Albert E. Glock (September 14, 1925 – January 19, 1992) was an American archaeologist working in Palestine, where he was murdered. Glock was born in

Gifford, Idaho Gifford is an unincorporated community in Nez Perce County, Idaho, United States. Gifford is northeast of Culdesac. The community was platted in 1901 by Seth Gifford, a homesteader who moved to the area six years earlier. Gifford had a post of ...

. His parents were deeply religious Lutherans of German ancestry living in

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

. Albert Glock studied at several universities, graduating in 1950 at

Concordia Seminary Concordia Seminary is a Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, Lutheran seminary in Clayton, Missouri. The institution's primary mission is to train pastors, deaconesses, Missionary, missionaries, chaplains, and church leaders for the Lutheran Chur ...

and receiving master's degree from the

Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago The Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (LSTC) is a seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in Chicago, Illinois. LSTC is a member of the Association of Chicago Theological Schools (ACTS), a consortium of eleven area seminaries ...

in 1963. In 1951 he married Lois Sohn, and he served as pastor in

Normal, Illinois Normal is a town in McLean County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2020 census, the town's population was 52,736. Normal is the smaller of two principal municipalities of the Bloomington–Normal metropolitan area, and Illinois' seventh most ...

, for several years. He enrolled at the University of Michigan to pursue his studies under the biblical scholar George E. Mendenhall, who believed the Biblical account of an Israelite invasion of Canaan was incorrect, and that what actually must lie behind the biblical version was a kind of theocratic peasants' revolt from within Canaan. Glock, as a

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...

missionary, came to Palestine in 1962 to work on excavations of

Taanach Ti'inik, also transliterated Ti’innik ( ar, تعّنك), or Ta'anakh/Taanach ( he, תַּעְנַךְ), is a Palestinian village, located 13 km northwest of the city of Jenin in the northern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Burea ...

, an ancient

Canaan Canaan (; Phoenician: 𐤊𐤍𐤏𐤍 – ; he, כְּנַעַן – , in pausa – ; grc-bib, Χανααν – ;The current scholarly edition of the Greek Old Testament spells the word without any accents, cf. Septuaginta : id est Vetus T ...

ite city in south of

Jezreel Valley The Jezreel Valley (from the he, עמק יזרעאל, translit. ''ʿĒmeq Yīzrəʿēʿl''), or Marj Ibn Amir ( ar, مرج ابن عامر), also known as the Valley of Megiddo, is a large fertile plain and inland valley in the Northern Distr ...

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

. Raised to believe that every word of the Bible was 'inerrant', he is described by

Sari Nusseibeh Sari Nusseibeh ( ar, سري نسيبة) (born in 1949) is a Palestinian professor of philosophy and former president of the Al-Quds University in Jerusalem. Until December 2002, he was the representative of the Palestinian National Authority in t ...

as settling down, at

Birzeit Birzeit ( ar, بيرزيت), also Bir Zeit, is a Palestinian Christian town north of Ramallah, in the central West Bank. Its population in the 2007 census was 4,529. Birzeit is the home to Birzeit University and to the Birzeit Brewery. Location ...

, to swap a religious crusade for Palestinian nationalism. He had spent 17 years in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

and the

West Bank The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

, first as a director of the Albright Institute for Archaeology and then as head of the archaeology department of Birzeit University, where he helped to found the Archaeology Institute. He was particularly dedicated to a lifelong project of excavating

Ti'inik Ti'inik, also transliterated Ti’innik ( ar, تعّنك), or Ta'anakh/Taanach ( he, תַּעְנַךְ), is a Palestinian village, located 13 km northwest of the city of Jenin in the northern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Burea ...

. On January 19, 1992 Glock was shot, on the eve of his retirement, which he hoped to spend in

Beit Hanina Beit Hanina ( ar, بيت حنينا , he, בית חנינא) is an Arab Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem. It is on the road to Ramallah, eight kilometers north of central Jerusalem, at an elevation of 780 meters above sea level. Bei ...

, when going to work in the West Bank. Neither reason for the murder nor who did it was reliably identified. Some of his family and most Palestinians thought Israel was responsible, while Israel blamed it on Arab hit men. Witnesses said the getaway car had Israeli license plates. When his wife called Israeli police, they showed up after a delay of 3 hours and showed little interest in investigating the murder scene. Glock's family hired a private investigator who told Sari Nusseibeh that Israeli police had arrested a Palestinian American at Ben Gurion airport, who was linked to Hamas and a terrorist cell run by Adel Awadallah. The man reportedly confessed under interrogation that Awadallah had personally assassinated Glock, as part of the internal conflict between Hamas and the more secular Fatah movement during the second

Intifada An intifada ( ar, انتفاضة ') is a rebellion or uprising, or a resistance movement. It is a key concept in contemporary Arabic usage referring to a legitimate uprising against oppression.Ute Meinel ''Die Intifada im Ölscheichtum Bahrain: ...

.Fox, 2001 It was also reported by a number of sources that Dr. Glock had received several death threats by students upset by a hiring decision that Glock had made shortly before his murder. Albert Glock was an Associate Editor of

Walid Khalidi Walid Khalidi ( ar, وليد خالدي, born 1925 in Jerusalem) is an Oxford University-educated Palestinian historian who has written extensively on the Palestinian exodus. He is a co-founder of the Institute for Palestine Studies, establish ...

's encyclopedia of the Palestinian villages destroyed in 1948, 'All That Remains'.

References

* Edward Fox: "Palestine Twilight: the murder of Dr Albert Glock and the archaeology of the Holy Land", Harper Collins, 2001 and 2002, . In the USA reprinted under name "Sacred Geography: A tale of murder and archaeology in the Holy Land". * ''Archaeology, History and Culture in Palestine and the Near East: Essays in Memory of Albert E. Glock,'' ASOR Books vol. 3, ed. Tomis Kapitan. Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, 1999. Includes several posthumously-published articles written by Glock, including those that divulge his socio-political views regarding the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. * 'All That Remains - The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948.' . (1992) His ethnoarchaeological work was given by his widow Lois to Dr. Brigitte Porëe in France.

External links

Extract from the Fox's book, details and speculations about Glock's death

Article with biographical data

*[https://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/11/books/books-in-brief-nonfiction-971995.html?sq=Albert+Glock&scp=2&st=nyt BOOKS IN BRIEF: NONFICTION :Sacred Geography - A Tale of Murder and Archeology in the Holy Land]
Who killed Dr Glock? "Archaeology is not a science, it is a vendetta."
{{DEFAULTSORT:Glock, Albert 1925 births 1992 deaths Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago alumni Academic staff of Birzeit University People murdered in the Palestinian territories American people murdered abroad Archaeologists of the Near East Biblical archaeologists 20th-century American archaeologists