Category:Biblical Archaeology (subject)

Biblical Archaeology

Overview

In the 18th century, the term Biblical Archaeology denoted the study of Biblical antiquities. European scholars did not have direct access to the Land of Israel. Their works were based on ancient (mainly literary) sources and the reports of travelers and pilgrims. The first major work on the antiquities of Israel was Adriaan Reland's Palestina ex monumentis veteribus, published in 1714, followed by Johann Jahn's Archaeologia biblica in compendium redacta (1805).

Archaeology ... is the knowledge of whatever in antiquity is worthy of remembrance ... Biblical Archaeology embraces everything in the Bible worthy of notice and remembrance, whether it be merely alluded to, or treated as something well known. (Johann Jahn)

The Rise of Modern Biblical Archaeology

During the last hundred years of Ottoman rule in Palestine, the first European archaeologists began to be active in the region. In 1812 the ruins of the ancient city of Petra were rediscovered by Johann Ludwig Burckhardt. In 1838 Edward Robinson conducted the first systematic survey of archaeological sites in the Land of Israel, that lead to the establishment of the Palestine Exploration Fund.

By the mid-19th century the term "archaeology" changed its meaning and came to indicate specifically "the study of human history through the excavation of sites and the analysis of artifacts and other physical remains." Consistently, the term "Biblical archaeology" now indicated the recovery and scientific investigation of the material remains of past cultures that can illuminate the periods and descriptions in the Bible.

In 1913–1914 the Society for the Reclamation of Antiquities was established by the Yishuv's intellectual elite. Among its founder were Avraham Yaakov Brawer, David Yellin and Aharon Meir Mazie.

The British Mandate

After World War I (1914–1918) and the establishment of the British Mandate, the pursuit of archaeology became less religious in nature and instead took on a more purely historical and scientific character. Archaeological institutions tended increasingly to be concentrated in the city of Jerusalem. In 1920 the Society for the Reclamation of Antiquities changed its name to the Jewish Palestine Exploration Society and later to the Israel Exploration Society. The British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem began operating in 1921. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Institute of Archaeology was founded in 1926. In 1934 Hebrew University opened its Department of Archaeology, which it considers "the birthplace of Israeli archaeology." The Palestine Archaeological Museum (or Rockefeller Museum) was inaugurated and opened to the public at Jerusalem on 13 January 1938.

From the establishment of the State of Israel

After the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, the British Mandatory Department of Antiquities, housed at the Rockefeller Museum, became the Department of Antiquities of the State of Israel.

In the 1960s extensive excavations were conducted at the Herodium between 1962 and 1967 by by Virgilio Canio Corbo and Stanislao Loffreda, from the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum of Jerusalem, and at Masada between 1963 and 1965 by an expedition led by Israeli archaeologist Yigael Yadin.

The Israel Museum of Jerusalem, including the Shrine of the Book, was established in 1965 , and preserves today the largest collection of Biblical Archaeology (from prehistory to the Ottoman Empire). The Tel Aviv University Institute of Archaeology was established in 1969.

The Biblical Archaeology Society and the Biblical Archaeology Review (BAR) were established in 1975 in the United States by Hershel Shanks.

In 1990 the Department of Antiquities became the Israel Antiquities Authority, an autonomous government authority charged with responsibility for all the country's antiquities and authorized to excavate, preserve, conserve and administrate antiquities as necessary.