Edwards, a religion professor at the University of Puget Sound for 21 years, has just wrapped up using video technology in Tacoma to conduct an archaeological dig in Israel – the first time anyone has led an excavation online, he says.

From July 9 through Saturday, Edwards supervised a team of 18 volunteers from the South Sound and across the nation, including two graduates from UPS and his 18-year-old daughter, Helen, who came home Wednesday.

“He’s an amazing and far-reaching presence – literally – in that he was able to effectively direct an entire project from thousands of miles away,” said Chris Mundigler, a colleague from Victoria, B.C., who’s worked with Edwards since 2002 on projects around the Mediterranean.

Leading the dig from afar was born of necessity: Edwards, 58, is receiving daily treatment for bone cancer and learned in April that he couldn’t accompany the team to Israel, where he’s directed digs since 1992.

With the volunteers already signed up, canceling wasn’t an option.

As Edwards put it simply, “I wanted to dig. We had things to find.”

The team worked at Khirbet Cana, eight miles northwest of Nazareth. Cana is the site of a marriage feast where Jesus turned water to wine, according to the New Testament. The team looked for clues – from shards of pottery to soil changes – to see how first-century villages evolved.

VIDEO CONFERENCING

Six days each week, Edwards held morning video conferences with his on-site director, along with specialists in Seattle, British Columbia and Virginia.

“The field supervisor gives me a report on what’s happening, and we can share files, pictures on our computer screens,” Edwards said. “For instance, if we have aerial photos and I want them to excavate a certain area, I can circle the place we want to talk about, and they can make comments on the screen.”

The instant feedback – no mean feat when connecting individuals from scattered time zones – was valuable, he added.

However, “online” doesn’t necessarily translate into easy.

“The speed of the system is only as good as the weakest link,” Edwards said. “We do have delays, usually on the Israel end.”

On a typical day, he began with the 8 a.m. conference, then sifted through at least three videos and 20 to 30 photos from the site supervisor.

At the beginning, he spent 10 to 12 hours a day working on the dig. Toward the end, that tapered down to five or six hours.

Edwards’ wife, Mary Lynn, said his Dell laptop and his Verizon wireless card were with him at all times.

“He didn’t mind being in the hospital,” she said, “but he did mind not having Internet.” Occasionally, “he would be awake at 4 a.m. and want to read reports online.”

Edwards gave a nonchalant explanation: “When you can’t sleep, I figure you might as well get up and do something, so I did.”

DAUGHTER ON THE SCENE

Lynn said it helped that Helen was out in the field when her father couldn’t be.

“He loves having her there and sharing this passion of his,” she said.

Edwards has been receiving cancer treatment since 2000 and is awaiting his third stem cell transplant. He’s on medical leave from UPS this fall, but plans to return to Israel in the spring for a fellowship at the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research.

Barry Goldstein, a UPS geology professor who’s worked on digs with Edwards since 1998, described his colleague as a visionary and the “glue” of the lengthy excavation process.

Goldstein said the new technology allows interested parties to receive bits of information as on-site teams update an online database, rather than waiting five to 10 years for a comprehensive paper to be published.

“His passion got us all excited about it,” Goldstein said. “He keeps us motivated and tied to the project.”

Edwards said virtual conferencing can’t fully capture the feeling of a dig.

“It’s not like standing there and walking around and smelling the soil,” he said.

Also, he misses the heat.

“It doesn’t get hot enough in the Northwest,” he said.

But with time, he predicted, long-distance conferencing will become the standard. He already plans to integrate it into next summer’s dig, whether or not he’s on site.

“With good people in the field, this is a nice alternative,” he said.

Joyce Chen: 253-597-8633