Biblical archaeology involves the recovery and scientific investigation of the material remains of past cultures that can illuminate the periods and descriptions in the Bible. As with the historical records from any other civilization, the manuscripts must be compared to other accounts from contemporary societies in Europe, Mesopotamia, and Africa; additionally, records from neighbors must be compared with them. The scientific techniques employed are those of archaeology in general including excavations as well as chance discoveries.

By contrast Near Eastern archaeology is simply the archaeology of the Ancient Near East without any particular consideration of how its discoveries relate to the Bible.

Biblical archaeology is a controversial subject with differing opinions on what its purpose and goals are or should be. Professional opinions of Biblical archaeology have been set aside in a separate commentary section.

Milestones prior to 1914

Biblical Archaeology began after publication by Edward Robinson (American professor of Biblical literature; 1794-1863) of his travels through Palestine during the first half of the 19th century (a time when the oldest complete Hebrew scripture only dated to the Middle Ages), which highlighted similarities between modern Arabic place-names and Biblical city names.

The sponsored detailed surveys led by Charles Warren during the late 1860s (initially financed by Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts in 1864 to improve Jerusalem's sanitary conditions), which culminated with the formal publication of "The Survey of Western Palestine" from 1871-1877.

The highlight of this period was Warren's work around the Temple Mount of Jerusalem, where he discovered the foundation stones of Herod's Temple, the first Israelite inscriptions on several jar handles with LMLK seals, and water shafts under the City of David.

• 1890 Sir W.M.F. Petrie noticed strata exposed by waterflow adjacent to Tell el-Hesi (originally believed to be Biblical Lachish, now probably Eglon) and popularized details of pottery groups excavated therefrom. F.J. Bliss continued digging there in 1891-2.

Subsequent highlights of major sites mentioned in the Bible where excavations spanned more than one season:

• 1898-1900 F.J. Bliss and R.A.S. Macalister excavated 4 major sites in the Shephelah region of Israel:
  • Tell es-Safi (probably Biblical Gath)
  • Tell Zakariya (probably Biblical Azekah)
  • Tell ej-Judeideh (possibly Biblical Moresheth-Gath or Libnah)
  • Tell Sandahannah (probably Biblical Mareshah)

• 1902-3, 1907-9 R.A.S. Macalister excavated Gezer, where the oldest Hebrew inscription (Gezer Calendar) was found on the surface

• 1902-4 E. Sellin excavated Taanach

• 1903-5 G. Schumacher excavated Megiddo

• 1905-7 H. Kohl, E. Sellin, and C. Watzinger surveyed ancient synagogues in Galilee

• 1907-9 E. Sellin and C. Watzinger excavated Shechem

• 1908, 1910-1 D.G. Lyon, C.S. Fisher, and G.A. Reisner excavated Samaria

• 1911-3 D. Mackenzie excavated Beth Shemesh

Milestones during 1914 - 1945

Following World War I, during the British Mandate of Palestine, antiquities laws were established for Palestinian territory along with a Department of Antiquities (later to become the modern Israel Antiquities Authority) and the Palestine Archaeological Museum in Jerusalem (now named the Rockefeller Museum).

J. Garstang was instrumental in these accomplishments. W.F. Albright dominated the scholarship of this period and had long-lasting influence on Biblical historians based on his analysis of Bronze Age and Iron Age pottery.

• 1921-3, 1925-8, 1930-3 C.S. Fisher, A. Rowe, and G.M. Fitzgerald excavated Beth Shean

• 1922-3 W.F. Albright excavated Tell el-Ful (probably Biblical Gibeah)

• 1925-39 C.S. Fisher, P.L.O. Guy, and G. Loud excavated Megiddo

• 1926, 1928, 1930, 1932 W.F. Albright excavated Tell Beit Mirsim (possibly Biblical Eglon or Debir--Kirjath Sepher)

• 1926-7, 1929, 1932, 1935 W.F. Bade excavated Mizpah

• 1928-33 E. Grant excavated Beth Shemesh

• 1930-6 J. Garstang excavated Jericho

• 1931-3, 1935 J. Crowfoot excavated Samaria

• 1932-38 J.L. Starkey excavated Lachish (the excavation terminated when he was killed by Arab bandits near Hebron while on his way to the opening ceremonies of the Palestine Archaeological Museum)

• 1936-40 B. Mazar excavated Beth Shearim

Milestones after 1945

The Dead Sea Scrolls and other ancient copies of the Hebrew Bible manuscripts do not qualify as artifacts representing something mentioned in the Bible, although they are an important testimony to the antiquity of the texts, and the reliable manner in which they were preserved through the centuries.

The first seven scrolls had initially appeared on the antiquities market, but when their enormous importance was recognized, archaeologists eventually found their source in a series of caves above the Dead Sea, and subsequent searches located thousands of similar fragments.

Following the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947 and the declaration of the state of Israel in 1948, Biblical Archaeology gained new momentum. The science of archaeology had been digested and refined by new excavators who conducted numerous surveys of smaller sites during the second half of the 20th century, and re-excavations at major sites using modernized techniques.

• 1948-50, 1952-5 J. Kaplan excavated Jaffa

• 1954, 1959-62 Y. Aharoni excavated Ramat Rahel

• 1955-8, 1968
  
  
  
  Y. Yadin excavated Hazor

• 1956-7, 1959-60, 1962 J.B. Pritchard excavated Gibeon

• 1961-7 K. Kenyon excavated Jerusalem (City of David)

• 1962-7 Y. Aharoni and R. Amiran excavated Arad

• 1962-3, 1965-72 M. Dothan excavated Ashdod

• 1963-5 Y. Yadin excavated Masada

• 1964-74 G.E. Wright, W.G. Dever, and J. Seger excavated Gezer
  • This was the first Palestinian excavation to operate as a school by granting academic/college credit.

• 1968-78 B. Mazar excavated the southwest corner of the Temple Mount

• 1969-76 Y. Aharoni and Z. Herzog excavated Beersheba

• 1969-82 N. Avigad excavated the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem

• 1973-94 D. Ussishkin excavated Lachish

• 1975-82 A. Biran excavated Aroer

• 1977-9, 1981-9 A. Mazar and G.L. Kelm excavated Timnah

• 1978-85 Y. Shiloh excavated Jerusalem (City of David)

• 1979, 1981-2, 1984-7, 1990-1, 1993-2000 D. Livingston excavated Khirbet Nisya

• 1981-2, 1984-8, 1990, 1992-6 T. Dothan and S. Gitin excavated Ekron

• 1996-2002, 2004-2005 A. Maeir excavated Tell es-Safi (probably Biblical Gath)

• 1999-2001, 2005 R.E. Tappy excavated Tel Zayit (Zeitah)

The famous silver scrolls found in 1979 during G. Barkay's excavations at Ketef Hinnom uniquely preserve Biblical texts older than the Dead Sea Scrolls. Both of these amulets contain the Priestly Blessing from the Book of Numbers; one also contains a quote found in parallel verses of Exodus (20:6) and Deuteronomy (5:10 and 7:9). The same verses appear again even later in Daniel (9:4) and Nehemiah (1:5).

Confirmed Biblical structures

• Gibeon pool (at el-Jib)

• Hezekiah's tunnel under Jerusalem

• Jericho's walls
  • They date to sometime in the mid-second millennium BC and may have been destroyed by a siege or an earthquake. Opinions differ as to whether they are the walls referred to in the Bible. The walls were originally dated by John Garstang to c. 1400 BC. Kathleen Kenyon later disputed Garstang's dating and instead placed them c. 1550 BC, a date supported by the majority of archaeologists. Bryant Wood has recently argued that Garstang's dating was correct. Garstang and Wood's date is consistent with the dating of Joshua used by many Christian Bible scholars. However traditional Jewish dating places Joshua in the 13th century and the earliest archaeological evidence of an Israelite presence also dates to this period.

• Lachish siege ramp of Sennacherib

• Siloam pool (just unearthed in 2004)

• Second Temple (confirmed by Western/Wailing wall constructed by Herod the Great)

• Shechem temple (spanning the late Bronze Age to the early Iron Age) corresponding to the "House of (the god) Baalberith" in Judges 9

• 19 tumuli located west of Jerusalem, undoubtedly dating to the Judean monarchy, but possibly representing sites of memorial ceremonies for the kings as mentioned in 2 Chronicles 16:14, 21:19, 32:33, and the book of Jeremiah 34:5

Artifacts from documented excavations

• Arad ostraca (#18 mentions the Temple in Jerusalem)

• Balaam texts (ink/paint on plaster found at Deir 'Alla in Jordan that parallels Numbers chapters 22-24)

• Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III, which depicts Jehu, son of Omri, and also mentions Hazael of Aram/Damascus/Syria (2 Kings 8-10)

• Caiaphas (Qafa) family ossuaries (discovered in 1990 at the Jerusalem Peace Forest)

• Ebla (Tell Mardikh) cuneiform archives
  • They include a king of Ebla named Ebrum, who some identify as the Biblical patriarch Eber (or Heber), after whom the Hebrews were named. Also reported are references to people with Semitic names and gods similar to those in the Bible. They are also rumored to contain references to the same five cities mentioned in the book of Genesis: Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboim, and Bela/Zoar in the same order as in Genesis 14. The government of Syria continues to withhold complete publication of the texts, and this story remains a rumor. Quoting Paolo Matthiae:

The tablets cover a thousand years before Abraham, and a thousand years, even in the fourth millennium before Christ, was a very, very long time. They tell us much, but what they don't tell us - what they can't tell us - is whether the Bible is true or not. They have nothing to do with the Bible, at least not directly, and what we have here is not a biblical expedition. If we have tablets with legends similar to those of the Bible it means only that such legends existed round here long before the Bible." ( C. Bermant and M. Weitzman, Ebla: A Revelation In Archaeology, Op. Cit., p. 2.)

• Ekron inscription (discovered in 1993 at Tel Miqne)

• Gath ostracon
  • Found by A. Maeir while excavating Tell es-Safi in 2005
  • Incised with 9 letters representing 2 names (אלות ולת) etymologically related to Goliath (גלית)

• GBON (גבען) jar handles recovered from the Gibeon pool
  • Some inscribed "Hananiah" may have been associated with the person mentioned in Jeremiah 28:1
  • Other incised names on Gibeon jar handles: Amariah, Azariah, Domla, Geder, Hananiah, Neri, Shebuel

• Gemariah the son of Shaphan seal impression stamped on bulla
  • Found during Yigal Shiloh's excavations of Jerusalem in 1983, it probably belonged to the person recorded in Jeremiah 36:10

• Hezekiah's tunnel inscription (removed from Jerusalem in 1880)

• "House of David" inscription on Tel Dan Stele (three fragments discovered in 1993)

• Izbet Sartah ostracon; 2 fragments excavated in 1976
  • 5 incised lines of 80-83 letters (readings of epigraphers vary), the last line being an abecedary
  • Found in the silo of an unfortified village (possibly Biblical Ebenezer 2 miles east of Philistine
    
    
    
    Aphek) occupied from 1200-1000 BC

• Jaazaniah, servant of the king (ליאזניהו עבד המלך) striated agate seal with fighting cock icon
  • Found in Tomb 19 at Tell en-Nasbeh (probably Biblical Mizpah)
  • Possibly belonged to an army captain at Mizpah mentioned in 2 Kings 25:23

• Jehucal, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Shobi (יהוכל בן שלמיהו בן שבי) seal impression stamped on bulla
  • Found during Eilat Mazar's excavations of an alleged palace of King David in 2005, it probably belonged to the person recorded in Jeremiah 37:3 and 38:1 (photo published in the August 6, 2005 edition of the Taipei Times)

• Kurkh Monolith of Shalmaneser III found by J.E. Taylor (British Consul at Diyarbekir) in 1861, which mentions "2,000 chariots, 10,000 foot soldiers of Ahab the Israelite" (incident not mentioned in the Bible)

• Lachish ostraca
  • Most of these terse texts, discovered in the 1930s, depict conditions during the end of the 7th century BCE shortly before the Chaldean conquest.
  • Letter #3 mentions a warning from the prophet.
  • Letter #4 names Lachish and Azekah as among the last places being conquered as recorded in Jeremiah 34:7.
  • Letter #6 describes a conspiracy reminiscent of Jeremiah 38:19 and 39:9 using phraseology nearly identical to 38:4.

• Lachish reliefs from Sennacherib's palace at Nineveh (depicting his conquest of it)

• Mesha stele
  • A Moabite inscription discovered at Dhiban, Jordan, in 1868 that mentions an Israelite king, Omri. It also records vessels of YHWH as tribute.

• Merneptah stela (Egyptian reference to Israelites in the land of Canaan)

• Nabonidus cylinder
  • A cuneiform inscription found at the Temple of Shamash in Sippara that names Belshazzar as the son of the last king of Babylon
  • Daniel chapters 5, 7, and 8 name Belshazzar as a king, but that was probably due to Aramaic convention (e.g., the bilingual inscription on the statue of Haddayishi from Gozan calls him a "governor" in Akkadian but "king" in Aramaic); also note that Belshazzar offers third place in his kingdom as a prize rather than second

• Pontius Pilate inscription found in secondary use in a stairway of the Roman theater in Caesarea
  • "The prefect of Judaea, Pontius Pilate, erected the Tiberium (in honor of Tiberius Caesar)"
  • Actual text of 3-line inscription (eroded portion in brackets is speculative but undisputed):

TIBERIEUM

TIUS PILATUS

ECTUS IUDAE

• Sargon II's Conquest of Samaria inscription (ANET 284) found by P.E. Botta at Khorsabad in 1843: "I besieged and conquered Samaria, led away as booty 27,290 inhabitants of it. .. The town I rebuilt better than it was before and settled therein people from countries which I myself had conquered." (2 Kings 17:23-24)

• Immer (ליהו אמר) seal impression stamped on bulla
  • Found September 27, 2005, while sifting debris discarded from the Temple Mount of Jerusalem in 1999
  • May be related to a priest serving in Solomon's Temple per Jeremiah 20:1

• Tiglath-Pileser III's inscriptions found by A.H. Layard at Nimrud:
  • ANET 282: "I received the tribute of .. Jehoahaz of Judah" (incident not mentioned in the Bible)
  • ANET 283: "As for Menahem I overwhelmed him .. I placed Hoshea as king over them." (alternate perspective in 2 Kings 15:19 and 17:3)

• Zayit Stone
  • Limestone boulder incised with a Paleo-Hebrew abecedary and remnants of several other inscriptions found at Zeitah (Tel Zayit) in-situ in a stratum dated to the 10th century BC

Artifacts with unknown, disputed, or disproved provenance

Items in this list mostly come from private collections via the antiquities market, but also from chance finds prior to the establishment of antiquities laws. Their authenticity is highly controversial and in some cases has been demonstrated to be fraudulent.

• Ark of the Covenant
  • The Ethiopian Orthodox Church in Axum, Ethiopia claims to possess it; local tradition maintains that it was brought to Ethiopia by Menelik I following a visit to his father King Solomon.

• Artifacts originating from the antiquities dealer, Oded Golan. In December 2004 he was indicted by the Israeli police, together with several accomplices, for forging the following artifacts:
  • The James Ossuary inscribed James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus suspected of being forged on a genuine ancient ossuary.
  • The Joash (Jehoash) tablet recording repairs to the Temple in Jerusalem suspected of being forged on a genuine ancient stone panel.
  • Various ostraca mentioning the Temple or place names from the Bible.
  • A seven-nozzle stone lamp, bearing decorations of a Temple menorah and the seven species
  • A stone seal with gold rim, attributed to King Manasseh of Judah.
  • A quartz bowl bearing an inscription in ancient Egyptian, indicating that the Minister of the Army of King Shishek conquered the ancient city of Meggido.
  • An ivory pomegranate inscribed Property of the priests of the temple… forged on a genuine ancient piece of ivory.
  • A pottery jug bearing an inscription claiming that it was given as a contribution to the Temple.
  • Numerous bullae including ones which mention Biblical figures including King Hezekiah of Judah, the scribe Baruch and the prophet Isaiah.

• Nazareth Inscription
  • Marble tablet with "Edict of Caesar" proscribing capital punishment for tomb-breakers, datable to the first century A.D., and allegedly acquired by the Frohner Collection in 1878 from Nazareth.

• The remains of Noah's Ark have been allegedly located by a number of archaeological groups and individuals. Most academics discount their findings as pseudoarchaeology.
  • Archaeologist Ron Wyatt claimed to have possibly located the Ark's final resting place. Since his death he has been acclaimed by many Bible believers. A plethora of internet sites concerning him have come into existence, and some have fabricated information about him and his discoveries.
  • An Italian creationist archaeological group named La Narkas is the most recent of numerous groups claiming to have pinpointed the location of Noah's Ark close to the top of Mount Ararat, which straddles the border of Turkey and Armenia. Photographs of this alleged discovery are available on their website .
  • In 2004, yet another expedition went to Mount Ararat in Turkey to try to locate the Ark. Samples from Turkey tested by Geological and Nuclear Sciences, a New Zealand government research institute, were found to be volcanic rock rather than petrified wood.

• Shroud of Turin
  • Critics claim it contains a painted image of Jesus forged in the Middle Ages; others maintain the image was formed by some energetic process that darkened the fibers (such as a flash of light the instant the resurrection occurred). Radiocarbon dating seemed to limit its origin to the Middle Ages, but some analysts suggest the tests were erroneously performed using samples taken from patches sewn onto the ancient cloth during the Middle Ages, or contaminated from fires it was exposed to. Other analysts suggest that the dating results are skewed by limestone residue which is present on the shroud.
• Stone of Scone, also known as Jacob's Pillar
  • For centuries, this rock has been an integral compenent of coronation ceremonies for kings in the British isles. It is believed to be the rock upon which Jacob (later renamed Israel) received a vision, and a crack in it may have resulted from Moses striking it to bring forth water. None of this can be proven, and attempts to link it to Palestine via Jeremiah lack foundation.

Professional commentary

"The purpose of Biblical archaeology is the clarification and illumination of the Biblical text and content through archaeological investigation of the Biblical world," wrote J.K. Eakins in an essay (1977) in Benchmarks in Time and Culture .

Bryant G. Wood wrote, "The purpose of Biblical archaeology is to enhance our comprehension of the Bible, and so its greatest achievement, in my view, has been the extraordinary illumination of the.. time of the Israelite monarchy" (.

In a statement of a more nuanced opinion of Biblical archaeology, Robert I.Bradshaw notes, "It is virtually universally agreed that the purpose of biblical archaeology is not to 'prove' the Bible, however ..in as much as archaeology sheds light on that history it is important to biblical studies"

The American archaeologist William Dever contributed to the article "Archaeology" in The Anchor Bible Dictionary (see Anchor Bible Series). There he assessed several negative effects of the close relationship that has existed between Syro-Palestinian archaeology and the Biblical archaeology of the Holy Land, which have especially caused American archaeologists in this field to lag behind the new "processual archaeology" in the region, generally considered: "Underlying much of the skepticism in our own field , one suspects, was the assumption (albeit unspoken, or even unconscious) that ancient Palestine, especially Israel in the biblical period, was unique—somehow 'superhistorical' not governed by the normal principles of cultural evolution," and he claims "..the 'new archaeology' of the 1970s-1980s became passé before we had even caught up with it" (p 357).

Dever finds that Syro-Palestinian archaeology in American institutions has been treated as a subdiscipline of Biblical studies. American archaeologists in this region were expected to try "to provide historical validation for episodes in the biblical tradition." According to Dever, "he most naïve is that the rationale and purpose of "biblical archaeology" (and, by extrapolation, Syro-Palestinian archaeology) is simply to elucidate the Bible, or the lands of the Bible" (p 358) .

See also

• Archaeology of Israel
• History of ancient Israel and Judah
• List of Biblical figures identified in extra-Biblical sources
• Archaeology and the Book of Mormon
• Pseudoarchaeology

Further reading

• Chapman, and J.N. Tubb, Archaeology & The Bible (British Museum, 1990)
• Cornfeld, G.and D.N. Freedman, Archaeology Of The Bible Book By Book (1989)
• Davies, P.R., In Search of 'Ancient Israel': A Study in Biblical Origins, Sheffield (JSOT Press, 1992). A key resource in the maximalist/minimalist controversy by a leading minimalist scholar.
• Dever, William G., "Archaeology and the Bible : Understanding their special relationship", in Biblical Archaeology Review 16:3, (May/June 1990)
• Keller, Werner, The Bible as History, 1955. A widely-read popular account.
• Lance, H.D. The Old Testament and The Archaeologist. London (1983)
• Mazar, A., Archaeology of the Land of the Bible (The Anchor Bible Reference Library, 1990)
• Ramsey, George W. The Quest For The Historical Israel. London (1982)
• Robinson, Edward (1856) Biblical Researches in Palestine, 1838-52, Boston, MA: Crocker and Brewster.
• Thompson, J.A., The Bible And Archaeology, revised edition (1973)
• Winstone, H.V.F. The Life of Sir Leonard Woolley of Ur, London, 1990
• Wright, G. Ernest, Biblical Archaeology. Philedelphia: Westminster, (1962).
• Yamauchi, E. The Stones And The Scriptures. London: IVP, (1973). ארכאולוגיה מקראית