Soon he went on the classics department's annual dig at Omrit in summer 1999. He joined about 35 other students who rose each day at 4 a.m. to beat blazing heat as they helped uncover a Roman temple. In 1998, Israeli antiquities authorities had entrusted its excavation to Mr. Overman. A seasoned archaeologist, he made a splash in 1990 with the first of two books in which he offered a radical reinterpretation of the Gospel of Matthew. In 1998, a fire cleared undergrowth and revealed remnants of the vast temple complex at Omrit, which was built in the time of Jesus and probably fell during a powerful earthquake in the year 363.
Scholars consider it one of the last great unexcavated Roman temples.
To date, Mr. Overman and his Macalester students have uncovered one wall of the temple. Staying at a nearby kibbutz, the students study the social context of the late Roman Empire and visit holy sites in Jerusalem. His students don't mind. Even in the era of Xena, the Greek warrior princess played by a zaftig, aerobics-togged New Zealander, classics has only limited cool cachet. They have this image of Indiana Jones in the back of their minds.