importantly, in how it had an eVect on research. The aim of most of the
archaeologists working in the biblical land—especially in the core area of
Palestine and Lebanon—was to illustrate, conWrm, or challenge the biblical
account, and they were not interested in any period dated either before or
after the events related in the Holy Book. Thus, an interest in the Islamic
archaeology of the area would only appear at the end of the period dealt with
in this book (Ettinghausen 1951; Vernoit 1997: 4–5), and pre-biblical archae-
ology would develop later.
During the nineteenth century archaeology in the biblical lands was prac-
tised almost exclusively by Christians. Most archaeologists were attracted to
the archaeology of the area by devotion and were explicit about their reverent
intentions. The information provided by the Bible constituted an important
element in their inquiries. Although the main connections between all the
wide range of religious debates and developments in theWeld of archaeology
are still to be investigated, it is clear, however, that there was a close engage-
ment in religion experienced by some of the protagonists in this chapter—
some of whom were employed by the Church as clerics, and others such as
Petrie who took these religious debates very seriously (Silberman 1999b). Not
surprisingly, most Catholics came from France whereas most Protestants
came from Britain, the United States, and to a great extent from Germany.
One could wonder whether the stronger tradition of reading the Bible among
Protestants, and their willingness to illustrate texts in their many nineteenth-
century printings of the Bible, may have resulted in a higher interest in the
Holy Land. Also, an issue in need of examination is whether the emphasis on
pilgrimage, holy sites, and relics among Catholics might also have been an
inXuence, and,Wnally, whether the Orthodox Church had its own interest in
Palestine.
The value of the ancient remains wasWrmly connected to their role in the
history of Judeo-Christian religions. Obviously, this mainly referred to
archaeology in Palestine, but the archaeology of Mesopotamia, and to a
limited extent in Egypt and other areas such as Lebanon and Turkey, was
also inXuenced to a great degree. The attraction exerted by biblical archae-
ology was intertwined with more general debates on the role of religion in
nineteenth-century society. Biblical archaeologists worked in the context of a
more general debate in contemporary society about the value of religious
values and the role of religion in politics and society. The infallibility of the
Church, which hadWrst received a serious blow with the rise in power of the
Protestants (like the Church of England) regard the Apocrypha as useful but not authoritative.
They would certainly have been known to Protestant scholars working in Palestine (Freedman
et al. 1992).
132 Archaeology of Informal Imperialism