Biblical Archaeology: Chapter One – Introduction to Biblical Archaeology

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Chapter One – Introduction to Biblical Archaeology

OUTLINE

1. History is Reliable
2. Pluralistic Audience
3. Selective Scope
4. Can’t Please Everyone

DEFINITION OF BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY p. 34

SHORT HISTORY OF BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY p. 35

Antiquarians
Nationalism
Rosetta Stone

Fig 01 Jean-François Champollion (1790–1832)
Fig 02 Transport of the winged bull at Nimrod

Filling Museums
Mesopotamian Expeditions

Fig 03 Sir Austen Henry Layard (1817–1894)

Deciphering the Tablets

Fig 04 Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson (1810–1895)

Palestine Surveys
Egyptian Controversy

Fig 05 Sir Flinders Petrie (1853–1942)

Pottery Dating and Stratigraphy

Fig 06 Stratigraphy of a Tell
Fig 07 Oil Lamp Pottery Styles

Chronology and the Dating System

Fig 08 City wall at Tall el-Ḥammâm

BC and AD

C.E. and B.C.E.

BP

Ancient Egyptian Chronology

Fig 09 Professor Nelson Glueck (1900– 1971)

OT Chronology

NT Chronology

Three-Age Dating System

Approach to Numbers

Archaeology and Intelligence Work

CHARACTERISTICS OF ARCHAEOLOGY p. 55

1. A Team Player
2. A Volunteer Enterprise
3. A Destructive Science
4. A Potsherd is Their Text
5. A Preoccupation with Squares
6. An Obsession with Documentation
7. A Need for Funding

THE ROLE OF ARCHAEOLOGY p. 56

Fig 10 Lion Gate of Ḫattuša (Boğazköy)

LIMITATIONS OF ARCHAEOLOGY p. 59

1. Old Does Not Make It True
2. To Err is Human
3. We Have Only Scratched The Surface
4. We See Through a Glass Darkly
5. We All Have Presuppositions
6. A Subjective Interpretation
7. Politics Play a Role
8. The Scourge of Looters

MINIMALIST VS MAXIMALIST APPROACH p. 61

Fig 11 Pottery jar handles stamped with seals reading lmlk ("belonging to the King").

Minimalist View
Maximalist View

DIRECT AND INDIRECT EVIDENCE    p. 64

TOLERANCE    p. 65

ARCHAEOLOGICAL FALLACIES    p. 66

1. The Fallacy of Neutrality    p. 66
2. The Fallacy of Seeing More Than is There    p. 66
3. The Fallacy that Archaeology is an Exact Science    p. 67
4. The Fallacy that Archaeology is a Monologue    p. 67
5. The Fallacy that the a priori Method is Bad Science    p. 67
6. The Fallacy that the Simplest is Always the Best Answer    p. 68
7. The Fallacy of Fitting a Square Peg Into a Round Hole    p. 68
8. The Fallacy of Negative Proof   p. 69
9. The Fallacy that the Geography of the Bible is Unreliable   p. 70
10. The Fallacy that Most Biblical Sites Have Been Identified Using an Inscription   p. 71
11. The Fallacy that a Surface Survey is the Same as an Excavation    p. 72
12. The Fallacy that All Archaeologists Use the Same Date System p. 72

EXCAVATION METHODS p. 72

How to Tell a Tell? p.72

Fig 13 Tall el-Ḥammâm on the eastern side of the Jordan Valley.

Choosing a Site p.73

The Tells Utilitarian Essentials

Permits p. 75
Surveying the Site p. 75
Excavating the Site p. 75

Phases

Excavation Methods

Fig 14 In situ Iron Age 2A hippo storage jar
Fig 15 Author holding an Iron Age 2A hippo storage jar from the Tall el-Ḥammâm

Setting Up the Work Area

Excavation

Tools of the Trade

Data Collection

Drawings

Fig 16 Square drawing of square 16B1 in the Roman bath complex at Tall el-Ḥammâm

Pottery Washing

Pottery Reading

Pottery Mending

Baulk Reading

Records and Photographs

Publishing the Finds