Archaeology

and the Bible

Definition of archaeology

Archaeology is a historical science whose object of study is the totality of material traces left by man (objects, buildings, infrastructure, etc.).

For this work, the archaeologist has a panoply of tools at his or her disposal: fieldwork (excavations and prospecting), scientific work (carbon 14, dendrochronology, thermoluminescence, etc.) and, where appropriate, consultation of texts contemporary with the material traces being studied. Using these tools, the archaeologist analyzes the material produced by man to determine the relationships he maintained with his environment.

Image opposite Archaeology students unearth a skeleton during excavation of the Philistine cemetery at Ashkelon National Park. REUTERS /Amir Cohen.

Archaeology is about reconstructing the life and history of people in the past, using the traces they have left behind. (ruins, bones, tools, paintings, pottery, weapons, coins, jewelry, clothing, etc.).

Below: some underwater images of the submerged city of Baiae, first excavated in 1923 by Amedeo Maiuri. Antonio Busiello Photography.

 → http://www.antoniobusiello.com/

The pioneers of biblical archaeology«

This «discipline» of archaeology is the study of the peoples and events described in the Scriptures. Archaeologists uncover and study ruined stones, walls or buildings, as well as destroyed cities; they discover pottery, clay tablets, inscriptions, tombs and other ancient remains, man-made objects, from which they derive certain information. These studies shed light on the context in which the Bible was written.

Image opposite An overview of excavations by two archaeologists. © Les métiers de l'archéologie/Musée d'archéologie et l'Histoire de Visé/Cécile Lensen.

In this field, archaeology has enriched our knowledge of all the biblical countries, i.e. the Levant, Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Asia Minor, Greece and Italy (Rome)..

The site of Qumran, near the Dead Sea in the Judean desert. It was in these caves that precious manuscripts were unearthed:
the Dead Sea Scrolls, now on display at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Many scientists consider this one of the most important discoveries of the 20th century © Alefbet.

The basics of biblical archaeology

The foundations of archaeology focused on the study of historical remains in the countries of the Bible were laid with the publication of a first book, Biblische Archäologie (1802) by Johann Jahn, and then above all with the publication of a work on travels in Palestine by Edward Robinson (1794-1863), professor of biblical literature. The latter work, Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai, and Arabia Petraea (1841), had a considerable impact. Edward Robinson attempts to demonstrate that research carried out on the terrain of the Holy Land can confirm the accuracy of biblical sources.

Image opposite: 3,800-year-old pottery (detail) discovered in Yehud, central Israel. AAI.

The highlight of the early excavations was probably the work carried out by Charles Warren between 1867 and 1870 around the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, where he studied the foundations of Herod's Temple and explored Hezekiah's tunnel, with its commemorative plaque featuring the famous paleo-Hebrew inscription, now on display in the Istanbul Museum.
Subsequently, this discipline developed thanks to organizations such as the Palestine Exploration Fund (1865), the Deutscher Palästina-Verein (1877), the École Biblique (1890), which became French Biblical and Archaeological School of Jerusalem, l’American School of Oriental Research (1900), today the’Albright Institute of Archaeological Research, the British School of Archaeology (1919) and those of major American universities (Chicago, Pennsylvania) and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. This work initially led to the mapping of the region and the identification of biblical sites.

The new methods

Systematic excavation of some of these sites only began in the 1890s, when Sir William Petrie developed what was to become a new method of archaeological analysis involving ceramic typology and stratigraphy. Excavation was carried out in strata, one sedimentary layer at a time, allowing us to pinpoint the origin of the remains collected in the stratigraphy of the site.
In the 1930s, under the impetus of Professor William F. Albright, this discipline was applied by several explorers, including Yigael Yadin (in the 1950s), who travelled the Levant in search of the various places mentioned in the Scriptures.

Image opposite: Archaeologists find a gold medallion on Jerusalem's Ophel dating back 1,400 years. © Ouria Tadmor/Eilat Mazar.

At the beginning of the 20th century, excavations focused on major sites such as Jerusalem, Gezer, Megiddo, Jericho, Samaria, and still today in Iraq on the ruins of Babylon, with the German archaeologist Koldewey.
After the Second World War, the discipline was further developed by Kathleen M. Kenyon; her method, used at the Jericho and Jerusalem sites, consisted of digging in squares (5 m on each side) separated by earthen walls (berms).
In the late 1950s and the following decade, a group of American archaeologists, including G. Ernest Wright and David Noel Freedman, in collaboration with Israeli researchers Yigaël Yadin, Benjamin Maazar and Nah-man Avigad, put these new methods into practice on virgin or already explored sites: Hatsor (today Tell el-Qidah), Ashdod, Gezer and Jerusalem.
During the 1970s, archaeology benefited from the contribution of the natural, social and environmental sciences. Computer scientists, geologists, anthropologists, climatologists, ethnologists, zoologists and others joined forces with archaeologists to collect and interpret data. Finally, from the 1970s onwards, after much controversy over attributions and dating, so-called «biblical» archaeology gave way to archaeology tout court.