Biblical Archaeology: A Very Short Introduction
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AFRICAN HISTORY
John Parker and Richard Rathbone
AMERICAN POLITICAL PARTIES AND ELECTIONS
L. Sandy Maisel
THE AMERICAN PRESIDENCY
Charles O. Jones
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ANCIENT EGYPT Ian Shaw
ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY Julia Annas
ANCIENT WARFARE
Harry Sidebottom
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THE APOCRYPHAL GOSPELS
Paul Foster
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ARCHAEOLOGY Paul Bahn
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ARISTOTLE Jonathan Barnes
ART HISTORY Dana Arnold
ART THEORY Cynthia Freeland
ATHEISM Julian Baggini
AUGUSTINE Henry Chadwick
AUTISM Uta Frith
BARTHES Jonathan Culler
BESTSELLERS John Sutherland
THE BIBLE John Riches
BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY
Eric H. Cline
BIOGRAPHY Hermione Lee
THE BOOK OF MORMON
Terryl L. Givens
THE BRAIN Michael O’Shea
BRITISH POLITICS Anthony Wright
BUDDHA Michael Carrithers
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Michael Allingham
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Helen Morales
CLASSICS
Mary Beard and John Henderson
CLAUSEWITZ Michael Howard
THE COLD WAR Robert McMahon
COMMUNISM Leslie Holmes
CONSCIOUSNESS Susan Blackmore
CONTEMPORARY ART
Julian Stallabrass
CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY
Simon Critchley
COSMOLOGY Peter Coles
THE CRUSADES Christopher Tyerman
CRYPTOGRAPHY
Fred Piper and Sean Murphy
DADA AND SURREALISM
David Hopkins
DARWIN Jonathan Howard
THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS
Timothy Lim
DEMOCRACY Bernard Crick
DESCARTES Tom Sorell
DESERTS Nick Middleton
DESIGN John Heskett
DINOSAURS David Norman
DOCUMENTARY FILM
Patricia Aufderheide
DREAMING J. Allan Hobson
DRUGS Leslie Iversen
THE EARTH Martin Redfern
ECONOMICS Partha Dasgupta
EGYPTIAN MYTH Geraldine Pinch
EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN
Paul Langford
THE ELEMENTS Philip Ball
EMOTION Dylan Evans
EMPIRE Stephen Howe
ENGELS Terrell Carver
ETHICS Simon Blackburn
THE EUROPEAN UNION
John Pinder and Simon Usherwood
EVOLUTION
Brian and Deborah Charlesworth
EXISTENTIALISM Thomas Flynn
FASCISM Kevin Passmore
FEMINISM Margaret Walters
THE FIRST WORLD WAR
Michael Howard
FOSSILS Keith Thomson
FOUCAULT Gary Gutting
FREE SPEECH Nigel Warburton
FREE WILL Thomas Pink
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
William Doyle
FREUD Anthony Storr
FUNDAMENTALISM Malise Ruthven
GALAXIES John Gribbin
GALILEO Stillman Drake
GAME THEORY Ken Binmore
GANDHI Bhikhu Parekh
GEOGRAPHY
John Matthews and David Herbert
GEOPOLITICS Klaus Dodds
GERMAN LITERATURE
Nicholas Boyle
GLOBAL CATASTROPHES
Bill McGuire
GLOBAL WARMING Mark Maslin
GLOBALIZATION Manfred Steger
THE GREAT DEPRESSION AND THE NEW DEAL
Eric Rauchway
HABERMAS James Gordon Finlayson
HEGEL Peter Singer
HEIDEGGER Michael Inwood
HIEROGLYPHS Penelope Wilson
HINDUISM Kim Knott
HISTORY John H. Arnold
THE HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY
Michael Hoskin
THE HISTORY OF LIFE
Michael Benton
THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE
William Bynum
THE HISTORY OF TIME
Leofranc Holford-Strevens
HIV/AIDS Alan Whiteside
HOBBES Richard Tuck
HUMAN EVOLUTION
Bernard Wood
HUMAN RIGHTS Andrew Clapham
HUME A. J. Ayer
IDEOLOGY Michael Freeden
INDIAN PHILOSOPHY Sue Hamilton
INTELLIGENCE Ian J. Deary
INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION
Khalid Koser
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Paul Wilkinson
ISLAM Malise Ruthven
JOURNALISM Ian Hargreaves
JUDAISM Norman Solomon
JUNG Anthony Stevens
KABBALAH Joseph Dan
KAFKA Ritchie Robertson
KANT Roger Scruton
KIERKEGAARD Patrick Gardiner
THE KORAN Michael Cook
LAW Raymond Wacks
LINCOLN Allen C. Guelzo
LINGUISTICS Peter Matthews
LITERARY THEORY Jonathan Culler
LOCKE John Dunn
LOGIC Graham Priest
MACHIAVELLI Quentin Skinner
THE MARQUIS DE SADE John Phillips
MARX Peter Singer
MATHEMATICS Timothy Gowers
THE MEANING OF LIFE
Terry Eagleton
MEDICAL ETHICS Tony Hope
MEDIEVAL BRITAIN
John Gillingham and Ralph A. Griffiths
MEMORY Jonathan Foster
MODERN ART David Cottington
MODERN CHINA Rana Mitter
MODERN IRELAND Senia Paýeta
MODERN JAPAN
Christopher Goto-Jones
MOLECULES Philip Ball
MORMONISM
Richard Lyman Bushman
MUSIC Nicholas Cook
MYTH Robert A. Segal
NATIONALISM Steven Grosby
NELSON MANDELA Elleke Boehmer
THE NEW TESTAMENT AS LITERATURE
Kyle Keefer
NEWTON Robert Iliffe
NIETZSCHE Michael Tanner
NINETEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN
Christopher Harvie and H. C. G. Matthew
THE NORMAN CONQUEST
George Garnett
NORTHERN IRELAND
Marc Mulholland
NOTHING Frank Close
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
Joseph M. Siracusa
THE OLD TESTAMENT
Michael D. Coogan
PARTICLE PHYSICS Frank Close
PAUL E. P. Sanders
PHILOSOPHY Edward Craig
PHILOSOPHY OF LAW
Raymond Wacks
PHILOSOPHYO
F SCIENCE
Samir Okasha
PHOTOGRAPHY Steve Edwards
PLATO Julia Annas
POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
David Miller
POLITICS Kenneth Minogue
POSTCOLONIALISM Robert Young
POSTMODERNIS
Christopher Butler
POSTSTRUCTURALISM
Catherine Belsey
PREHISTORY Chris Gosden
PRESOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY
Catherine Osborne
PSYCHIATRY Tom Burns
PSYCHOLOGY
Gillian Butler and Freda McManus
PURITANISM Francis J. Bremer
THE QUAKERS Pink Dandelion
QUANTUM THEORY
John Polkinghorne
RACISM Ali Rattansi
THE REAGAN REVOLUTION GilTroy
THE REFORMATION Peter Marshall
RELATIVITY Russeil Stannard
RELIGION IN AMERICA
Timothy Beal
THE RENAISSANCE JerryBrotton
RENAISSANCE ART
Geraldine A. Johnson
ROMAN BRITAIN Peter Salway
THE ROMAN EMPIRE
Christopher Kelly
ROUSSEAU Robert Wokler
RUSSELL A. C. Grayling
RUSSIAN LITERATURE
Catriona Kelly
THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION
S. A. Smith
SCHIZOPHRENIA
Chris Frith and Eve Johnstone
SCHOPENHAUER
Christopher Janaway
SCIENCE AND RELIGION
Thomas Dixon
SCOTLAND Rab Houston
SEXUALITY Véronique Mottier
SHAKESPEARE Germaine Greer
SIKHISM Eleanor Nesbitt
SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
John Monaghan and Peter Just
SOCIALISM Michael Newman
SOCIOLOGY Steve Bruce
SOCRATES C. C. W. Taylor
SOVIET UNION Stephen Lovell
THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR
Helen Graham
SPINOZA Roger Scruton
STATISTICS David J. Hand
STUART BRITAIN John Morrill
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY
Stephen Blundell
TERRORISM Charles Townshend
THEOLOGY David F. Ford
TRAGEDY Adrian Poole
THE TUDORS John Guy
TWENTIETH-CENTURY BRITAIN
Kenneth O. Morgan
THE UNITED NATIONS
Jussi M. Hanhimäki
THE VIKINGS Julian Richards
WITTGENSTEIN A. C. Grayling
WORLD MUSIC Philip Bohlman
THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION
Amrita Narlikar
WRITING And SCRIPT
Andrew Robinson
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EPIDEMIOLOGY Saracci Rodolfo
FORENSIC SCIENCE
James Fraser
INFORMATION
Luciano Floridi
ISLAMIC HISTORY
Adam Silverstein
NEOLIBERALISM
Manfred Steger and Ravi K. Roy
PRIVARY Raymond Wacks
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BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY
A Very Short Introduction
Eric H. Cline
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Copyright © 2009 by Eric H. Cline
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Cline, Eric H.
Biblical archaeology : a very short introduction / Eric H. Cline.
p. cm.
Summary: “Archaeologist Cline discusses the origins of biblical archaeology as a discipline and what first prompted explorers to go in search of sites that would ‘prove’ the Bible. He surveys some of the sites, including Hazor, Megiddo, Gezer, Lachish, Masada, and Jerusalem. Separate chapters deal with the Hebrew Bible and New Testament, frauds and forgeries, and future prospects.”—Provided by publisher
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-19-534263-5 (pbk.)
1. Bible—Antiquities. I. Title
BS621.C55 2009
220.9’3—dc22
2009006525
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in Great Britain
by Ashford Colour Press Ltd., Gosport, Hants.
on acid-free paper
To my family and my fellow archaeologists
Acknowledgments
This book owes its existence solely to the efforts and editing of Nancy Toff, to whom I owe a huge debt. I also owe a large debt of gratitude to my students at George Washington University, upon whom I tried out much of this material in my classes over the course of the past eight years, usually without warning them in advance. Grateful thanks are due to Felicity Cobbing, Israel Finkelstein, David Ussishkin, and Shelley Wachsmann for their assistance in procuring or providing some of the illustrations; to Leah Burrows for her bibliographical research assistance; and to Martin J. Cline, Felicity Cobbing, David Farber, Norma Franklin, Jim West, Assaf Yasur-Landau, and several anonymous readers for their helpful critiques, insights, and editorial suggestions regarding earlier sections or entire drafts of this book.
Contents
List of illustrations
Introduction
Part I The evolution of the discipline
1 The nineteenth century: the earliest explorers
2 Before the Great War: from theology to stratigraphy
3 The interwar period: square holes in round tells
4 After 1948: biblical veracity and nationalism
5 Beyond the Six-Day War: new surveys and strategies
6 The 1990s and beyond: from nihilism to the present
Part II Archaeology and the Bible
7 From Noah and the Flood to Joshua and the Israelites
8 From David and Solomon to Nebuchadnezzar and the Neo-Babylonians
9 From the Silver Amulet Scrolls to the Dead Sea Scrolls
10 From Herod the Great to Jesus of Nazareth
11 From the Galilee Boat to the Megiddo Prison Mosaic
12 Fabulous finds or fantastic forgeries?
Epilogue
References
Further reading
Index
List of Illustrations
1 Map of Israel and Judah from 930 to 720 BCE
2 Captain Charles Warren and Yakub es Shellaby
Palestine Exploration Fund, London; photo by H.H. Phillips
3 Stratigraphic levels at Tel Kabri in Israel
Eric H. Cline
4 Reproduction of the Gezer Calendar
Eric H. Cline
5 Overhead of Areas Kand Qat Megiddo, end of the 2008 season
Sky View Photography Ltd
6 Yigael Yadin and others at Megiddo in January 1960
David Ussishkin
7 Israel Finkelstein at the Megiddo excavations in northern Israel
Eric H. Cline
8 The Stepped Stone Structure in Jerusalem
Eric H. Clin
e
9 The Dead Sea Scrolls caves
Eric H. Cline
10 The Galilee Boat on display in the Yigal Allon Museum
Shelley Wachsmann
Introduction
The field of biblical archaeology is flourishing today, with popular interest at an all-time high. Millions of viewers watch television documentaries on the Exodus, the Ark of the Covenant, and the so-called Lost Tomb of Jesus. Major publishing houses have published competing Bible atlases, and the popularizing magazine Biblical Archaeology Review reaches a large audience. And every year at Easter, Charlton Heston appears on television as Moses in Cecil B. DeMille’s classic movie The Ten Commandments, raising his arms high to part the waters of the Red Sea so that the Hebrews may cross to safety.
Biblical archaeology is a subset of the larger field of Syro-Palestinian archaeology—which is conducted throughout the region encompassed by modern Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. Specifically, it is archaeology that sheds light on the stories, descriptions, and discussions in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament from the early second millennium BCE, the time of Abraham and the Patriarchs, through the Roman period in the early first millennium CE.
Despite the fact that biblical archaeologists began their excavations in the Holy Land more than a hundred years ago—with a Bible in one hand and a trowel in the other—major questions still remain unanswered, including whether there was really an exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt and the extent of David and Solomon’s empires. Other unresolved issues involve the specific details of daily life during the period of the Divided Kingdoms, after the time of Solomon, and the difference between Canaanite and Israelite material culture during the Early Iron Age.
1. Israel and Judah from 930 to 720 BCE.
Most biblical archaeologists do not deliberately set out to either prove or disprove elements of the Hebrew Bible or the New Testament through archaeology. Instead, they investigate the material culture of the lands and time periods mentioned in the Bible, and the people, places, and events discussed in those ancient texts, in order to bring them to life and to reconstruct the culture and history of the region. This is particularly evident in New Testament archaeology, where the excavation of cities like Caesarea, Capernaum, and Sepphoris has shed light on the social, religious, and geographic situation in the time before, during, and after the life of Jesus.
However, biblical archaeology has generally provided more relevant information that can be correlated with the narratives of the Hebrew Bible than with those of the New Testament. There are several reasons for this disparity. The events depicted in the Hebrew Bible occurred over a much longer time period than those depicted in the New Testament—over millennia rather than over approximately two hundred years. Moreover, the stories and events described in the Hebrew Bible occurred throughout a much larger geographic area than those of the New Testament. The entire Middle East and North Africa provide the backdrop for the stories of the Hebrews, whereas the drama of the early Christians played out mainly in Syro-Palestine and to a lesser extent in ancient Greece and Italy.
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