Basics
WHAT IS ARCHAEOLOGY? Archaeology is the science of
antiquities, or the study of the
relics of early races in order in understand as much as
possible about the life they lived. Bible
archaeology limits the study to Bible lands and to those
discoveries that have definite bearing
upon the Scriptures. Much of the work of Bible archaeology,
we shall...
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The value of the study of Bible archaeology. Numerous
critics of the Bible who have boasted of
using so-called scientific methods have challenged the
accuracy and the historicity of many
statements in the Scriptures. The early narratives of the
Bible have been declared to be legendary
or mythical. A late date has been suggested for certain
book...
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How cities have become buried, and why they are in the form
of a mound (or tell). When the
ancients would build a new city, they often chose a hill
located near a spring. They would build a
wall around the city to protect it against an enemy. The
city thus built might be occupied for
several centuries and then be destroyed by an enemy, or by
ea...
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The science of uncovering a buried city. The early pioneers
in archaeology had not developed the
scientific methods that have been used by the twentieth-
century excavators. Now it is customary
for each occupational level of earth to be removed and
everything found in it recorded before the
next deepest level is uncovered. Everything found is alw...
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Dating a city-level. The giving of a date to each
occupational level is largely determined by the
remnants of pottery found there. It was Sir Flinders Petrie,
about the turn of the century, who
discovered that each archaeological period had its own
typical pottery. Thus he was the first to
state the principle that the successive levels of occupa...
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Evaluating discoveries. Since excavators seldom, if ever,
find a building in a perfect state of
preservation, it becomes necessary for them to make a very
careful study of what remains they
do find in relation to the vicinity where they were found in
order to "reconstruct" a picture of the
building as it once appeared. Such "reconstructions" of ...
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Archaeological periods in Palestine. There is not exact
agreement among archaeologists
regarding the various datings of archaeological ages in
the Holy Land. The following dates are
suggested. Details concerning the Stone Age have not been
included because there has been so
much speculation regarding many of the early dates. New
discoveries cau...
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Cartouche - An oval figure on an Egyptian monument
containing the signature of a king.
Cuneiform - Babylonian wedge-shaped writing done by use
of a stylus, and not alphabetic but
rather syllabic in character.
Graffiti - Wall scribbling.
Hieroglyphics - The word means "sacred engraving,"
because the Egyptian priests used them on
monuments, and th...
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1. For interesting introduction to study of archaeology,
see Edward Chiera, They Wrote on Clay.
2. William F. Albright, The Archaeology of Palestine and
the Bible (New York: Fleming H.
Revell Company, 1933), pp. 127-128.
3. Joseph Free, Archaeology and Bible History, p. 1.
4. Albright, The Archaeology of Palestine, pp. 16-18;
Adams, Ancient Reco...
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