William G. Dever - Böcker

Archaeology and Bible--two simple terms, often used together, understood by everybody. But are they understood properly? If so, why are both subject to such controversy? And what can archaeology contribute to our understanding of the Bible? These are the problems addressed by Professor Dever in this book.Dever first looks at the nature and recent development of both archaeology and Biblical studies, and then lays the groundwork for a new a productive relationship between these two disciplines. His “case studies” are three eras in Israelite history: the period of settlement in Canaan, the period of the United Monarchy, and the period of religious development, chiefly during the Divided Monarchy. In each case Dever explores by means of recent discoveries what archaeology, couples with textual study, can contribute to the illumination of the life and times of ancient Israel.Given the flood of new information that has come from recent archaeological discoveries, Dever has chosen to draw evidence largely from excavations and surveys done in Israel in the last ten years--many still unpublished--concerning archaeology and the Old Testament.Dever’s work not only brings the reader up to date on recent archaeological discoveries as they pertain to the Hebrew Bible, but indeed goes further in offering an original interpretation of the relationship between the study of the Bible and the uncovering of the material culture of the ancient Near East. Extensive notes, plus the use of much new and/or unpublished data, will make the volume useful to graduate students and professors in the fields of Biblical studies and Syro-Palestinian archaeology, and the seminarians, pastors, rabbis, and others. This book provides stimulating, provocative, and often controversial reading as well as a compendium of valuable insights and marginalia that symbolizes the state of the art of Biblical archaeology today.

Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Albright Institute of Archaeological Research, this collection of erudite essays concentrates on the archaeology of ancient Israel, Canaan, and neighboring nations.

This volume is the final report of excavations carried out in the Hebron hills and the Negev desert in 1967-1980 on behalf of Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem and the University of Arizona. They were pioneering, multidisciplinary projects that helped to illuminate what was then a poorly known “Dark Age” in the cultural history of ancient Palestine, a nonurban interlude of pastoral nomadic movements over several centuries (ca. 2400–2000 B.C.E.) between the great urban civilizations of the early Bronze Ages. Eighteen appendixes by specialists in many disciplines analyze all aspects of material culture and human and animal remains. A history of previous scholarship and a synthesis of the EB IV period in both Israel and Jordan conclude the volume, which will be a landmark study for many years.

In recognition of the significant contribution that Suzanne Richard has made to the archaeology of the Early Bronze Age in the southern Levant, this Festschrift represents the best of scholarship in her areas of interest and publication in the field. Professor Richard is known for her work on the Early Bronze Age, especially the EB III-IV. Her first major articles (BASOR 1980; BA 1987) are still standard references in the field. More recently, she is concerned with interconnectivity, social organization in rural periods, and urban-rural transitions in the Levant in the fourth and third millennia BCE in particular.With an international cadre of leading scholars, the volume reflects recent scholarship on the nature of Bronze Age urbanism and cultural transitions at key junctures. The volume is an important contribution to the field of late 4th through the 2nd millennia BCE.