Biblical Archaeology: A Very Short Introduction Very Short Introductions available now: AFRICAN HISTORY CLASSICS John Parker and Richard Rathbone Mary Beard and John Henderson AMERICAN POLITICAL PARTIES CLAUSEWITZ Michael Howard AND ELECTIONS L. Sandy Maisel THE COLD WAR Robert McMahon THE AMERICAN PRESIDENCY Communism Leslie Holmes Charles O. Jones CONSCIOUSNESS Susan Blackmore ANARCHISM Colin Ward CONTEMPORARY ART ANCIENT EGYPT Ian Shaw Julian Stallabrass ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY Julia Annas CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY ANCIENT WARFARE Simon Critchley Harry Sidebottom COSMOLOGY Peter Coles ANGLICANISM Mark Chapman THE CRUSADES Christopher Tyerman THE ANGLO-SAXON AGE John Blair CRYPTOGRAPHY ANIMAL RIGHTS David DeGrazia Fred Piper and Sean Murphy ANTISEMITISM Steven Beller DADA AND SURREALISM The apocryphal gospels David Hopkins Paul Foster DARWIN Jonathan Howard Aquinas Fergus Kerr THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS ARCHAEOLOGY Paul Bahn Timothy Lim ARCHITECTURE Andrew Ballantyne DEMOCRACY Bernard Crick ARISTOTLE Jonathan Barnes DESCARTES Tom Sorell ART HISTORY Dana Arnold DESERTS Nick Middleton ART THEORY Cynthia Freeland DESIGN John Heskett ATHEISM Julian Baggini DINOSAURS David Norman AUGUSTINE Henry Chadwick DOCUMENTARY FILM Autism Uta Frith Patricia Aufderheide BARTHES Jonathan Culler DREAMING J. Allan Hobson BESTSELLERS John Sutherland DRUGS Leslie Iversen THE BIBLE John Riches THE EARTH Martin Redfern biblical archaeology ECONOMICS Partha Dasgupta Eric H. Cline EGYPTIAN MYTH Geraldine Pinch biography Hermione Lee EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN THE BOOK OF MORMON Paul Langford Terryl L. Givens THE ELEMENTS Philip Ball THE BRAIN Michael O’Shea EMOTION Dylan Evans BRITISH POLITICS Anthony Wright EMPIRE Stephen Howe BUDDHA Michael Carrithers ENGELS Terrell Carver BUDDHISM Damien Keown ETHICS Simon Blackburn BUDDHIST ETHICS Damien Keown THE EUROPEAN UNION CAPITALISM James Fulcher John Pinder and Simon Usherwood CATHOLICISM Gerald O’Collins EVOLUTION THE CELTS Barry Cunliffe Brian and Deborah Charlesworth CHAOS Leonard Smith EXISTENTIALISM Thomas Flynn CHOICE THEORY FASCISM Kevin Passmore Michael Allingham FEMINISM Margaret Walters CHRISTIAN ART Beth Williamson THE FIRST WORLD WAR CHRISTIANITY Linda Woodhead Michael Howard Citizenship Richard Bellamy FOSSILS Keith Thomson CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY FOUCAULT Gary Gutting Helen Morales FREE Speech Nigel Warburton FREE WILL Thomas Pink KANT Roger Scruton THE FRENCH REVOLUTION KIERKEGAARD Patrick Gardiner William Doyle THE KORAN Michael Cook FREUD Anthony Storr law Raymond Wacks FUNDAMENTALISM Malise Ruthven Lincoln Allen C. Guelzo galaxies John Gribbin LINGUISTICS Peter Matthews GALILEO Stillman Drake LITERARY THEORY Jonathan Culler GAME THEORY Ken Binmore LOCKE John Dunn GANDHI Bhikhu Parekh LOGIC Graham Priest Geography MACHIAVELLI Quentin Skinner John Matthews and David Herbert THE MARQUIS DE SADE John Phillips GEOPOLITICS Klaus Dodds MARX Peter Singer GERMAN LITERATURE MATHEMATICS Timothy Gowers Nicholas Boyle The meaning of life GLOBAL CATASTROPHES Terry Eagleton Bill McGuire MEDICAL ETHICS Tony Hope GLOBAL WARMING Mark Maslin MEDIEVAL BRITAIN GLOBALIZATION Manfred Steger John Gillingham and THE GREAT DEPRESSION AND THE Ralph A. Griffiths NEW DEAL Eric Rauchway Memory Jonathan Foster HABERMAS James Gordon Finlayson MODERN ART David Cottington HEGEL Peter Singer MODERN CHINA Rana Mitter HEIDEGGER Michael Inwood MODERN IRELAND Senia Pasˇeta HIEROGLYPHS Penelope Wilson modern japan HINDUISM Kim Knott Christopher Goto-Jones HISTORY John H. Arnold MOLECULES Philip Ball the history of Mormonism astronomy Michael Hoskin Richard Lyman Bushman the History of Life MUSIC Nicholas Cook Michael Benton MYTH Robert A. Segal the History of Medicine NATIONALISM Steven Grosby William Bynum Nelson Mandela Elleke Boehmer THE HISTORY OF TIME THE NEW TESTAMENT AS Leofranc Holford-Strevens LITERATURE Kyle Keefer HIV/AIDS Alan Whiteside NEWTON Robert Iliffe HOBBES Richard Tuck NIETZSCHE Michael Tanner HUMAN EVOLUTION NINETEENTH-CENTURY Bernard Wood BRITAIN Christopher Harvie HUMAN RIGHTS Andrew Clapham and H. C. G. Matthew HUME A. J. Ayer The Norman conquest IDEOLOGY Michael Freeden George Garnett INDIAN PHILOSOPHY Sue Hamilton NORTHERN IRELAND INTELLIGENCE Ian J. Deary Marc Mulholland INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION NOTHING Frank Close Khalid Koser nuclear weapons INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Joseph M. Siracusa Paul Wilkinson THE OLD TESTAMENT ISLAM Malise Ruthven Michael D. Coogan JOURNALISM Ian Hargreaves PARTICLE PHYSICS Frank Close JUDAISM Norman Solomon PAUL E. P. Sanders JUNG Anthony Stevens PHILOSOPHY Edward Craig KABBALAH Joseph Dan PHILOSOPHY OF LAW KAFKA Ritchie Robertson Raymond Wacks PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE SCHIZOPHRENIA Samir Okasha Chris Frith and Eve Johnstone PHOTOGRAPHY Steve Edwards SCHOPENHAUER PLATO Julia Annas Christopher Janaway POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY Science and religion David Miller Thomas Dixon POLITICS Kenneth Minogue Scotland Rab Houston POSTCOLONIALISM Robert Young Sexuality Ve´ronique Mottier POSTMODERNISM SHAKESPEARE Germaine Greer Christopher Butler SIKHISM Eleanor Nesbitt POSTSTRUCTURALISM SOCIAL AND CULTURAL Catherine Belsey ANTHROPOLOGY PREHISTORY Chris Gosden John Monaghan and Peter Just PRESOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY SOCIALISM Michael Newman Catherine Osborne SOCIOLOGY Steve Bruce PSYCHIATRY Tom Burns SOCRATES C. C. W. Taylor PSYCHOLOGY Gillian Butler and Soviet union Stephen Lovell Freda McManus THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR Puritanism Francis J. Bremer Helen Graham THE QUAKERS Pink Dandelion SPINOZA Roger Scruton QUANTUM THEORY Statistics David J. Hand John Polkinghorne STUART BRITAIN John Morrill RACISM Ali Rattansi Superconductivity The Reagan Revolution Gil Troy Stephen Blundell The Reformation Peter Marshall TERRORISM Charles Townshend Relativity Russeil Stannard THEOLOGY David F. Ford Religion in America TRAGEDY Adrian Poole Timothy Beal THE TUDORS John Guy THE RENAISSANCE Jerry Brotton TWENTIETH-CENTURY RENAISSANCE ART BRITAIN Kenneth O. Morgan Geraldine A. Johnson The united Nations ROMAN BRITAIN Peter Salway Jussi M. Hanhima¨ki THE ROMAN EMPIRE THE VIKINGS Julian Richards Christopher Kelly WITTGENSTEIN A. C. Grayling ROUSSEAU Robert Wokler WORLD MUSIC Philip Bohlman RUSSELL A. C. Grayling THE WORLD TRADE RUSSIAN LITERATURE ORGANIZATION Catriona Kelly Amrita Narlikar THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION Writing and Script S. A. Smith Andrew Robinson Available soon: Epidemiology Saracci Rodolfo Islamic History Forensic Science Adam Silverstein James Fraser Neoliberalism Information Manfred Steger and Ravi K. Roy Luciano Floridi Privary Raymond Wacks For more information visit our web sites www.oup.co.uk/general/vsi/ www.oup.com/us Eric H. Cline BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY A Very Short Introduction 1 3 Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright # 2009 by Eric H. Cline Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Cline, Eric H. Biblical archaeology : a very short introduction / Eric H. Cline. p. cm. Summary: ‘‘Archaeologist Cline discusses the origins of biblical archaeology as a discipline and what first prompted explorers to go in search of sites that would ‘prove’ the Bible. He surveys some of the sites, including Hazor, Megiddo, Gezer, Lachish, Masada, and Jerusalem. Separate chapters deal with the Hebrew Bible and New Testament, frauds and forgeries, and future prospects.’’—Provided by publisher Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-19-534263-5 (pbk.) 1. Bible—Antiquities. I. Title BS621.C55 2009 220.9’3—dc22 2009006525 135798642 Printed in Great Britain by Ashford Colour Press Ltd., Gosport, Hants. on acid-free paper To my family and my fellow archaeologists Acknowledgments This book owes its existence solely to the efforts and editing of Nancy Toff, to whom I owe a huge debt. I also owe a large debt of gratitude to my students at George Washington University, upon whom I tried out much of this material in my classes over the course of the past eight years, usually without warning them in advance. Grateful thanks are due to Felicity Cobbing, Israel Finkelstein, David Ussishkin, and Shelley Wachsmann for their assistance in procuring or providing some of the illustrations; to Leah Burrows for her bibliographical research assistance; and to Martin J. Cline, Felicity Cobbing, David Farber, Norma Franklin, Jim West, Assaf Yasur-Landau, and several anonymous readers for their helpful critiques, insights, and editorial suggestions regarding earlier sections or entire drafts of this book. Contents List of illustrations xi Introduction 1 Part I The evolution of the discipline 11 1 The nineteenth century: the earliest explorers 13 2 Before the Great War: from theology to stratigraphy 21 3 The interwar period: square holes in round tells 30 4 After 1948: biblical veracity and nationalism 40 5 Beyond the Six-Day War: