Overview
Born in Cincinnati in '00 to German Jewish parents, Glueck developed an early passion for religion & was ordained a Reform rabbi in '23. He earned a University of Jena PhD in Germany in '26. By '28 he was a member of the Hebrew Union College faculty, teaching at the seminary of the Reform Jewish movement. It was then he 1st visited the Holy Land. He developed an intimate knowledge of the land's rich history. An expert on ancient pottery, he was able to match fragments of ceramic to distinct time periods. He was 1st to identify some ancient wares such as the Edomite pottery & Midianite ware, while he rediscovered the now-called Negevite pottery. In the '50s, he discovered remains of the advanced Nabataean civilization in what was then Transjordan. Using irrigation, the Nabateans were able to grow crops & develop a densely populated civilization in the Negev, despite receiving under 6" annual rainfall. He worked with Israel to build an irrigation system modeled on the Nabataeans'. He was author of several books on archeology & religion, including Explorations in Eastern Palestine (4 vols, '34–51), The Other Side of the Jordan ('40), The River Jordan ('46), Rivers in the Desert ('59), Deities & Dolphins ('65) & Hesed in the Bible ('68). Altho he worked to develop a historical understanding of biblical events, he maintained his faith wasn't based on a literal interpretation of the bible. To do that would be to "confuse fact with faith, history with holiness, science with religion." He died in Cincinnati in '71.