The Archaeology of Israel: Constructing the Past, Interpreting the Present (JSOT Supplement Series)

351 Pages·1997·18.27 MB·English

by  Neil Asher Silberman

JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
SUPPLEMENT SERIES
237
Editors
David J.A. Clines
Philip R. Davies
Executive Editor
John Jarick
Editorial Board
Robert P. Carroll, Richard J. Coggins, Alan Cooper, J. Cheryl Exum,
John Goldingay, Robert P. Gordon, Norman K. Gottwald,
Andrew D.H. Mayes, Carol Meyers, Patrick D. Miller
Sheffield Academic Press
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The Archaeology of Israel
Constructing the Past,
Interpreting the Present
edited by
Neil Asher Silberman &
David Small
Journal for the Study of the Old Testament
Supplement Series 237
Copyright © 1997 Sheffield Academic Press
Published by Sheffield Academic Press Ltd
Mansion House
19 Kingfield Road
Sheffield SI 19AS
England
Printed on acid-free paper in Great Britain
by Bookcraft Ltd
Midsomer Norton, Bath
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
ISBN 1-85075-650-3
CONTENTS
Foreword 9
Abbreviations 11
List of Figures 13
List of Contributors 15
NEIL ASHER SILBERMAN AND DAVID B. SMALL
Introduction 17
ARCHAEOLOGY, CONTEMPORARY CULTURE,
AND IDEOLOGICAL DISCOURSE
AMOS ELON
Politics and Archaeology 34
YAACOV SHAVTT
Archaeology, Political Culture, and Culture in Israel 48
NEIL ASHER SILBERMAN
Structuring the Past: Israelis, Palestinians, and the Symbolic
Authority of Archaeological Monuments 62
BURKE O. LONG
Historical Imaginings, Ideological Gestures:
W.F. Albright and the 'Reasoning Faculties of Man' 82
PEOPLES AND CULTURES OF ANCIENT ISRAEL:
RECENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
TRUDE DOTHAN
Tel Miqne-Ekron: An Iron Age I Philistine Settlement in Canaan 96
AMNON BEN-TOR
The Yigael Yadin Memorial Excavations at Hazor, 1990-93:
Aims and Preliminary Results 107
6 The Archaeology of Israel
EPHRAIM STERN
Discoveries at Tel Dor 128
AMfflAlMAZAR
The Excavations at Tel Beth Shean during the Years 1989-94 144
ARCHAEOLOGY AND SOCIAL HISTORY
OF THE SECOND TEMPLE AND RABBINIC PERIODS
LEE I. LEVINE
The Revolutionary Effects of Archaeology
on the Study of Jewish History:
The Case of the Ancient Synagogue 166
BENJAMIN G. WRIGHT m
Jewish Ritual Baths—Interpreting the Digs and the Texts:
Some Issues in the Social History of Second Temple Judaism 190
ARCHAEOLOGY AND ETHNICITY:
PEOPLES OF ANCIENT CANAAN/ISRAEL
ISRAEL RNKELSTEIN
Pots and People Revisited: Ethnic Boundaries in the Iron Age I 216
BRIAN HESSE AND PAULA WAPNISH
Can Pig Remains Be Used for Ethnic Diagnosis in the
Ancient Near East? 238
DAVID B. SMALL
Group Identification and Ethnicity in the Construction
of the Early State of Israel: From the Outside Looking in 271
IMAGINING THE PAST: THE BIBLE, ISRAELITE HISTORY,
AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH
WILLIAM G. DEVER
Philology, Theology, and Archaeology:
What Kind of History Do We Want, and What Is Possible? 290
Contents 1
BARUCH HALPERN
Text and Artifact: Two Monologues? 311
Index of References 342
Index of Authors 345
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FOREWORD
This volume, The Archaeology of Israel: Constructing the Past, Inter-
preting the Present, is the fifth based on conferences at the Philip and
Muriel Herman Center for Jewish Studies at Lehigh University and is
aimed at stimulating new thinking in the field of Jewish Studies broadly
conceived. In gathering together an interdisciplinary group of scholars,
the Center sought to foster dialogue and debate among people approach-
ing the field of the archaeology of the land of Israel from diverse per-
spectives and disciplinary orientations. By incorporating discussion of the
cultural, social, and political conditions and effects, we endeavored to
broaden the framework within which the archaeology of Israel is con-
ventionally discussed.
I would like to thank Richard and Susan Master for their generous
contribution which helped to make the conference and the volume
possible. I am likewise grateful to Philip and Muriel Berman, who con-
tributed generously to the funding of the conference, and whose gen-
erosity and imagination made possible the establishment and continued
operation of the Center. I thank Neil Silberman and David Small for
agreeing to edit the volume and for contributing an illuminating intro-
duction that locates the various issues addressed by the contributors
within the context of the scholarly discussions in the field. They,
together with Trude Dothan and Ephraim Stern of the Philip and Muriel
Berman Center for Biblical Archaeology at the Hebrew University in
Jerusalem, played a major role in conceptualizing and organizing the
conference. Without their wise counsel, the conference could not have
been held. Shirley Ratushny, assistant to the director of the Berman
Center, was responsible for preparing the volume for publication and for
supervising the administrative and logistical organization of the con-
ference. Carol Sabo, administrative coordinator of the Berman Center,
was responsible for coordinating transportation and housing for the