A Brief Biography

Dr. Eric H. Cline, a former Fulbright scholar, is an award-winning author, teacher, and advisor with degrees in Classical Archaeology, Near Eastern Archaeology, and Ancient History from Dartmouth College (1982), Yale University (1984), and the University of Pennsylvania (1991) respectively. He currently serves as Chair of the Department of Classical and Semitic Languages and Literatures at The George Washington University in Washington, DC, where he holds a joint appointment as Associate Professor in both the Classics/Semitics department and the Anthropology department, with additional courtesy appointments in the History department and the Judaic Studies Program. He is also the advisor for the undergraduate majors in Archaeology and, for his efforts on their behalf, was awarded the GWU 2006 “Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Departmental Advising.”

Prior to his arrival at The George Washington University in September 2000, Dr. Cline taught at Stanford, Xavier, the University of Cincinnati, and CSU Fresno. Nominated several times for teaching awards, he received the “Morton Bender Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching” at The George Washington University in 2004 and the Archaeological Institute of America’s National “Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching” Award for 2005. He currently teaches a wide variety of courses, including History of Ancient Greece, History of Rome, History of Egypt and the Ancient Near East, History of Ancient Israel, Introduction to Archaeology, Archaeology of Israel and Neighboring Lands, Art and Archaeology of the Aegean Bronze Age, the Rise of Old World Cities and States, Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and various smaller Honors and Freshmen Seminars on topics such as History and Homer, Troy and the Trojan War, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Archaeology, Politics, and Nationalism.

Dr. Cline’s primary fields of study are the military history of the Mediterranean world from antiquity to present and the international connections between Greece, Egypt, and the Near East during the Late Bronze Age (1700-1100 BCE). He is an experienced field archaeologist, with 22 seasons of excavation and survey to his credit since 1980. He has worked in Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Cyprus, Greece, Crete, and the United States, including six seasons at the site of Megiddo (biblical Armageddon) in Israel, where he is currently the Associate Director (USA). He is also Co-Director of the new series of archaeological excavations at the site of Tel Kabri, also located in Israel.

A prolific researcher and author with eight books, 63 articles, and 12 book reviews to his credit, Dr. Cline is perhaps best known for his book, The Battles of Armageddon: Megiddo and the Jezreel Valley from the Bronze Age to the Nuclear Age (Ann Arbor 2000; paperback 2002), which received the 2001 Biblical Archaeology Society (BAS) Publication Award for “Best Popular Book on Archaeology,” was a Main Selection of the Natural Science Book Club, sold out its first printing in less than four months, and has now been translated and published into Croatian (2005). The subsequent book, entitled Jerusalem Besieged: From Ancient Canaan to Modern Israel, was published by the University of Michigan Press in October 2004 (paperback 2005). It was a Main Selection of the Discovery Channel Book Club in November 2004, was featured as a USA Today 'Books for Your Brain' Selection in December 2004, and was selected by the AAUP for Public and Secondary School Libraries in June 2005. His most recent book, entitled From Eden to Exile: Unraveling Mysteries of the Bible, was published by the National Geographic Society. It appeared in June 2007, selling out its first print run even before the official release date.

He is also the author of Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: International Trade and the Late Bronze Age Aegean (Oxford 1994) and the co-editor of Amenhotep III: Perspectives on his Reign (Ann Arbor 1998; paperback 2001); The Aegean and the Orient in the Second Millennium BC (Liège 1998); and Thutmose III: A New Biography (Ann Arbor 2006), and is the co-author (with Jill Rubalcaba) of a book for young adults entitled The Ancient Egyptian World, published by Oxford University Press (New York 2005). He is currently writing and/or editing several additional books, including Egypt's Last Hero: The Life and Times of Ramesses III (University of Michigan Press), The Cambridge Field Guide to Old World Archaeology (Cambridge University Press), Biblical Archaeology: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press), and The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean (Oxford University Press). In addition, he has recorded three courses on CD-ROM and cassette for Modern Scholar/Recorded Books: A History of Ancient Israel: From the Patriarchs Through the Romans (March 2007), A History of Ancient Greece: From the Bronze Age through the Hellenistic Age (March 2007), and Archaeology and the Iliad: The Trojan War in Homer and History (January 2006).

Dr. Cline has presented more than 180 scholarly and public lectures and presentations on his work over the past decade, including at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Skirball Museum in Los Angeles. His research has been featured in the Washington Post, the New York Times, US News & World Report, USA Today, National Geographic News, CNN, the London Daily Telegraph, the London Mirror, the Brisbane Courier-Mail, the Cincinnati Enquirer, the Cincinnati Post, and the Associated Press, with all of those articles subsequently reproduced in numerous other periodicals within the United States and abroad. His books have been reviewed in the Times Literary Supplement, the Times Higher Education Supplement, the Jerusalem Post, the Cincinnati Enquirer, the History News Network, Jewish Book World, and many professional journals, while his publications overall have been cited over 2,100 times in more than 400 scholarly books and articles since 1987.

Dr. Cline has been interviewed by syndicated national and international radio hosts including Fergus Nicoll on the BBC World Service/The World Today, Kojo Nnamdi on NPR’s “Public Interest” show, Michael Dresser on “The Michael Dresser” show, and Richard Sheehe on WRGW. His television appearances to date include featured roles as an expert “talking head” in Joshua and the Walls of Jericho (Discovery Channel, Nov 2003), Revelation: The End of the World? (Discovery Channel, Jan 2004), The Truth of Troy (BBC2, March 2004), Beyond the Movie: Conquering Troy (National Geographic Channel, May 2004), Secrets of the Aegean Apocalypse/Mystery of the Sea Peoples (History Channel, August 2004), Countdown to Armageddon (History Channel, December 2004 and April 2005), and Is It Real: Atlantis (National Geographic Channel). He has also both appeared in, and served as a consultant for, numerous shows in the National Geographic Channel’s “Science of the Bible” series, including Exodus Revealed, Lost Cities, Ark of the Covenant, Secrets of Revelation, The Search for Noah’s Ark, Lost Kings of the Bible (David and Solomon), and The Dead Sea Scrolls (National Geographic Channel, March 2006 – April 2007).

In addition to his other responsibilities, Dr. Cline currently serves the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) as Vice-President and as a member of the Executive Committee, the Board of Trustees, the Nominating Committee, and the Committee on Archaeology Policy; he was previously an elected member of the Board of Trustees, Chair of the Annual Meetings and Program Committee (CAMP), a member of the Personnel Committee and the Program Committee, and an ex-officio member of the Executive, Program, Outreach, Lectures, Honors/Awards, Regional Societies, Implementation and Strategic Planning, Development, and Unprovenanced Texts Committees. He has also served as an elected Society Trustee of the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) and currently serves on the Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award Selection Committee for the AIA.

Born in Washington, DC and raised in California (San Francisco and Los Angeles), Dr. Cline is married with two children, two cats, and varying numbers of fish.

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