INTRODUCl'ION: BET\X'EENTEXTANDARTIFACT!dillOIlC.Morelal/d,ShallllollBurkes,alldMelissaAI/hinForthosewhostudytheworldoftheBible,theprimarycorpusofdata
iscomprisedbythebiblicaltextsthemselves.Fromthesewritings,wefirsl
acquaintourselveswiththesocialand[iler~l1Ysurroundingspresumedin
biblicaltextsandthetraditionstheyrecord.Werelatethebiblicalmaterials
tootherandentdocumentsthaI, throughcomparison,mightilluminate
philological,historical,ortheologicalproblems.Wetracemotifs,explicate
poetry,andobservecharacteri;.;:atiol1sothaiwemightdeepenourappreci-
ationofhowliterarytraditionswerecrafted. Dependingonascholar's
expertise,heorshemightlookforseamswithinthetext 10 understand
why andhow redactorsconducted theirwork, Alternatively, ascholar
mightexaminedistinctions among manuscriptsthemselves in orderto
determinewhichtextscarrythegreatestprobabilityofprOVidingearliest
availablereadings.Weperformthesetypesoftasksbecausehistoricaland
literary-criticalmethodsoccupythehulkofourtr:.lining.Underst~mdingthe
contextofbiblicalliteraturewiththeseloolsprovidessomesenseofthe
greatculwralgapthatseparatesCOnlemporalYreadersfromthetexts'initial
producersandreaders.Nevertheless,academicstudyofthe13ible,largely
achievedthroughhistorical-criticalmethods,omitsacorpusofevidence
thatisgermanetothetaskofcontextualizingthegenerationanduseofthe
textsandtrdditions'hatcomprisetheBible.
Giventhestrongmotivationinmuchofourtrainingtounderstandthe
social-historicalcontextofbiblical literature,tograspsomethingofthe
worldinwhichit wascrealed,andtoreconstructthehistoricalscenarios
that these texts presume, it is strange tl);lt we habituallyexclude {he
immensecorpusofarclueologic<ddatafromourcourseofinquiry.Afler
all,morethana free-floatingnetworkofdocumentsandideas,thecultures
ofthebiblicdlworldwereensconcedina richmixtureofobjects.Someof
theseobjectsofmaterialculturehavebeenrecoveredandinterpretedin
thearchaeologicalprocess.
Archaeologicaldatacontemporaneoustothe textsthatwestudycan
allowustovisualizetheitems,environments,andlandscapestaken for
grantedinthetexts.Visualandmaterialdatacanhelpustounfoldpolitical