the Levant, and foreign relations of the ancient Mediterranean world. He is an active field archaeologist with 29 seasons of excavation and survey experience in Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Cyprus, Greece, Crete, and the U.S., including nine seasons at Megiddo, where he is Co-Director, and seven seasons at Tel Kabri, where he is also Co-Director.
Before arriving at GW in 2000, he taught at Stanford, Xavier, Miami of Ohio, CSU Fresno, and elsewhere. At GW, he has won the Oscar and Shoshana Trachtenberg Prize for Teaching Excellence (2012) as well as the Oscar and Shoshana Trachtenberg Prize for Faculty Scholarship (2011); he is the first faculty member at GW to have won both awards. In addition, he won the national "Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award" from the Archaeological Institute of America in 2005, the GW Morton A. Bender Teaching Award in 2004, and has been nominated three times for US CASE Professor of the Year (2008, 2009, and 2012). He has served as the advisor to the undergraduate archaeology majors at GW for the past decade and has overseen the graduation of 108 majors since 2001, with nearly half going on to leading graduate schools in archaeology and related fields. For his efforts, he won the GW Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Departmental Advising in 2006.
Dr. Cline has also appeared in more than twenty television programs and documentaries, ranging from ABC (including Nightline and Good Morning America) to the BBC and the National Geographic, History, and Discovery Channels. In addition, he has given more than 200 lectures nationally and internationally to a wide variety of audiences.
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Publications
With 14 books and more than 100 articles to his credit, Dr. Cline's publications include Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: International Trade and the Late Bronze Age Aegean (1994, republished in 2009), The Battles of Armageddon: Megiddo and the Jezreel Valley from the Bronze Age to the Nuclear Age (2000), Jerusalem Besieged: From Ancient Canaan to Modern Israel (2004), From Eden to Exile: Unraveling Mysteries of the Bible (2007), Biblical Archaeology: A Very Short Introduction (2009), and the edited handbook entitled The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean (2010).
His most recent books, co-authored volumes entitled Ancient Empires and The Ahhiyawa Texts, both appeared in 2011, while a co-edited volume entitled Ramesses III appeared in 2012. In addition, a Kindle edition of From Eden to Exile, with a new Afterword, was published in December 2012 and The Trojan War: A Very Short Introduction is scheduled to be published in May 2013.
Three of his books have won the Biblical Archaeology Society's "Best Popular Book on Archaeology" award (2001, 2009, and 2011). He also received acclaim for his 2007 op-ed in the Boston Globe, a diatribe against pseudo-archaeology, which was republished numerous places, including online by Archaeology magazine. The original may be found here: http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2007/09/30/raiders_of_the_faux_ark/?page=full
Recent Articles:
2012a “Fabulous Finds or Fantastic Forgeries? The Distortion of Archaeology by the Media and Pseudo-archaeologists, and What We Can Do About It.” In Archaeology, Bible, Politics, and the Media: Proceedings of the Duke University Conference, April 23-24, 2009, 39-50, E. Meyers and C. Meyers, eds. (WinonaLake,IND: Eisenbrauns).
2012b “An MB II Orthostat Building at Tel Kabri, Israel” (with A. Yasur-Landau, N. Goshen, N. Marom, and I. Samet). BASOR 367: 1-29.
2011a “Our Cups Overfloweth: ‘Kabri Goblets’ and Canaanite Feasts in the Middle Bronze Age Levant” (with A. Yasur-Landau and I. Samet), in Our Cups are Full. Pottery and Society in the Aegean Bronze Age: Papers Presented to Jeremy B. Rutter on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday, 382-92, W. Gauss, M. Lindblom, R.A.K. Smith, and J.C. Wright, eds. Oxford: Archaeopress.
2011b “Sailing the Great Green Sea: Amenhotep III’s “Aegean List” from Kom el-Hetan, Once More” (with S.M. Stannish). Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections 3/2: 6-16.
2011c “New Fragments of Aegean-Style Painted Plaster from Tel Kabri, Israel” (with A. Yasur-Landau and N. Goshen). American Journal of Archaeology 115/2: 245-261.
2011d “Battlefield Archaeology at Armageddon: Cartridge Cases and the 1948 Battle for Megiddo, Israel” (with A. Sutter). Journal of Military History 75/1: 159-190.
2011e “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On: The Possible Destruction by Earthquake of Megiddo Stratum VIA,” in The Fire Signals of Lachish: Studies in the Archaeology and History of Israel in the Late Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Persian Period in Honor of David Ussishkin, 55-70, I. Finkelstein and N. Na’aman, eds. Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University.
2010 “Bronze Age Interactions between the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean Revisited: Mainstream, Margin, or Periphery?,” in Archaic State Interaction: The Eastern Mediterranean in the Bronze Age, 161-180, W. Parkinson and M. Galaty, eds. Santa Fe, NM: School for Advanced Research.
Recent Television Appearances:
Appearances on Christian Amanpour’s ABC Special: “Back to the Beginning” (Dec 21 and 28, 2012):
(http://abcnews.go.com/International/back_to_the_beginning/)
Hour 1
Garden of Eden: Part 2: http://abcnews.go.com/2020/video/garden-eden-adam-eve-18041835
Noah’s Ark: Part 3: http://abcnews.go.com/2020/video/biblical-noahs-ark-replica-sails-netherlands-18041908
and Part 5: http://abcnews.go.com/2020/video/searching-noahs-ark-treasure-hunters-scale-mount-ararat-18042040
Hour 2
Joshua and Jericho: Part 6: http://abcnews.go.com/International/video/back-beginning-christiane-amanpour-joshua-conquest-canaan-evidence-18087161
David: Part 7: http://abcnews.go.com/International/video/back-beginning-christiane-amanpour-david-bibles-real-hero-18087311
Ark of the Covenant: Part 9: http://abcnews.go.com/International/video/back-beginning-christiane-amanpour-search-ark-covenant-18087435
Classes Taught
History of Ancient Greece
History of Ancient Israel
History of the Ancient Near East and Egypt
Introduction to Archaeology
Archaeology of Israel and Neighboring Lands
Archaeology of the Bronze Age Aegean
Various Dean's seminars (for freshmen) and upper level seminars, including Troy and the Trojan War; Archaeology, Politics, and Nationalism; and Jerusalem through the Ages