Classical and Near Eastern archaeologists have found themselves to be quite comfortable working in Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority. One group that is still underrepresented, however, is that of anthropological archaeologists. Anthropologists make up only a small percentage of the membership of the major research institutes and, while their participation is growing, most of them do not work on Biblical sites.
Work in the lands of the Bible has produced some defining moments in the history of archaeological method. Flinders Petrie began working in Palestine in 1890 and developed his system of constructing chronological sequences based upon pottery, recovered from different strata of an archaeological site, partly because of his work there. There was very little interest in pottery by his contemporaries but versions of his approach have found their way into the practice of archaeology globally. William Foxwell Albright’s method of interpreting and incorporating historical resources into the study of artifacts and sites has become a part of historical archaeological approaches worldwide. Albright, working in the Holy Land from the 1920’s forward, brought together Biblical, Near Eastern, historical and archaeological scholarship in a way that had never been accomplished by previous researchers.
Methods of site excavation, specifically adapted to “tell” environments (see illustration) have been a primary concern from all Near Eastern Archaeologists. The traditional technique of recovering complete architectural units, referred to as the “architectural layers” approach, focused on the horizontal exposure of important features as they were discovered. Every effort was made to recover the extant remains of such features before proceeding to lower layers. This approach has been particularly useful for researchers interested in defining the plans of monumental buildings like palaces, temples and fortifications. It is also important for sites that will be presented to the public.
In the fifties and sixties, in excavations at Jericho and the City of David, Kathleen Kenyon introduced an alternative practice. The so-called Wheeler-Kenyon Method (having been first developed by Kenyon’s mentor Mortimer Wheeler) is concerned largely with the vertical rather than the horizontal dimension. This method divides the excavation space into a grid of five-meter squares with two-meter wide walls (called “balks”) in between. The squares are excavated down to bedrock in carefully recorded layers and the balks only removed after the excavation of the site is complete. This method does not expose structures in a consistent manner as the layer method does nor is it a good choice for sites that will be presented to the public. Instead, it is intended to provide a clear and complete chronological sequence for the site.
Few excavators today follow a doctrinaire approach to excavation and a variety of methods are used based upon the research goals of the expedition. Much of the work being done in Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority is salvage or “rescue” archaeology and surveys—both of them driven by the rapid pace of industrial and residential development in these countries.
Work in the lands of the Bible has produced some defining moments in the history of archaeological method. Flinders Petrie began working in Palestine in 1890 and developed his system of constructing chronological sequences based upon pottery, recovered from different strata of an archaeological site, partly because of his work there. There was very little interest in pottery by his contemporaries but versions of his approach have found their way into the practice of archaeology globally. William Foxwell Albright’s method of interpreting and incorporating historical resources into the study of artifacts and sites has become a part of historical archaeological approaches worldwide. Albright, working in the Holy Land from the 1920’s forward, brought together Biblical, Near Eastern, historical and archaeological scholarship in a way that had never been accomplished by previous researchers.
Methods of site excavation, specifically adapted to “tell” environments (see illustration) have been a primary concern from all Near Eastern Archaeologists. The traditional technique of recovering complete architectural units, referred to as the “architectural layers” approach, focused on the horizontal exposure of important features as they were discovered. Every effort was made to recover the extant remains of such features before proceeding to lower layers. This approach has been particularly useful for researchers interested in defining the plans of monumental buildings like palaces, temples and fortifications. It is also important for sites that will be presented to the public.
In the fifties and sixties, in excavations at Jericho and the City of David, Kathleen Kenyon introduced an alternative practice. The so-called Wheeler-Kenyon Method (having been first developed by Kenyon’s mentor Mortimer Wheeler) is concerned largely with the vertical rather than the horizontal dimension. This method divides the excavation space into a grid of five-meter squares with two-meter wide walls (called “balks”) in between. The squares are excavated down to bedrock in carefully recorded layers and the balks only removed after the excavation of the site is complete. This method does not expose structures in a consistent manner as the layer method does nor is it a good choice for sites that will be presented to the public. Instead, it is intended to provide a clear and complete chronological sequence for the site.
Few excavators today follow a doctrinaire approach to excavation and a variety of methods are used based upon the research goals of the expedition. Much of the work being done in Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority is salvage or “rescue” archaeology and surveys—both of them driven by the rapid pace of industrial and residential development in these countries.
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