I. WHAT IS ARCHAEOLOGY?

1.Etymology of the word Archaeology

•Archaios
•Logos
2. The modern sense of the word archaeology
•The study of the material remains of the
past
3. The Aim of archaeology
•to discover, rescue, observe, and preserve
buried fragments of antiquity and to use them
to help construct ancient life.
II. The study of archaeology has four basic divisions:
1. Pre-historic archaeology
2. Pre-classical archaeology
3. Classical archaeology
4. Historical archaeology

Archaeology, then, is an auxiliary science of

history. It is the hand maid of history.
III. The Beginnings of Archaeology
•Herculeaneum (1738)
•Pompeii (1748)
•1798 Napoleon invaded Egypt

IV. Archaeology and the Bible

•Archaeology of the Bible fall under the category of
pre-classical .
•Syro-Palestinian archaeology
•Focuses primary on the Bronze Age, the Iron Age,
and the Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman periods in
that land.
I. Six Phases on Archaeology
A. Phase 1: Individual Investigation [1838-1865]
B. Phase 2: Investigation by Society (1865-1890)
C. Phrase 3: Tell Excavation (1890-1914)
D. Phrase 4: Systematic Archaeology (1918-1940)
E. Phase 5: A Methodological Revolution (1948-
1967)
F. Phase 6: New Horizons (1967- present)
I. Six Phases on Archaeology
A. Phase 1: Individual Investigation [1838-1865]
1.began with topographic surveys and
historical-geographical studies
i. Edward Robinson (1794-1863)
a) “I had long meditated the preparation
of a work of biblical geography, and
wished but could find no information in
the books of travelers” (Robinson 1856,
1:36).
I. Six Phases on Archaeology
A. Phase 1: Individual Investigation [1838-1865]
1.began with topographic surveys and
historical-geographical studies
i. Edward Robinson (1794-1863)
ii. George W. Smith (1856-1942)
iii.“The works of Robinson and Smith alone
surpass the total of all pervious
contributions to Palestinian geography
from the time of Eusebius and Jerome to
the early nineteenth century.” according
to Albrecht (1939, 374),
I. Six Phases on Archaeology
A. Phase 1: Individual Investigation [1838-1865]
1.began with topographic surveys and
historical-geographical studies
i. Edward Robinson (1794-1863)
ii. George W. Smith (1856-1942)
iii.Victor Guerin [1852-1875]
I. Six Phases on Archaeology
B. Phase 2: Investigation by Society (1865-1890
1. This period was categorized by the
establishment of learned societies dedicated
to investigation of the ancient Near East.
2. The first to be founded was the Palestine
Exploration Fund. Wilson.
3. In 1871 the Palestine Exploration Fund
decided to undertake the daunting task of
surveying and mapping the entire land of
Palestine west of the Jordan River.
completed in 1877 published in four volumes
in 1880 .
I. Six Phases on Archaeology
C. Phrase 3: Tell Excavation (1890-1914)
A. Herinrich Schlliemann at Troy Schliemann
had discovered that the site of ancient Troy
was a mound that represented a series of
occupational layers.
B. 1890.William M. Flinders Petrie
1. applied the groundbreaking work of to the
archaeology of Palestine.
2. Petrie appropriated that concept, called
stratigraphy and used it in his excavations
at the Palestinian site of Tell el-Hesse
I. Six Phases on Archaeology
C. Phrase 3: Tell Excavation (1890-1914)

“The foundations of the discipline were laid in the

first appreciation of the true nature of the tell and
how it was formed. Archaeologist began to learn
how to disentangle the successive strata and to data
each by its contents, particularly the pottery…
(Dever 1980, 42)
I. Six Phases on Archaeology
D. Phrase 4: Systematic Archaeology (1918-1940)
1. Between the world wars, archaeology in
Palestine came of age
2. chronology of ancient Palestine came into focus
3. Sophisticated techniques, methodology, and
scholarly competence
4. C.S. Fisher. professor of archaeology at the
American School in Jerusalem.
i. Beth Shean (1921),
ii. Megiddo (1925),
iii. Beth Shemesh (1928).
5. William F. Albright
I. Six Phases on Archaeology
5. Phase 5: A Methodological Revolution (1948-
1967)
6. Between WWII & Israeli War 1948
i. Hostile and Volatile
ii. Little Work in Archaeology took place
iii. Kathlen Kenyon
i. Jericho
ii. Balk Method
“Here she dug smaller squares (usually 5 * 5
m) within a grid, leaving intervening
catwalks, or ‘balks’, which were then used
to see the debris in section and to guide
I. Six Phases on Archaeology
5. Phase 5: A Methodological Revolution (1948-
1967)
“Here she dug smaller squares (usually 5 * 5 m) within
a grid, leaving intervening catwalks, or ‘balks’, which
were then used to see the debris in section and to
guide careful probing and stripping of the debris”
(Dever 1980, 44).
I. Six Phases on Archaeology
F. Phase 6: New Horizons (1967- present)
1. multidisciplinary approach
2. osteologists, botanists, geologists,
zoologists, and other specialists.
I. Six Phases on Archaeology (Review)
A. Phase 1: Individual Investigation [1838-1865]
B. Phase 2: Investigation by Society (1865-1890)
C. Phrase 3: Tell Excavation (1890-1914)
D. Phrase 4: Systematic Archaeology (1918-1940)
E. Phase 5: A Methodological Revolution (1948-
1967)
F. Phase 6: New Horizons (1967- present)