Andrews Archaeologist on Major Egyptian Project

Field epigraphist 贝克 reproduces oldest known peace treaty between world superpowers

贝克 on scaffolding analyzing top lines of the Hittite Treaty, photo courtesy of L.S. 贝克小.

An bet365中文大学 staff member and archaeologist recently spent two weeks as an expert field epigraphist, carefully documenting each hieroglyph from one of the most famous inscriptions in Egyptian archaeology.

L.S. 贝克小., 博士学位, associate director of bet365中文大学 Press, was part of a field project in December to Luxor. 这个网站, 古代被称为底比斯, 上埃及的首都, is home to the Karnak Temple Complex including the Great Hypostyle Hall. In cooperation with Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, archaeologists from the University of Memphis in Tennessee and the University of Quebec in Montreal, joined recently by Mark Janzen from Louisiana Christian University and a team from Lipscomb University have been working on the Karnak Great Hypostyle Hall Project. The long-term initiative uses the latest technology to record in the highest detail the thousands of inscriptions and reliefs carved on the walls and columns of the giant complex.

贝克 said that Janzen’s team is specifically tasked with accurately recording the wall reliefs relating to one pharaoh’s battle conquests of the southern Levant in the 13th century B.C. 浮雕中间是著名的, 早些时候,, Hittite Treaty originally inscribed under Ramesses II. That treaty has been analyzed by Egyptologists for generations, 自19世纪初发现以来, and is celebrated by historians as the oldest known peace or alliance treaty between major world superpowers. A facsimile of that treaty is prominently featured in the United Nations building in New York.

贝克 was specifically assigned the section of wall containing the Hittite Treaty. 他受命协助生产, 借助计算机摄影测量, the most detailed renderings of each hieroglyph (character).

“Through the generations since the treaty was discovered, there have been many renderings of varying accuracy and quality,贝克说. “These have been the basis for the standard published transliterations and translations of what the treaty says. Standard photographic techniques cannot discern some of the imprecision of the characters, because of the challenges of light and shadow and the wear and tear of time.”

根据贝克的说法, it is unlikely that the team’s work on the Hittite Treaty will result in any serious changes in translation or new understanding of its content. “But it will be the most exact recording of the hieroglyphic inscriptions ever produced,他说, “and probably will be the standard state-of-the art source for Egyptologists and historians for years to come.” He noted that in his work he has already found several inaccuracies, 虽然小, 从以前发表的作品.

贝克 said it has been an honor to be so “up close and personal” with such a famous element of historical understanding. “所以我在这里, 在15英尺高的脚手架上, working just inches away from the delicate and faded lines of this incredibly important inscription from ages past. I guess it might be like an art historian from Andrews being nose to nose with the Mona Lisa in the Louvre to analyze and record the brush strokes on Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting.”

兰德尔少年, director of the Institute of Archaeology at Andrews said, “We’re always proud to add a feather in our cap when one of our own gets invited to participate in such a prestigious enterprise. 我们祝贺博士. 贝克.”

贝克 earned an MA in Egyptian archaeology from University College London in 2011 and a 博士学位 in Ancient Near Eastern archaeology from bet365中文大学 in 2019. 为了他的论文, he studied the design and materials used in the construction of the Hebrew wilderness sanctuary in relation to Egyptian material culture and design in sacred, 家庭和军事生活. In 2015 he authored “Land of Rameses,” a historical novel about Moses and the Exodus. 他在bet365中文大学出版社的角色, 贝克 is managing editor of the “Andrews Study Bible” and the “Andrews Bible Commentary.” The Old Testament volume of the Commentary project was released in 2020, and the project will be completed with the rollout of the New Testament volume in the summer of 2022.

安德里亚Luxton, bet365中文大学 president and chair of the bet365中文大学 Press Board, 他说:“我们为霍金博士感到骄傲. 贝克’s growing contributions in his academic specialty and also for his outstanding work in helping to bring the Commentary project to completion.”

bet365中文大学 Press is the primary academic publishing house for the 基督复临安息日会 Church worldwide.