Shifting Sands : The Rise And Fall Of Biblical Archaeology

Description
Before the 1970s, “biblical archaeology” was the dominant research paradigm for those excavating the history of Palestine. Today most people prefer to speak of “Syro/Palestinian archaeology.” This is not just a nominal shift but reflects a major threoretical and methodological change. It has even been labeled a revolution. In the popular mind, however, biblical archaeology is still alive and well. In Shifting Sands , Thomas W. Davis charts the evolution and the demise of the discipline. Biblical archaeology , he writes, was an attempt to ground the historical witness of the Bible in demonstrable historical reality. Its theoretical base lay in the field of theology. Davis traces the fascinating story of the interaction of biblical studies, theology, and archaeology in Palestine, and the remarkable individuals who pioneered the discipline. By clarifying the theoretical and methodological framework of the original excavators, he believes, these data can be made more useful for current research, allowing a more sober, reasoned judgment of both the accomplishments and the failures of biblical archaeology.