Robert A. Mullins

Overview

Robert A. Mullins is an American archaeologist and Professor of Biblical Studies at Azusa Pacific University in California. From 2013 he was a co-director of the joint excavation at Tel Abel Beth Maacah, the site of the city of Abel-Beth-Maacah named in the books of Samuel and Kings, working with Naama Yahalom-Mack and Nava Panitz-Cohen of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Academic Career

Mullins holds a doctorate in archaeology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, a master's degree from Fuller Theological Seminary and a bachelor's degree from Southern California College, and studied at Jerusalem University College. He was a research assistant to Amihai Mazar. His fieldwork before Abel Beth Maacah included Tell Beit She'an, Tel Rehov, Tel Gezer and Tell Atchana.

Major Works and Contributions

His research concerns relations between Egypt and Canaan in the Late Bronze Age, the formation of states in the Iron Age, and Israelite religion. He is the co-author of an Atlas of the Biblical World, wrote the Late Bronze Age chapter of The Ancient Pottery of Israel and Its Neighbors, and co-edited the second volume of the final report on the Beth-Shean excavations with Amihai Mazar.

Biblical Significance of His Work

Abel-Beth-Maacah is the city to which Sheba son of Bichri fled from Joab in 2 Samuel 20, and which Ben-Hadad of Aram struck in 1 Kings 15. Excavating it puts evidence under a place the biblical narrative treats as a northern border town. In the Digging for Truth episode on the favissa at Tel Shiloh, Scott Stripling credits him with helping calibrate the pottery dating of the deposit, a judgement that rests on comparing the assemblage with the Late Bronze Age material he knows from the northern sites.