Shifting Sands: The Rise and Fall of Biblical ArchaeologyBefore the 1970s, "biblical archaeology" was the dominant research paradigm for those excavating the history of Palestine. Today this model has been "weighed in the balance and found wanting." Most now prefer to speak of "Syro/Palestinian archaeology." This is not just a nominal shift but reflects a major theoretical and methodological change. It has even been labeled a revolution. In the popular mind, however, biblical archaeology is still alive and well.In Shifting Sands, Thomas W. Davis charts the evolution and the demise of the discipline. Biblical archaeology, he writes, was an attempt to ground the historical witness of the Bible in demonstrable historical reality. Its theoretical base lay in the field of theology. American mainstream Protestantism strongly resisted the inroads of continental biblical criticism, and sought support for their conservative views in archaeological research on the ancient Near East. The Bible was the source of the agenda for biblical archaeology, an agenda that was ultimately apologetical.Davis traces the fascinating story of the interaction of biblical studies, theology, and archaeology in Palestine, and the remarkable individuals who pioneered the discipline. He highlights the achievements of biblical archaeologists in the field, who gathered an immense body of data. By clarifying the theoretical and methodological framework of the original excavators, he believes, these data can be made more useful for current research, allowing a more sober, reasoned judgment of both the accomplishments and the failures of biblical archaeology. |
Contents
The Beginnings | 3 |
The Albright Watershed | 47 |
Biblical Archaeology Triumphant | 95 |
The Collapse of the Paradigm | 123 |
The Legacy of Biblical Archaeology | 145 |
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Common terms and phrases
agenda Albright and Wright Albright-Wright American School Amorite ancient Near East Antiquities apologetical approach archaeology in Palestine Ashkelon ASOR BASOR Beisan believed Beth-Shean Bethel Bible biblical archae biblical archaeology biblical scholars biblical studies Biblical Theology British Bronze Age Byblos century B.C. ceramic chaeology chronology Conquest destruction Dever director Early Bronze EBIV Egypt Et-Tell evidence expedition Exploration Fund field methodology fieldwork Fisher method French Garstang Gezer Glueck Hebrew higher criticism historical interest interpretation Israel Israelite Jericho Jerusalem Jerusalem School Joshua Kyle Lapp later linguistic Macalister major material Megiddo Middle Bronze Museum Old Testament ology Oriental Palestine Exploration Palestinian archaeology paradigm Patriarchal Petrie Petrie's pottery problems questions realia reconstruction record Reisner rejected Samaria Sayce Seminary Shechem Society strata stratigraphic survey Syria/Palestine Syro-Palestinian archaeology Tell Beit Mirsim Tell el-Ful Tell el-Hesi theological tradition Transjordan UMA/Beisan/Box Vaux Wellhausen William Foxwell Albright wrote