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Eric and Carol Myers
Biblical Archaeologists
… and Finders of “Lost Arks”
Archaeologists Eric and Carol Meyers, a husband and wife team, have braved scorpions, vipers, and an unexploded bomb to uncover history. Sometimes their work faces protests from ultra-Orthodox Jews who object to digging at Jewish holy sites. To the Meyers, it’s all worth it to discover the roots of Judaism and Christianity. Professors at Duke since the 1970s, Eric and Carol have led over a thousand students on digs in the Middle East.
In 1981, the Meyers turned over a large stone in an ancient synagogue in the Israeli town of Nabratein, and found a surprise—the oldest known remnant of an ark of the covenant, dating between 250 and 360 C.E. (when the synagogue was destroyed by an earthquake). Weighing more than a thousand pounds, the carved limestone top was a thousand years older than any ark previously found. At a time when American audiences were captivated by the film Raiders of the Lost Ark, the discovery made the Meyers celebrities. They found themselves thrust before television cameras and featured in People Weekly.
“I was enthralled with the notion that the Bible is not just this mystical document that appeared out of nowhere but that it was rooted in soil, in rocks, in the ground of antiquity and that it involved real people.” — CAROL MEYERS
“A world without archaeology is like looking in a mirror and seeing only yourself.” — ERIC MEYERS
