ARCHEOLOGY
Archaeological science has developed greatly in the last sixty years and thanks to this today we can scientifically verify facts and statements of which the Bible was the only evidence that remained.
As a science, it studies the remains of civilizations in their environment and setting, and in their exact place, with special techniques that allow us to reconstruct the scenarios of the events mentioned in ancient texts.
The limits of biblical archeology are imposed by history: from the time of the patriarchs (around 1750 BC) to the 1st century AD; and by geography: Palestine and those places related to the protagonists of the biblical epic or whose cultures influenced the life of Israel: Egypt, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Cyprus, Persia, Phoenicia, Syria, Greece and Rome.
A special branch of history, epigraphy, interprets the results of archaeological search; but it is evident that it cannot, in any way, prove or deny those statements that are above any science, because they are direct revelation from God, although it does prove to us that in such a situation and at such a time there existed a man or a people with the characteristics described in the biblical text.
These witnesses of the past, “hills of ruins” (called “tell”, “constructions”, tombs with the remains and accessories of the dead), are generally examined through excavations.
Biblical archeology directs its attention to the excavations and finds (weapons, ceramics, ornaments) of the biblical populations and seeks to historically establish any data that in one way or another is related to the Bible.
Its purpose is not to prove the truth of the Bible stories, but to find evidence of historical truth.
The history of Palestinian archeology begins in 1890 with Flinders Petrie’s excavations at tell “el-hesi”. His knowledge has been of importance for subsequent archaeological work:
(a) The hills that the Arabs call “tell” are artificial hills of rubble formed by different layers of overlapping villages. The first town is built on rock or on elevated land. It is then destroyed or abandoned.
The adobes fall apart. The following settlers flatten the land and build on the old ruins. The height of debris grows with the number of towns. The Megiddo tell, for example, reaches a height of 21 m.
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b) The purpose of an excavation is not to collect pieces for a museum, but to learn the history of a place. Therefore, all discoveries and especially the order of the layers have to be considered.
(c) The shapes of ceramics change in the various cultural periods. Sturdy fragments of fired clay are an important means of delimiting layers and fixing their era.
Other helps to determine the time of the layers of the excavations are the method of carbon radioactivity (for the time before 3,000 years BC) and the finds of coins (from the time of the Persians).
After Petrie, two methods of excavation have been developed: the first takes out the layers of the tell one after another. First the hill is measured, then the first layer is exposed, the plan of the walls found is searched, the layer is photographed, the findings are recorded, the marked fragments and coins are collected, the fragments are joined together, they are listed. , are described exactly and, if possible, dated.
Then the layer is removed and the same is done with the second part (example: Jasor). According to the cut method, used by Mortimer Wheeler and Cathleen Kenyon, the tell is cut in half by a deep trench. Afterwards, other rectangular cuts are made to the walls found (examples: Jericho, Ophel in Jerusalem).
Inscriptions and vestiges of writing are not frequent in excavations, and the finds of entire libraries such as those at Qumram only occur from century to century; But archaeological science has developed precise techniques that allow us to “read” the history of past civilizations with astonishing accuracy.
The analysis of pottery and flint has provided us with a chronology of events that, although relative, becomes absolute when written documents from certain periods are available.
Archeology has given us a more coherent and dynamic vision of the Middle East than we had from literary sources (when we were fortunate enough to possess them).
Thus it has been possible to verify that these cultures did not remain stagnant or in an unalterable situation, as the Pan-Babylonist school of the beginning of the century intended. Palestine and Syria were influenced by Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Aegean.
Archaeological finds have given new strength to the literary data of the Bible, and many archaeological finds from the Bible alone often receive confirmation.
It should never be forgotten that the historical documents and the archaeological remains of a given civilization are two different things, although they often complement each other.
Many library hypotheses that had been built based on purely theoretical analyzes fell to the ground as archeology illuminated the cultural evolution of ancient people and the daily life of the Palestinian people.
Think, for example, of the strange theories that circulated about the antiquity of the Holy Scripture. Thanks to archaeological science, there is in certain circles a higher appreciation of biblical stories and a more open attitude towards the message of the Bible.
Various Archaeological Institutes work in Palestine:
École Biblique et Archéologique Française, Deutsches Evangelisches Institut für Altertumswissenschaft des Heiligen Landes, Israel Exploration Society, American Schools of Oriental Research and others.