Clark/Narrating Archaeological Sites, 1. Contextualizing the Quest for Biblical Heshbon at Tall Ḥisbān

To what extent were the goals and accomplishments of the original Heshbon Expedition shaped by the expedition’s leadership’s efforts to navigate the goals and expectations of their academic colleagues, denominational sponsors, and Jordanian hosts? This chapter will offer a brief overview of the hopes and aspirations of each of these groups of stakeholders and explain how the expedition’s leadership sought to satisfy, as far as possible, each one of them while also advancing their own academic aspirations. To this end, biographical details from the lives and careers of the founding directors, Siegfried H. Horn and Lawrence T. Geraty (both, at the time, of the Theological Seminary at Andrews University), and certain of their core staff will be drawn upon to illustrate the shaping influence of personal qualities and histories of individual leaders on the expedition; of often conflicting ideas among core staff about priorities regarding the goals of the expedition and best practices for doing fieldwork; of the strains and stresses of limited finances and the hardships of camp life; and, last but not least, of visits by teams of members of the Committee on Archaeological Policy of the American Society of Overseas Research (ASOR). The chapter will conclude by highlighting ways in which the original Heshbon Expedition set the stage and provided the scientific vision, the know- how, and the leader- ship for what eventually became the Madaba Plains Project.