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Douglas "Doug" R. Edwards papers, 1918-2007

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Edwards, Douglas R.
Title
Douglas "Doug" R. Edwards papers
Dates
1918-2007 (inclusive)
1994-2007 (bulk)
Quantity
30 linear feet, (72 boxes)
Collection Number
Mss.033
Summary
This collection contains material from three archeological excavations and surveys in which Professor Douglas R. Edwards of the University of Puget Sound (Tacoma, Washington) served as director or consultant. The first part of the collection relates to the Jotapata / Yodefat expedition in Galilee. The second part is related to the Khirbet Qana archeological project in Israel from 1998-2008. Khirbet Qana (also known as Cana or Cana of Galilee) was the site of a historical village of Roman Galilee, eight miles northwest of Nazareth, on the north side of an important trade route, the Beit Netofa Valley. The third part of the material is from the Chersonesos archeological project (Black Sea Project) from 1994-1998, on a site in present-day Sebastopol, Ukraine. The final part of the collection relates to Edwards' scholarly work.
Repository
University of Puget Sound, Archives & Special Collections

Collins Memorial Library
1500 N. Warner St.
CMB1021
Tacoma, WA
98416-1021
Telephone: 2538792669
archives@pugetsound.edu
Access Restrictions

This collection is available for research.

Languages
Materials are primarily in English. Some of the reports and files from the Qana excavation are in Hebrew. Some of the materials from Chersonesos (Black Sea Project) are in Russian. Some article reproductions are in Hebrew and French. The collection includes some drawings of Hebrew inscriptions.
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Historical Note

Dr. Douglas "Doug" R. Edwards was professor of New Testament and archaeology at the University of Puget Sound, in Tacoma, Washington. Edwards also led Puget Sound students on archaeological expeditions in Israel, Ukraine, and Greece. Born in Hardy, Nebraska, he earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Nebraska and a Ph.D. in New Testament and Christian Origins from Boston University, where he met his wife, Mary Lynn. Edwards took a position at Puget Sound in 1987, where he taught classes in New Testament, Hebrew Bible, ancient Near Eastern religions, and archaeology.

Edwards first excavated at Sepphoris, Israel in 1986 where he was an area supervisor. He continued at Sepphoris for another six years before helping to excavate roof tiles with the stamp of the 6th legion Ferrata at Kefar Hananya. He led his first excavation as a co-director at Yodefat (Jotapata) in 1992. Between 1994 and 1998, he co-directed excavations at ancient Chersonesos (modern Sebastopol) in Ukraine. The Black Sea Project concentrated on a fifth or sixth century basilica that had been excavated previously from the 1930s to the 1960s. The excavations sought to understand the transformation of the area in the Late Hellenistic or Early Roman period. In 1998, Edwards initiated excavations at Khirbet Qana (also known as Kana, or Cana of the Galilee) in the Beit Netofa Valley in Israel. Edwards' aim was to compare the archaeological findings from urban sites in the Roman and Byzantine periods with findings from rural village sites such as Khirbet Qana. Based on previous surveys, there was a great deal of evidence that the village had been occupied from the Neolithic through the Ottoman periods. The most significant occupations appear to have occurred in the Early Roman and Late Byzantine periods. Khirbet Qana is possibly the Galilean village memorialized by the writer of the Gospel of John as the site at which Jesus turns water to wine at a wedding feast (John 2:1-11). The discovery of a Crusader-era "veneration cave" shows that medieval Christians considered Khirbet Qana to be a sacred place. Due to safety concerns about taking students to Israel (during the Second Intifada), Edwards began taking students to archaeological expeditions in Greece where he acted as GPS/GIS consultant. These included the Iklaina project in Pylos, Stymphalos in Peloponnesos, Kenchreai, SHARP (Korphos) in Corinth, and Sikyon Projects. Edwards was an early adopter of GPS (Global Positioning Systems) / GIS (Geographic Information System) in archeological excavations and employed these techniques in Israel, Greece, and Ukraine. GPS/GIS is used in archeology to collect data points, such as artifact and square locations, for later transfer to a database for analysis and processing. A donation of GPS equipment from the Trimble Foundation allowed Edwards to use GPS/GIS in his archeological projects. In 2008, unable to make the trip to Israel, he directed the excavations at Khirbet Qana via teleconference. Edwards died on November 22, 2008, after an eight-year battle with multiple myeloma. He was 58 years old.

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Content Description

This collection contains material from three different archeological digs: Jotapata / Yodefat and Khirbet Qana in Israel and Chersonesos in the Ukraine. The bulk of the material is related to the excavations themselves. This includes field reports, square field notes, technical reports, artifact lists, bucket lists, coin lists, pottery readings, baulk and top plan drawings, archaeological artifacts including pottery shards, and dig samples.

Administrative material includes research material, grant and email correspondence, index cards, database printouts, transparencies, aerial and site photos, slides, and slide indexes.

The collection also includes material relating to Edwards' work as a professor including class syllabi, his curriculum vitae, and publications and lectures.

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Use of the Collection

Preferred Citation

[Name of document, date.] Douglas "Doug" R. Edwards papers, Mss.033. University of Puget Sound Archives & Special Collections. Tacoma, Washington.

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Administrative Information

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Detailed Description of the Collection

Helen V. Edwards
2021

CC Attribution
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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