Professors of Biblical archaeology standing in bread lines? Well, no—at least not yet. The downturn in the economy, however, has hit the fields of Biblical archaeology and ancient Near Eastern studies particularly hard.

Even in the best of times, it is difficult to find a permanent job in these fields. The number of new Ph.D.s entering the job market every year almost always surpasses the number of available positions in universities, museums or antiquities departments. Scholars who teach Hebrew or Biblical archaeology are in a slightly better position than those teaching Hittite, for example, because these fields are more popular and are taught in a variety of seminaries and liberal arts colleges. However, because these fields are so popular, more people earn Ph.D.s in them, meaning the competition for available jobs is still fierce.

Freshly minted Ph.D.s often hope either to land a full-time teaching job right away or, as is more common, to obtain postdoctoral fellowships that provide new scholars the opportunity to conduct research, develop their publication records and acquire valuable teaching experience. Hopefully the fellowships, publications and teaching experience make them more attractive on the job market, thereby increasing their chances of eventually landing a tenure-track job. Some do land such jobs, while others move from one temporary position to another like academic nomads. Still others decide simply to leave the field altogether.

This is how things have been, but with the economy as it is now, new difficulties have arisen that may be unfamiliar to BAR readers. For example, many professors, like others in the education fields, do not have pension funds but instead have retirement accounts invested in the stock and bond markets. With the markets down 30 to 40 percent during the past year, the value of these retirement accounts has plummeted, meaning that many senior faculty who might like to retire are reluctant to do so because they may not have enough to live on in retirement.

There is an ancillary problem to this. If senior professors do not retire, there will be fewer jobs available for younger scholars. And even if professors do retire, universities are now in a budget-cutting mood; they are much more likely to fill “necessary” positions in English, economics and engineering than those in perceived “luxury” fields like Near Eastern studies. Because they fear that their schools may eliminate their positions entirely if they retire, some senior faculty are thus unwilling to step down until the economy improves and there is a chance their positions will be filled.

There is a host of other ways in which the economy is affecting the field. The University of Pennsylvania’s ill-advised decision to close its world-renowned Museum Applied Science Center for Archaeology (MASCA) is at least partly due to the economy. Similarly, the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) could not offer some excavation grants this year because of their declining endowment. The number of volunteers signing up for digs was also down this year, as were donations to excavation projects. It is, of course, the hard work and financial contributions of hundreds of volunteers each year that make digs possible. For these reasons, some digs went into the field facing uncertain financial futures. The current financial crisis has led to scaled-back projects for the moment, but if the crisis continues or recovery is slow, who knows what will happen to field work, let alone the even-slower pace of publication.

At my school, Cornell University, the deans in Arts and Sciences have decreed budget cuts of about 10 percent for each of the next three years. This has had a dramatic impact on the Department of Near Eastern Studies and the Program in Archaeology. The result will be higher fees and less financial aid for students, including teaching assistantships. Non-tenure-track faculty are being laid off in some cases.