Eric Cline

because they were sending telegrams back and forth.

And Breasted didn't want the telegram operators to know what they had found.

So he issued them Bentley's code book.

And so when they found the ivories and the gold, the telegrams were sent in code.

And

They're in the archives at Chicago.

I've seen them.

I've got pictures of them.

It's really cool.

So they were at the forefront of scientific expeditions.

And Megiddo is still among the backbone of what I would call biblical archaeology.

Everything else in the country, not everything, but a lot of it from the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, they would refer to the levels at Megiddo, the pottery at Megiddo, and say, here we are.

So Chicago's excavations for those 15 years were extremely important, but it was a revolving door of staff, and some of the most important work was done by the most junior people.

that you wouldn't expect.

I'll give you just one example.

The very first volume, what's called Megiddo I, which is the 1925 excavations up to about 1935, is authored by two guys, Lamont and Shipton.

Lamont was a Chicago undergrad when he started out, eventually got his degree by correspondence.

Shipton was a high school dropout, and he was from Wales.

And he went on to become one of the most important people because he and Le Mans learned at the site.

And they became experts on the pottery, on the architecture, on everything.