3) Hippos 7^th Season Fields Record Group, Asia Minor Site of New Dig

Dr. Mark Schuler, professor of Religion & Theology and co-director of the Hippos excavation, will field its largest ever team for the 2008 season of work on the Hippos/Sussita archaeological site in Israel with 31 student and adult volunteers from the U.S. and a team from Concordia Seminary Edmonton.  In addition to archaeological work, participants in the excavation will tour areas of Galilee, Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Jordan.  With Concordia's 2008 season, 38 students and 48 adult volunteers will have participated, with a number of adults returning for multiple seasons.  The 2009 season will be the final year of work on the current permit at Hippos of the Decapolis.  Each year, the teams at Hippos publish a book reporting on the summer season (in English and Hebrew); the report on the 2006 season is now available for order.  Schuler has also agreed to serve on the directorial group for a new excavation in southern Turkey.  A number of the cities of ancient Asia Minor closely associated with the Apostle Paul's mission and churches have not yet been excavated.  The goal of the project is to undertake a full-scale excavation of one of these sites.  A field school would also be established at the site.  Most likely possibilities are Colossae, Lystra, Derbe or Tarsus.  Negotiations and a survey will take place between 2009 and 2010, and the first full excavation season will be in the summer of 2011.