2 B\:''1WEENTEXTANDAIH1FACr
andsocialmotivationsforeventsdescribedinthewrittenmaterial.Arti-
factscanremindusofthevoicesleftoutoftextsandalenus 10 biases
thatauthorsandeditorsexhibit.Whenviewedalongsidebiblicalliterature,
thearchaeologicalrecordcanhelpcreatenewknowledgethatleadstoa
richlytexturedsetofhistoricalreconstructionsfortheculturesofthebib-
licalworld.
Asattractive assuchresultsmightbe,thefactremainsthat weare
productsofboundeddisciplines,andthetaxonomyofdisciplinesresults
in thebifurcationoftextandartifactthatdiscouragesusfrombringing
archaeologicalevidencetobearinourinterpretivequestions.Unlikethe
disciplineofclassicalstudies,which,despitcitssplitintoclassicalarchae-
ologyandclassicalphilolo~JY,categorizcditsmaterialandtextualsources
withinthesamegreaterrubric,biblicalstudiesisdominatedbythetexts.
Atleastfromtheperspectiveofa literaryscholar,textualandarchaeolog-
ical studiesoftheBiblearelargelydistinctfields. Unliketheclassicist,
whocouldconceivablestudyarchaeologyandtextinthesameacademic
rubric, tostudythearchaeologyofSyro-Palestine,therealiaofbiblical
studies,onemighthavetoworkwithinbiblicalstudiesandoutsidethe
fieldaswell.Atpresent,thetoolsforeducatingoneselfinthearchaeology
ofSyro-PalestinemightleadonetodepartmentsofNearEasternstudiesor
anthropology.
Tosomeextent,thedivisionbetweenthetwoapproachesseemsto
havebeenwideninginrecentdecadesaspartofthegeneraltrendof
intensifyingspecializationacrosstheacademybetweenareasandeven
sub-areas. Asspecializedjournalshave increasedin numberand the
urgencytopublishhasbecomemoreacuteforrecentlymintedscholars,
thereisatendencytotightenone'sfocusonfamiliarterritoryratherthan
tostrayintopastureswhereone'smasteryofthematerialmightnotbe
asslrong.
Moreover,itseemsthattosomeextent,atleast,graduateprogramsalso
reflectandevensolidifya divisionbetweenthetwofields.Candidatesfor
thePh.D.degreeinbiblicalstudiesmighthavetoincludeworksbypromi~
nentarchaeologistsondoctoralexamreadinglists,ensuringsomeexposure
torelevantscholarshipinthearea.Nevertheless,trainingremainsheavily
basedonthestudyofwrittentextsandunderstandingtheseasfaraspossi-
bleintheirhistoricalsettings.11lehistoricalinleresthasobviouslinkstothe
dataproducedbyarchaeologists,andtothatextent,biblicalstudiestraining
canbesaidtohavebeeninformedbythefield.However,formany,expo-
suretoithasbeenthroughbooksandarticlesthatgenerallydigestthebilS
ofdatatoproduceanalysesofhistoricaleventsandmovements.Duetothe
natureoftheirtraining,biblicalstudiesscholarsoftenlackexperiencein
confrontingunprocessedarchaeologicalevidence,andtheymightbeillat
easewiththetechnicallanguageandtechniquesofthefield.