Stones & Stories: an introduction to archaeology & the Bible © Don C. Benjamin (2008) 1 Stones & Stories: an introduction to archaeology & the Bible © Don C. Benjamin (2008) Table of Contents PREFACE INTRODUCTION PART ONE POPULAR ARCHAEOLOGY 1. ARCHAEOLOGY OF PILGRIMS 2. ARCHAEOLOGY OF EMPERORS 3. ARCHAEOLOGY OF TRAVELERS 4. ARCHAEOLOGY OF ANTIQUITIES DEALERS 5. ARCHAEOLOGY OF MISSIONARIES PART TWO CULTURAL HISTORY 6. CULTURAL HISTORY 7. BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY 8. WHEELER-KENYON METHOD 9. ARAD 10. QUMRAN PART THREE ANNALES ARCHAEOLOGY 11. ANNALES ARCHAEOLOGY 12. AGRICULTURE 13. POTTERY 14. ARCHITECTURE PART FOUR PROCESSUAL ARCHAEOLOGY 15. PROCESSUAL ARCHAEOLOGY 16. ETHNOARCHAEOLOGY 17. GEZER 18. TEL MIQNE 19. CAPE GELIDONYA AND ULUBURUN 2 Stones & Stories: an introduction to archaeology & the Bible © Don C. Benjamin (2008) PART FIVE POST-PROCESSUAL ARCHAEOLOGY 20. POST-PROCESSUAL ARCHAEOLOGY 21. HOUSEHOLD ARCHAEOLOGY PART SIX FUTURE OF BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY 22. THE NEXT GENERATION 23. BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY TODAY PART SEVEN APPENDIX 24. BIBLIOGRAPHY 25. INDEX OF PERSONAL NAMES 26. GLOSSARY 27. STUDY GUIDE 28. POWERPOINT PRESENTATIONS 3 Stones & Stories: an introduction to archaeology & the Bible © Don C. Benjamin (2008) PREFACE Studying and writing are solitary, but not lonely, crafts. My studying and writing days are full of quiet conversations with colleagues from whose writings I learn, and with past and present students to whose questions I listen. Stones & Stories is dedicated to all my students – graduates and undergraduates at universities, seminarians at divinity schools, adult learners in religious congregations and general readers. Thank you for your motivation, for your inspiration, for your companionship on the journey of learning. In the bibliography of Stones & Stories I acknowledge my colleagues who have taught me about archaeology and the Bible. I also want to thank those who made time to talk with me – in passing or at length -- about this project. Kelley Hays-Gilpin (Northern Arizona University) Shelley Wachsman (Texas A&M University) Elizabeth Bloch-Smith (St Joseph’s University, Philadelphia) Oded Borowski (Emory University) Victor H. Matthews (Missouri State University) Douglas R. Clark (La Sierra University) Carol L. Meyers (Duke University) Leslie Hoppe (Catholic Theological Union) Steve Falconer (Arizona State University) Beth A. Nikhai (University of Arizona) Brian B. Schmidt (University of Michigan) William H. Krieger (University of Rhode Island) Miguel A. Aguilera (Arizona State University) John W. Baker (Houston TX) William G. Dever (University of Arizona) P.M. Michele Davaiu (University of Toronto) James K. Hoffmeier (Trinity International University) David N. Freedman (1922-2008) Eric H. Cline (George Washington University) John Kaltner (Rhodes College) 4 Stones & Stories: an introduction to archaeology & the Bible © Don C. Benjamin (2008) The generous gift of time which colleagues gave to me is a wonderful example of the rich collegiality which can take place in the world of academics. They do not need to agree with me to spend time with me. They do not need to endorse Stones & Stories to take an interest in it. I also could not have completed Stones & Stories if the Hayden Interlibrary Loan Librarians (Arizona State University) had not kept the books coming, and my friend, Burak Kayhan, had not kept my computer running. Finally, I am grateful to my editors at Augsburg Fortress Publishing House: Michael West, Niel Elliott and Joshua Messner. Their engagement with me during the process of writing and re-writing Stones & Stories has made it a better book. Stones & Stories began as a conversation with Niels C. Nielsen, Jr. who founded and chaired the Department of Religious Studies at Rice University where I got my first real teaching job. He was one of those remarkable colleagues who enriched my life as a scholar and teacher in many ways. One day, during a discussion of the program in biblical and Near Eastern studies I was creating for the department, Nielsen asked me: Don, have you ever been to the Holy Land? He was a firm believer in travel as learning. No, Niels, I answered, I haven’t. You need to go! he told me. I know. A couple of semesters passed, and I still had no plans to travel. What are you doing about getting to the Holy Land? Niels asked. Niels, I confessed when I was a student, I was too poor to travel, now that I am teaching I am too busy. The third time we had a conversation about going to the world of the Bible, Niels called me into his office and announced: Don, I have a grant of $10,000 for you. Do you think you could spend it in the Holy Land? I was off to travel Egypt, Jordan and Israel. With the grant money 5 Stones & Stories: an introduction to archaeology & the Bible © Don C. Benjamin (2008) I was able to design a travel study program called The Bible: on location, and a classroom course called Archaeology and the Bible which I taught and continue to teach. My travel, research, and teaching are the foundation of Stones & Stories. BIBLE, OLD TESTAMENT, NEW TESTAMENT Many Christians use the word Bible to refer to the Old Testament and the New Testament. In Stones & Stories: an introduction to archaeology and the Bible I use Bible as a synonym for Old Testament. Therefore this introduction to archaeology and the Bible focuses primarily on the excavation of Old Testament, not New Testament, sites. Stones & Stories explains the different schools or theories of how to excavate. It is not a survey of sites. Sites like Gezer, Arad and Qumran are described to demonstrate various theories of excavation. Hopefully instructors will choose other sites as well from both the Common Era and Before the Common Era to show their students how to apply these theories. DATES AND SPELLINGS Spellings for the names of rulers of Egypt and dates for their reigns in Stones & Stories follow John Baines and Jaromir Malek, Atlas of Ancient Egypt (1980). Dates before the Common Era are marked with the suffix: B.C.E. For example: Alexander of Macedonia (356-232 B.C.E.). Dates during the Common Era do not have a suffix. For example: David N. Freedman (1922-2008). Spellings for the names of rulers of Mesopotamia and dates for their reigns follow Michael Roaf, Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East (1990). Spellings for the names of the rulers of Israel and Judah and dates for their reigns follow J. Maxwell Miller and John H. Hayes, A History of Ancient Israel and Judah (2006). A tell (Hebrew: tel; Arabic: tell, tall) is an artificial hill or mound formed by the eroded debris from an ancient settlement. Spellings for sites follow Anson F. Rainey and R. Steven Notley, The Sacred Bridge: Carta’s atlas of the biblical world (2006). If Rainey and Notley give both spellings, for example, Tell Arad and Tel Arad, or do not list the site in their index, I use Tell or Tall if the site is in an Arabic speaking country, Tel if the site is in Israel. 6 Stones & Stories: an introduction to archaeology & the Bible © Don C. Benjamin (2008) Archaeologists working in the world of the Bible created a calendar using the raw materials used for tools and weapons, for example, Stone Age, Chalcolithic (Greek: chalco = copper; lithic = stone) Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age. The dates for these periods reflect the consensus of early archaeologists on when these materials first came into use. Subsequent research has made modifications in these dates, but the calendar dates have not been changed. Dates for the Archaeological Calendar in Stones & Stories follow The Anchor Bible Dictionary (1992) edited by David N. Freedman. TRANSLATIONS Citations from the Bible in Stones & Stories follow the numbering of the New Revised Standard Version (1989). The translations are mine. There are two kinds of translations. One tries to produce a faithful picture – a literal or functional equivalent -- of the original language in a new language. The NRSV, for example, is such a translation. These translations focus on the text. My translations are dynamic equivalents. I focus on the audience and try and use language that will help readers better understand what they are reading. The titles for the various traditions from the Bible that appear in Stones & Stories and the text divisions are my own, and not those in the New Revised Standard Version. For example, I identify a Trial of Nineveh and the text divisions as Nah 3:1-7. The NRSV titles the passage: Oracles against Nineveh and identifies the text divisions as Nah 2:1— 3:19. Likewise, I identify a hero story which I title: A Woman Delivers Thebez from Abimelech and identify the text divisions as Judg 9:50-57. The NRSV titles the passage: The Downfall of Abimelech and identifies the text divisions as Judg 9:22-57. My titles and text divisions are based on the form of the tradition and the intention of the genre to which it belongs, rather than the content of the passage. The intention of genre hero story is to describe divine deliverance, so I always use the verb deliver in the title. I also identify the hero, here a woman; the enemy, here Abimelech; and the victim, here Thebez. During the Late Bronze period (1500-1200 B.C.E.) Hebrews were displaced households (Akkadian: ’apiru) whose common bond was not ethnic, but social. War and famine were common causes of their social dislocation. These Hebrews often fought as mercenaries or supported their household by raiding. The Hebrews who founded the villages in the hills west of the Jordan River Valley and north of Jerusalem at the beginning of the Iron Age (1200-1100 B.C.E.) were from cities along the coast, not nomads from the desert.