I was drawn to Wendy C. Ortiz ’s memoir Excavation because it seemed like a lofty undertaking: In a story about an affair between a teenager and her 15-years-older teacher, was it possible to not to slip too far into overtly salacious or preachy, finger-wagging territory? Steven Ortiz He was the director of the former Tandy Institute for Archaeology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary where he was instrumental in establishing a new academic program in Archaeology and Biblical Studies where Southwestern currently has over 40 MA and PhD students in archaeology.
The Tel Gezer Excavation and Publication Project
The Tel Gezer Excavation and Publication Project was a consortium of institutions under thedirection of Steve Ortiz and Sam Wolff. It was a multi-disciplinary field project investigating the Bronze and Iron Age history of the ancient biblical city of Tel Gezer. After ten years in the field, the project ended, having completed its final season in the summer of 2017. Now the staff will be focused on the official publications.
Gezer in the News
The results of the 2017 Gezer season made the news! Read the Newsweek article here, the Haaretz article here, and see a short news story here.
For an up close account of the 2017 spring excavation of Gezer's four-room house, see the video here.
Dr. Sam Wolff was a recipient of ASOR's Study of Collections Fellowships. See the ASOR website for the update.
2016 Press Release- See the results from last summer!
Recent Activities
March 12, 2018: Director Dr. Sam Wolff gives Moody Bible Institute students a tour of Gezer lab
March 9-11, 2018: Southwest Commission on Religious Studies
At the ASOR sessions at the annual regional conference, the work of the Tel Gezer Project was well-represented with two staff members giving presentations:
Backuptrans whatsapp coupon code. Cameron Coyle, Field Archaeologist: 'So Solomon Rebuilt Gezer: The Rise and Fall of Solomon's Gezer'
Marcella Barbosa, Field Archaeologist: 'Tel Gezer Excavation Project: 2017 Season'
There are two additional projects associated with the Tel Gezer Excavations:
The Gezer Regional Survey: contact Dr. Eric Mitchell (emitchell@swbts.edu)
Gezer Water System: contact Dr. Dan Warner (dwarner6@cfl.rr.com)
Sponsored by:
The Tandy Institute for Archaeology at
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
Consortium Schools
Ashland Theological Seminary
College of the Ozarks
Emmaus Bible College
Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary - Marian Eakins Museum
Lancaster Bible College and Graduate School
Lycoming College
Affiliated Schools (Includes previous consortium members):
Andrews University (associate 2013)
Clear Creek Baptist College (former consortium)
Evangel University
Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (former consortium, 2006-2013)
Missouri State University
Southwestern Assemblies of God University (SAGU)
Supporting Institutions
The Gezer Regional Council
Israel Nature and National Parks Protection Authority
Affiliated with the Amercian Schools of Oriental Research
Contact Information
Dr. Steve Ortiz
Tandy Institute for Archaeology
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
P.O. Box 22308
Fort Worth, TX 76122
Dr. Sam Wolff
Israel Antiquities Authority
P.O. Box 586
91004 Jerusalem Israel
Review by Amber Peckham
Wendy Ortiz’s memoir Excavation (Future Tense Books, July 2014) is titled after a process not just of digging, but of exposing, laying bare artifacts in a way that allows researchers to study and learn from them. This is the exact task she is about as well, working the fingers of her direct, artful prose into one of the most painful periods of her past in an attempt to understand how it has shaped and impacted her present self. This may be the aim of all memoir, but Ortiz’s story and use of craft are both compelling enough to set her work apart.
The story begins harmlessly enough; Ortiz is a detached teenager from a dysfunctional home whose new English teacher, Mr. Ivers, sees her passion for writing and urges her to pursue it. After he reads the explicit romance novel Wendy has been drafting, he gives her his phone number and asks her to call him to talk about the book. And they do talk about the book, at first, and many other things, related to the reader in a series of blasé paragraphs that only heighten the shock of Ivers’ real aim: sex.
“He said he wondered what it would be like to have his face between my legs,” Ortiz writes, “and I crossed my legs hard, trying to imagine what this must mean, flipping mental pages of Cosmopolitan in my head to remember what I had read of oral sex, what it might feel like, and I found myself enjoying the way he growled these desires in my ear.”
Excavation Ortiz Review
At the time of this conversation, 1986, Ortiz was thirteen and her teacher was twenty-eight. What follows it is an affair that lasts into her late teens and that haunts her into adulthood. For an adult reader, Ivers’ actions are sickening, even as we sympathize with teenage Wendy and her need for stability, love, and belonging. Ortiz the author does not simply abandon her readers to the situation; she keeps us by the hand, offering us a mooring in her modern outlook, which is revealed through “Notes” sections set in the mid-2000’s. Through the skillful use of these interludes, Ortiz is able to satisfy the reader’s most pressing concerns while at the same time heighten the overwhelming tension created by her past.
As an adult in her late twenties she leads writing workshops for troubled youths, and reflects on the fact that she would never start an affair with any of them. Later, she reads news articles about students caught in similar situations by their teachers. These interludes are short, but serve to reassure the reader that Ortiz will somehow or another get out of the affair and move on to the position from which the book is written. Our instinct that this is mostly a place of happiness is confirmed by the book’s final chapter, while the interlude near the median, “Reasons I Didn’t Tell,” is a litany that will speak to anyone with a secret to hide.
The most skillfully handled aspect of this retelling is Ortiz’s ability to recall and evoke the outlook of her teenage self, a project aided by the journals she kept at the time (against the wishes of Ivers, who despite his many unforgivable flaws encouraged Wendy to write constantly.) She relates details of their relationship, her crumbling home life, and her own descent into alcohol and drug dependency with a vulnerability that shows understanding and love for herself. This is a perspective and voice she came to after many years of preparation, as she reveals when she writes, “In therapy rooms around downtown Olympia, Washington, I contemplated the eventual excavation, and later, when it began, I was able to use my brain, my eyes, my hands. I got dirty with the tools and plunged body first into the experience. And I learned to not let the dirt swallow me whole.”
Anyone with their own digging to do can learn from her graceful, brave book. Ortiz’s gripping memoir will be enjoyed by anyone with a secret they want to reflect on, and would also be a good read for a teenager grappling with disenfranchisement, drug dependency, or a broken home.
Rating: 5/5 Stars
Excavation Ortiz