Clinton, Dole, Perot, Kemp, Gore, tax cuts, bridges to another century, Dick Morris, debates, and “the character issue.”
The men and matters consuming this town are numbing. Relief had to be sought.
“The new Israeli government was elected with the help of ultra-Orthodox Jews, and they have this thing about excavating graves,” Hershel Shanks said.
I had called Shanks, founder and editor of 200,000-circulation Biblical Archaeology Review and 60,000-circulation Bible Review. Neither publication provides insight into whether President Clinton can win Florida or inspiration for “This Week With David Brinkley.”
If Bob Dole is (politically) dead, the guys Shanks worries about are really toast and don’t have condos in Bal Harbour, Fla. They were buried thousands of years ago.
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“As a matter of Jewish law, these ultra-Orthodox objectors are wrong. There is rabbinical authority for removing bones that are endangered. And if those bones are not excavated and reburied with respect and dignity, the chance is they will be vandalized and bulldozed.”
Nothing could be more unsettling for Shanks, 65, a Harvard Law School graduate and former Justice Department lawyer who turned a passion into a profession and is a prominent figure in archeology and Bible studies.
As he has made both disciplines understandable to lay people, he has rattled the establishment. He has asserted that the work of a famous British archeologist was tarnished by his anti-Zionist views, infuriated the Israeli government by chiding its refusal to release a photo of a major pottery find, and urged governments to sell duplicates of major finds to help archeologists financially and to hamper the market in stolen antiquities.
His biggest achievement, however, was ending the effective monopoly of a small group of scholars over access to the Dead Sea Scrolls, one of the greatest archeological discoveries. He forced California’s Huntington Library, one of four institutions with photocopies of the scrolls, to break ranks and make the copies available.
As for his current concern: “The ultras want archeology to stop whenever there are graves. Period. They are powerful in (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu’s government. They have lots of power now over excavations in Israel, and archeologists are concerned. They want to change the law so whenever bones are encountered, an excavation stops.”
OK. What else is on his mind?
“The failure of archeologists to publish final reports. Either the archeologists have simply not been doing it or they have been dying. Remember, if you excavate without publishing a final report, it is tantamount to looting.”
“The last four major digs, going back to 1961 in Jerusalem, all four of the excavators have died without publishing their final reports. These are distinguished, eminent scholars and archeologists, but they failed to publish.”
Shanks gave examples of the perils of not publishing final reports. One involves the Dead Sea Scrolls. The discovery came in the 1950s, but there still isn’t a formal report.
“We are still trying to figure who the Dead Sea Scrolls people were,” Shanks explained.
For example, might they be the Essenes?
“One peculiar thing about the Essenes, according to ancient descriptions, is that they had a thing about going to the bathroom. When you joined the Essenes, one had a probation period, then another. It was a communitarian society, and they had a thing about going to the bathroom, so when you first applied, they gave you a shovel and strict instructions on how to dig a trench, go to the bathroom, cover it up, and how to hold your skirt while doing all this.”
He’d love to know if anything like those shovels were found. He knows some metal objects were found and are in the possession of several Belgium archeologists. Without the full report, he and others are still grasping for answers.
What else is up in his world? He mentioned the need to bring to the public the treasures in the hands of private collectors, often “made out to be pariahs” by archeologists.
Then there are divisions between those interested in using archeology to “illuminate the Bible” and another disinterested in the Bible. One group of scholars, centered at the University of Copenhagen, are “biblical minimalists, very extreme in their view that the Bible doesn’t contain any history.”
Finally, he mentioned frustration with Egypt for not being hospitable to cadres of volunteer excavators. Shanks has brought this up to the Egyptian ambassador here.
Hmmm. Sounds like the sort of political arm-twisting associated with that slimy secular world of late 20th Century politics. The one I was trying to avoid, at least for a week.
“Well,” said Shanks, “we do have our causes.”
OK, so bend over backward
Here’s a snippet from Thursday’s briefing for the White House press corps by Mike McCurry, spokesman for the most powerful man on earth. The topic turned to Dole campaign calls for President Clinton to reveal his medical records:
Q: Mike, are you saying the president does not now have and has not since he entered the White House, been treated for a sexually transmitted disease?
Mr. McCurry: Boy, I tell you, I’m astonished you’re asking that question. . . . But it’s obvious that he has not because that would have been reported at the time that he had his annual medical exam, or alternatively, we would have affirmatively provided you that information.”
The hardened newsies pressed on, notably on McCurry’s declarations about certain “embarrassing” medical tests being kept private.
Q: Mike, you seem to be saying that even taking a test for HIV, or some other sexually transmitted disease, just taking the test is in and of itself embarrassing.
Mr. McCurry: Look, I’m trying to keep some level of dignity here. I’m talking about things like rectal exams, OK. Do you want to have all those things spread out there?
Q: We really have reached a new low.
Mr. McCurry: You guys are really bored. It’s hard to know that there is a campaign under way here.
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And today’s gold star goes to . . .
The office of Sen. Paul Coverdell (R-Ga.) passed along this “correction on previous Coverdell release” late Friday:
“A press release dated September 12, 1996 entitled `Coverdell: Parents Must Wise Up to Dangers of Teenage Drug Use’ included a story about a teenage girl that died from the `date-rape drug’ Rohypnol. The `date-rape drug’ was not Rohypnol; it was gamma y-hydroxybutyrate which is also known as GHB, Easy Lay and Liquid X. We apologize for the error.”
It took a big man. Apology accepted.
Cokie watch
I feel guilty.
I’d just arrived at a TV studio to appear on a Canadian morning show. I spied Steve Roberts, reporter for U.S. News & World Report and husband of Cokie Roberts, and was informed by a young lady that Roberts refused to go on the air with the Heathen from Chicago.
She offered to let me come on later, alone. I declined and split.
Several days later, James Fallows, the new editor of U.S. News, canned Roberts. He finds his own paid moonlighting unseemly and his reporting uninspired.
For sure, the social safety net for pundits quickly came into play, and Steve had several small gigs lined up, including a radio show.
Still, if I’d known what was imminent, I would have taken the Canadians’ $100 and donated it to Steve. I’m mindful of pressures on a female breadwinner.