The word archaeology comes from two Greek words meaning "a study of ancient things." But the term usually applies today to a study of excavated materials belonging to a former era. Biblical archaeology is the scientific study, by excavation, examination, and publication, of evidences of cultures and civilizations from the biblical period. Archaeological findings help scholars in understanding the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible better. They reveal what life was in biblical times, throw light on obscure passages of Sacred Scripture and help us appreciate the historical context of the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible.

Archaeology is a complex science, such as chemistry, anthropology, and zoology. Many talented professionals - including engineers, historians, chemists, paleontologists, photographers, artists, and surveyors - are involved in the discovery, interpretation and publication of archaeological knowledge.

Every object an archaeologist discovers - whether a piece of bone, pottery, metal, stone, or wood - is studied in detail. The archaeologist's work often requires translating ancient writings and studying an ancient city's art and architecture. These details studies are carried out in museums and laboratories, but the archaeologist must first recover the material by carefully excavating an ancient city.

For the New Testament period or era, biblical archaeology has concentrated upon a geographical area that parallels the reaches of the Roman Empire. The area is somewhat smaller for Old Testament times; and the focus shifts eastward to include the Mesopotamian Valley and Persia. [modern Iran]

The hub for Old Testament research is Palestine or Israel (ancient Canaan) but it fans out to include the great empires in the Nile and Mesopotamian valleys. The culture of Phoenicia (modern Lebanon) was very similar to that of Canaan to the south. Syria to the east is also studied because its history often was tied to Israel's. Still farther north, Asia Minor was the homeland of the Hittites and several Greek cultures.

Until the early 1800, little was known of  biblical times and customs, except what was written in the Old Testament. Although the Greek historians preserved considerable background material on New Testament times, little documentation was found for the Old Testament period. The reason for this is that Alexander the Great forced the Greek language and custom upon all the lands his armies conquered. This policy almost destroyed the languages and culture of Egypt, Persia, Canaan, and Babylon. Before the rise of modern archaeology, scarcely any history and literature of the Old Testament.

Modern Near Eastern archaeology began during the 18th century. Before that, some research had been done by collectors of antiquities, usually museums or wealthy individuals. Biblical archaeology probably began with the discovery of the "Rosetta Stone" during Napoleon's invasion of Egypt in 1799. Discovered by an officer in the expedition, the stone was inscribed in three columns consisting of Greek, Egyptian hieroglyphics, and later Egyptian script. With Napoleon's encouragement, the stone was studied and recorded with scientific accuracy, then displayed in the British Museum. This discovery opened the door to the study of the remains of ancient Egypt, a rich resource for biblical researchers.

In ancient times, cities were usually built on sites that were easy to defend and were located near a source of water and on good trade route. The homes were constructed primarily of sun baked bricks, which could be destroyed quite easily by flood, earthquakes, or enemy attack. In rebuilding the town, the inhabitants would usually level the rubble and debris and build new buildings on the same location. Cities continue to be destroyed by windstorm, enemy attack, or other catastrophes until gradually a mound of earth containing remnants of buildings, tools, vases, and pottery rose on the site. Eventually many layers of habitation lay upon one another.

The sites of these mounds in the ancient Near East are called tells, the Arabic word for mounds. These mounds do not look like natural hills, appearing instead as unnatural rounded humps on the landscape. The often rise from their surroundings by as much as 15 to 23 meters.

If a city was destroyed by famine, disease, earthquake, or some other natural catastrophe, the towns people might conclude that the gods, had cursed their city and that it would be unwise to rebuild on the same site. The area might lie unused for hundreds of years until a new group decided to build again on this strategically located site.

When a site is occupied continuously by the same group of people, one layer or stratum of the mound is very similar to the next. Some slight changes in artifacts and ways of doing things, such as the method of baking pottery or the shape of certain tools, will occur in an orderly fashion from generation to generation. If a long period with no habitation has taken place between layers, the new people who inhabit the mound may have discovered new techniques. also peoples with new skills - perhaps the conquerors of the former dwellers - may inhabit the site. A sharp change in the pattern of living or in types of artifacts discovered may indicate a gap in habitation of the site.

As he excavates these ancient sites, an archaeologist will first find large stationary objects such as houses, monuments, tombs and fortresses. Also there will be smaller artifacts such as jewelry, tools, weapons, and cooking utensils. Archaeology provides the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible researcher with the rich remains of material culture over the course of centuries to supplement what is recorded in the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible, as well as in art and literature.

The archaeologists does their work in organizing their work [called a dig] first will divide the site, or area, by a "grid system" using lines parallel to the longitude and latitude of the area. A "field" 5.8 meters square, is then divided into four squares or quadrants, leaving room for a catwalk among them to observe the work. Each area has an area supervisor, who in turn works under the supervision of the excavation director. The area supervisor is responsible for directing the actual digging in his area and recording everything as it comes from the ground. It is more important to excavate small areas in detail than to excavate a large area carelessly.

Those who work the sites are of three categories: Pick-men carefully break up the soil, noticing every difference in the hardness of the earth and how it is compacted. It takes skill to distinguish a clay wall from ordinary packed clay or to develop the delicate touch that can bring forth a vase or a human bone unharmed. Hoe-men work over the loosened soil, saving anything of potential interest. Basket-men carry off the excavated dirt, perhaps using a sieve to sift the soil - to be sure nothing of value is discarded. Often archaeology students serve as laborers on expeditions.

Everything found in a quadrant of the site is collected in an individual basket and tagged with all pertinent information, including the date and location of discovery. The baskets are the photographed and evaluated by experts who record all the data. The materials and information then go to laboratories and museums where they are studied in details. Conclusions are then published by the excavation director and are circulated to other archaeologists and scholars.

In 1832, while a Danish archaeologist, C. J. Thomsen, was classifying some implements for display in a Copenhagen museum, he wondered about the age of the various tools made of iron, bronze, and stone. Returning to the peat bog where the implements had been found, he discovered that artifacts made of stone were found in the bottom layer. Higher levels contained many tools made of copper and bronze. At the top of the bog were instruments of iron, indicating they were made last. (We now speak of the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age)

Thomsen had made a very simple application of the principle of stratigraphy or keeping track of the layers of soil in which artifacts were found to establish a sequence of events. The archaeologist bases many of his conclusions on his study and evaluation of the various strata of the mound.

An archaeologist can determine how many times a town has been destroyed and rebuilt, but he/she will want to know the date of each occupation, how long it lasted, and why it was destroyed. Each level of occupation will contain the foundations of walls and buildings and often a layer of debris from the destruction. Also the articles of everyday living such as weapons, tools, pottery and ornaments will be revealed. Sometimes the different strata are separated by thick layers of ash from a great fire. At other times, only a difference in soil color or compactness distinguishes the levels. Furthermore, during centuries when the mound was not inhabited, erosion and random digging at the site can disrupt a stratum. A new group of settlers may have dug foundations, garbage pits, or trenches deep into earlier layer, making the job of the archaeologist more difficult.

Pottery is one of the most important keys to dating the strata of a tell. Pottery typology, or the study of various types of pottery, is now refined to almost an exact science. The scientist can call upon the detailed knowledge of the characteristics of pottery of each period to identify and date the pottery, usually within a half century of the exact time when it was made. The scientific method of carbon - 14 dating is also used to establish the age of some archaeological materials.

Earlier pottery designs were simple and functional; later vessels became more delicate and elaborate, often showing Persian and Greek influences. The method of baking the clay can also indicates the approximate time when it was made. Changes in everyday objects such as lamps, tools, weapons and jewelry help scientists identify broader periods of history. Coin collectors, then as now, might possess very old coins so these are not as reliable a method of identifying a period.

During the early years of exploring Bible lands, archaeologists hoped to make discoveries that would confirm the main events of Bible history. Today's archaeologists realize that many things about the Bible cannot be proved in a direct way. Instead of providing proof of specific events, archaeology is used to increase our knowledge of the everyday life, the history, and the customs of the people who appear in the Bible's long story - the Egyptians, Phoenicians, Philistines, Moabites, Assyrians, Babylonians, and others, as well as the Hebrews. For example, discoveries of ancient texts on clay tablets - in many languages - show us what the various peoples of the ancient Near East thought about the gods they worshiped, as well as the types of laws by which they lived. Ancient texts also tell us of alliances, trade agreements, and wars between the great cities and nations of the past.

Archaeological discoveries paint in the background of the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible, helping to explain many of its events. Thanks to archaeology, we know  that in the time of Abraham (2000 B.C.) many thriving cities existed in the ancient Near East. Civilization was already over a thousand years old in Egypt and in the region of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. It was from a city on the Euphrates River, called Ur, that Abraham (then called Abram) began the journey that eventually brought him to the land of Canaan - Gen. 11:31 - The excavation of Ur (1922-1934) by Sir Charles Leonard Woolley revealed that Abraham was surrounded by idolatry on all sides when God called him to begin a new people through which God could do His redemptive work.

The discovery of large bodies of "Cuneiform" literature in Babylon and other places also has proved most revealing. For example, the "Amarna Letters" from Egypt give an inside glance into conditions in Palestine just before the conquest by Joshua and the Israelites.

In 1890...
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Faith . Hope . Love - Welcome donation. Thank You. God bless. 

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Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah
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Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!

I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.

HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -