Dr. Daniel Master Appointed New Blanchard Chair of Archaeology

Master has served on faculty at Wheaton since 2000. He teaches a range of classes in archaeology and Old Testament studies. He currently co-directs the excavation at Tel Shimron, where he engages in field research and teaching during the summer excavation season.

In addition to his teaching responsibilities, Master excavated at the site of Ashkelon, Israel for more than 25 years as part of the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon. Although the dig at Ashkelon stopped in 2016, Master continues to direct the publication of its findings as a visiting scholar at the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East and under the continued sponsorship of the Leon Levy Foundation. One of Master’s major discoveries at Ashkelon was a cemetery of the ancient Philistines. This discovery started an international research project, in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology (formerly the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Human History), to recover and analyze the DNA of the ancient Philistines. This resulted in groundbreaking information about the origins of the Philistines—directly demonstrating their immigration to Ashkelon from the west in the 12th century B.C.

In 2015, Master began a new excavation at Tel Shimron, Israel in collaboration with Tel Aviv University. Tel Shimron was the largest city in the Jezreel Valley. Over the last ten years, the international excavation team has uncovered remains from more than 4,000 years of human history. One major discovery was a massive monument from 1800 B.C. which crowned a Bronze Age city of around four thousand people. This excavation has been sponsored by American Archaeology Abroad, the JSC Foundation, the Leon Levy Foundation, and the Museum of the Bible.

Master’s expertise and leadership sustain the biblical archaeology program at Wheaton. Thanks to his leadership, along with the work of his colleagues in the Department of Biblical and Theological Studies, Wheaton’s exceptional interdisciplinary biblical archaeological program is one of a kind among Christian liberal arts colleges and universities.

“Dr. Master has faithfully served Wheaton College for 25 years as an exceptional scholar and teacher,” said Dr. David Lauber, Dean of Humanities and Theological Studies. “His work in the classroom, the archaeology lab, and the field provides students with an unparalleled educational experience. His administrative proficiency as an excavation director fosters rigorous collaborative academic work. This work advances archaeological discoveries that enhance our understanding of the Bible and the ancient world.”

Master is internationally recognized as a scholar, field archaeologist, publisher of excavation research, excavation director, and museum curator. Master and his colleagues’ work has been featured in the New York Times, NPR, PBS, National Geographic, and CNN, as well as numerous global news outlets in multiple languages.