Chapter One – Introduction to Biblical Archaeology

ASSUMPTIONS    p. 33

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