Between Text and Artifact: Integrating Archaeology in Biblical Studies Teaching (Archaeology and Biblical Studies)

78 IlI:.'WEENTEXTANDARTIFACf

thefield, Yigal Yadin, neverattempted to write thiskindofsynthetic
overview.^51
A lastsetofbooksmustalsobeincludedwithinthe"foundinggenera-
tion."Although they hadlitlle impact in the field, they appeared ina
well-regardedseries,Archaeologiamundi,publishedbyNagel.ThaiSyria-
Palesline^38 wasincludedinsuchapopularserieswasa validationthatthis
branchofNearEasternarchaeologyhadachieveda degreeofacceptance
inawiderworldofa morcanthropological-styledarchaeology.
Thesevolumes,Syria-PalestineIand11,39werenotmeanttobeauthor-
it~ltive, but they are visually impressive; their real value lies in their
extensiveuseofhigh-qualityphotographicreproduction,includingexten-
siveuseofcolor(whichisstillunusualduetoitshighcost).Thesebooks
providedsomeofthebestavailableviewsofartifacts,buildings,andsites,
andtheuseofcolorphotographsmadethearchaeologytrulycomealive.
Whilethetextislongoutofdateandonlyservedtoidentifyandcontex[U~
alizethephotographs,itisstilla pleasuretoleisurelyperusetheirpages
simplytogetabetterglimpseofsomeofthemostspectacularartifacts
fromtheregion.
Itisontheseverysolidfoundationsthatalllaterhandbooksarebuilt.
Whilethisfirstgenerationofhandbooksisbyandlargeoutofdate,they
maintainsomerelevancyintermsofhowthedisciplineanditspedagogy
hasuevdupeJ.

THENEWCANON:BIBLICALARCHAEOLOGYHANDBOOKSCOMEOFAGE

In the early 19905 twovery importantnew handoookswerepub-

lished,ArchaeologyoftheLandoftheBible:10,000-586B.C.E.,byAmihai

Mazar,andTheArchaeologyofAncientIsrael,editedbyAmnonBen+Tor.^40

!J7YadlnandAharoni bothstarted outat theInstituteofArchaeologyat Hebrew
University.YadinbecamethedirectoroftheHebrewUniversityprogrJ.m,whileAharoniwent
ontofounda competingprogr..mandinstituteattheUniversityofTelAviv.
38 NotetheuseofthetermSyria-I'aleslineratherthanPalestine,thel-lolyLand.orthe
l..mdof[sr.ld,Thistermwasembr,tcedbyAmericanself-styled"processual"archaeologists
andstronglypromOiedbyWilli:amG. Dever(seeZevil,"ThreeDebatesaboutBibleand
Arch:acology').Whileitsuggests:1largerregionthanjustPalesline.inrealityitincludesat
mostcoast:llSyria(prolYJ.blyinordertoincludeUgarit,whosetextsbecJ.mewellintegrated
intobiblicalstudies).
39 leanI'errot,Syria-PalestineI(trans.J.Hoganh;Archaeologiamundi;Geneva:Nagel,
1979);AharonKempinskiandMich:lelAvi-Yonah.Syria-Pak'SUI/eIt(trans.J.Hogarth;Archae-
ologiamundi;Geneva:Nagel,1979).
40 AmihaiMazar,Archaeologyof/heumdoftheBible:to,(){)()-586B.C.E.(ABRL;New
York: Doubleday, 19<X)};Amnon Ben-Tor,ed., TheArchaeologyofAncie1/lIsrael(ttans.