Archaeologists, of course, cannot prove that the Bible is completely true, but they often make discoveries that help to better understand or interpret certain biblical events. Many artifacts found by scientists actually confirm the events described in the Book of Books.
1. The Great Flood
There is an opinion among scientists that the source of the story of the biblical Flood was most likely a devastating flood in Mesopotamia. If this is true, then the scale of such a flood was simply exaggerated in the imagination of the authors of this story. During excavations in 1928-1929 in southern Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), British archaeologist Leonard Woolley discovered a 3-meter layer of silt dating back to 4000 to 3500 BC. in the ancient city of Ur.
Woolley interpreted this as evidence of the biblical flood. Similar evidence has been found at many other sites in the region, but they date back to different years. Floods were common in Mesopotamia. While there is no archaeological evidence for a planetary-scale flood, there is evidence of a catastrophic flood (or several) in Mesopotamia.
2. Genealogy of Abraham
The story of Abraham begins with how he and his family lived in the Mesopotamian city of Ur, from where they moved to Canaan. The second half of Genesis goes into some detail about Abraham's family tree and mentions dozens of names. Modern historians believe that Abraham must have lived sometime between 2000 and 1500 BC. Excavations at Mari, an ancient city on the Euphrates (in modern-day Syria), uncovered the ruins of an impressive royal palace and thousands of tablets that were once part of the royal archives.
After studying tablets from the archives of Mari, which date from 2300 to 1760 BC, it was discovered that the names found in Abraham's genealogy were used in this area. This find does not confirm the validity of Abraham's family tree, but it does suggest that the story may not be completely fictional.
3. Abraham's Handmaid
Genesis tells us that Abraham's wife Sarah could not have children. She agreed for Abraham to take a second wife who could bear him a son - an Egyptian maid named Hagar. This practice is confirmed by many texts found by archaeologists. The Alalakh Texts (18th century BC) and even the Code of Hammurabi indicate that this was a generally accepted custom.
The Nuzi tablets, which were found in ancient Hurrian excavations in modern Iraq, date back to the second half of the 15th century BC. These texts mention that a barren wife could provide her husband with a slave so that she would bear him a son.
4. City of Sodom
Genesis describes the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah due to the sins of their inhabitants. A team of archaeologists believe they have discovered the ruins of the ancient city of Sodom, located in Tell el-Hammam, east of the Jordan River. The age of the excavated ruins is consistent with the early historical period of the Bible (3500 - 1540 BC). Its location is not the only reason why the ruins were considered the ancient city of Sodom. Archaeologists believe that the city was suddenly abandoned towards the end of the Middle Bronze Age, which matches the biblical picture of the destruction of Sodom.
5. Silver Scrolls of Ketef Hinnom
The archaeological site of Ketef Hinnom is a complex of a series of rock burial chambers located southwest of the Old City of Jerusalem, on the road to Bethlehem. In 1979, archaeologists made an important discovery at this site: they found two silver plates, rolled up like scrolls. They were inscribed in Old Hebrew. These scrolls are believed to have been used as amulets and date back to the 7th century BC. The texts on these amulets contain the oldest surviving quotations from the Torah.
6. Deir Allah inscriptions
During the Exodus, the Israelites passed through the Sinai Peninsula and reached the kingdoms of Edom and Moab. There is a chapter in Numbers that tells how the king of Moab, concerned about the presence of the Israelites, asked a prophet named Balaam to curse the people of Israel. About 8 km from the Jordan River, a Bronze Age sanctuary called Deir Allah was excavated. An ancient Aramaic inscription was found in the sanctuary, which actually contained the prophetic curse of Balaam. The inscription describes a divine vision, foreshadowing the destruction and punishment of the “malevolent gods” for it.
7. Captivity of the Samaritans
Samaria fell to the Assyrians in 722 BC. Assyrian records state that King Sargon II captured 27,290 prisoners and sent them into exile in various places under Assyrian control, including Halah and Habor. This event is confirmed by the texts of the Book of Kings, as well as some physical evidence. In Mesopotamian excavations, archaeologists found fragments of pottery with the names of the Israelites written on the surface.
8. Assyrian invasion
In 701 BC, the Assyrian king Sennacherib invaded Judea. Many cities fell under the onslaught of his army, including Lachish, which is mentioned in the Book of Kings. After the siege, the city was captured by the Assyrians, and several archaeological finds are entirely consistent with this event. At the site of Lachish, archaeologists discovered arrowheads, siege structures, helmets, and a chain that the defenders used against a siege battering ram. And on the site of the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh (Northern Iraq) reliefs and sculptures were found depicting the capture of Lachish.
9. End of Babylonian exile
When the Persian ruler Cyrus the Great captured Babylon in 539 BC, he ordered the release of Jews and other peoples who were held in captivity. This historical episode is described in the Book of Ezra. There are also other historical documents that describe Cyrus the Great's policy of allowing many of the inhabitants of Babylon to return to their homeland. One of the most famous of these documents is the Cyrus Cylinder - a small clay cylinder on which Cyrus ordered a list of his victories and merciful deeds to be engraved in cuneiform.
10. Herod's Palace
Traces of Herod the Great's ambitious building projects are found throughout Palestine. What were believed to be the remains of King Herod's palace were discovered during excavations in an abandoned building in the Old City of Jerusalem, near the Tower of David. The main significance of this find is that it was in this place that the Roman procurator Pontius Pilate sentenced Jesus to death.
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The main step towards the scientific study of the East. antiquities in the 1st half. XIX century Work began on deciphering Assyro-Babylonian cuneiform and Egypt. hieroglyphic writing. At the same time, European diplomats, military instructors and travelers made the first attempts at measurements and excavations in the “biblical countries”, laying the foundation for archaeological studies of such monuments as Babylon, biblical Ascalon, the tombs of the pharaohs and temples of Egypt, the Behistun inscription, Nineveh (Kuyunjik) and Khorsabad with the palace of Sargon II , and then Nimrud.
Mesopotamian archeology began with the work of P. E. Bott in Nineveh (1842-1846) and O. G. Layard in the cities of Babylonia (1845-1848). A number of monuments important for biblical history were discovered: a “black obelisk” with a description of the Assyrian wars. King Shalmaneser III, including with the Kingdom of Israel; an image of the siege of Lachish, found in the palaces of Sennacherib on Kuyundzhik, and most importantly - the library of Ashurbanipal, in which cuneiform texts of the Babylonian era were kept. In 1850, Loftus continued his description of the monuments in the Euphrates Valley, starting with the biblical Erech (Uruk).
Syro-Palestinian period
All R. XIX century archeology dr. Egypt, M. Asia and the Syro-Palestine region took only the first steps: in Egypt in 1842-1845. a Prussian expedition worked (K.R. Lepsius), which published its research “Denkmäler aus Aegypten und Aethiopien” (12 volumes); in 1850 to Egypt for Copts. O. F. Mariette went with the manuscripts; in Asia, the British Museum began excavations at Ephesus.
Particularly important for the development of A. b. There were studies in the Holy Land, but work here progressed slowly. The scientific stage began with a trip to Palestine in 1838 by Amer. Hebraist E. Robinson and missionary E. Smith. They described a number of archaeological sites on the spot, identifying them with cities known from the Bible (Robinson E., Smith E. Biblical Research of Palestine and Adjacent Regions. N. Y., 1841-1842, 1956. 3 vol.). He continued the matter silently. researcher T. Tobler and the Frenchman V. Guerin, who began in 1852 a project to map monuments and measure them. Mapping of Western monuments. Palestine in 1871-1878. conducted by K. R. Conder and G. G. Kitchener; Haurana and North. Jordan in 1896-1901 - G. Schumacher and A. Musil; much later than Yuzh. Jordan and the Negev Desert - N. Gluck.
An important step was the founding in 1865 of the Palestine Exploration Fund for the Study of Jerusalem. Excavations here have been carried out since 1848, when L. F. de Solsi cleared the site of the “royal tombs” (the graves of the kings of Adiabene). Scientific study of the topography and history of the city began in the 60s. XIX century Foundation staff, Brit. officers C. Warren and C. Wilson. De Solcy and Warren were not archaeologists, so their work in Jerusalem and Jericho was ineffective and gave rise to confusion: monuments from the era of Herod the Great (1st century BC) were attributed to King Solomon, and Tell el-Ful (the Maccabean fortress) was attributed to the era of the Crusades. In 1872-1878. for examination Zap. Palestine The Palestine Exploration Fund organized an expedition under the leadership of. Kitchener and Conder; the latter's books about the results of his work served many people. generations of researchers and have retained their significance to the present day. time.
A significant event in the history of the formation of A. b. there were finds by C. Clermont-Ganneau, French. consul in Palestine (since 1867), who laid the foundations of Palestinian epigraphy, introducing into scientific circulation a number of the most important for A. b. objects: stele of the Moabite king Mesha, inscription in Greek. language prohibiting non-Jews from entering the courtyard of the Jerusalem temple, graffiti on ossuaries; he also identified the ruins of the city of Gezer and others. In the 60s. XIX century Russians were involved in the study of ancient Jerusalem. scientists. Having headed the Russian spiritual mission in Jerusalem in 1865, Archimandrite. Antonin (Kapustin) organized the excavations and the publication of their results at a scientific level that was advanced for its time. He discovered the second circuit of the city wall (445 BC), the “Gate of Judgment” and part of the structures of the basilica of the emperor. Constantine (see the articles “Jerusalem”, “Church of the Holy Sepulcher”). In those same years, Prof. KDA A. A. Olesnitsky began to publish essays on the antiquities of Palestine (The Fate of the Ancient Monuments of the Holy Land. St. Petersburg, 1875; The Old Testament Temple in Jerusalem. St. Petersburg, 1889, etc.). The basic role in their field study was played by imp. Palestinian Orthodox Society (since 1882). In the 90s XIX century he supported a number of expeditions to the Holy Land under his leadership. N. P. Kondakova, M. I. Rostovtseva, N. Ya. Marra, in the 10s. XX century it was supposed to open Russian. archaeological institute in Jerusalem (see Belyaev L.A. et al. Church science: Biblical archeology // PE. T.: ROC. P. 435-437).
In con. XIX - early XX century
the study of antiquities that are important for A. b. accelerated. This had extra-scientific geopolitical prerequisites (the weakening of Turkey, the “development” of the Middle East by European states) and was associated with the formation of methods of scientific archeology, with the need for theologians to refute the conclusions of hyper-critics on the basis of archaeological sources (see Hypercriticism).
The disproportion in the development of field research still remained: primacy remained with the objects of Mesopotamia and Egypt, the lands of which were better studied, and the monuments provided many written sources. In 1872, among 25 thousand texts from the library of Ashurbanipal, a Babylonian version of the description of the flood, “The Epic of Gilgamesh”, was discovered; the missing part of the text of the epic was found by J. Smith in Kuyundzhik.
In Nineveh, a clay prism with the annals of Ashurbanipal and 4 cylinders describing the campaigns of Sennacherib, including the invasion of Judea and the siege of Jerusalem, were found. The discoveries of more ancient monuments of Sumer followed, a systematic study of Babylon by R. Koldewey (1899-1917), who recreated the structure of the fortifications, residential areas, palaces and temples of the city, the discovery of C. L. Woolley of the city of Alalakh beyond the river. Orontes. In the beginning. XX century Hettology appeared: in 1906 German. the scientist G. Winkler began work in Sidon and Bogazkoy, but the texts from Bogazkoy, written in the Hittite language, were deciphered only 10 years later by Czech. scientist F. Grozny.
Since the 80s XIX century a new flowering of archeology began in Egypt. In 1887, the first tablets with Amarna letters were accidentally discovered in the ruins of Tell el-Amarna, containing new information about the life and politics of Egypt and ancient Canaan before its settlement by the ancient Jews.
In the Syro-Palestinian region, the period of exploration dragged on for a long time. Although in the 70-80s. XX century The American Palestine Research Society and Lutherans arose here. German Palestine Union (1877), Russian. Orthodox Palestine Society (1882), Dominican French School of Biblical and Archaeological Research (1894), Franciscan Bible School, and later “schools” in Jerusalem (German Evangelical Institute for the Study of Antiquities of the Holy Land, American Schools of Oriental Research (1900) , British Archaeological School in Jerusalem (1919)), they were unable to organize long-term excavations at large sites on a scientific basis. Nevertheless, the reconnaissance work they carried out allowed them to continue the tradition. reconstruction of the historical geography of Palestine, which led to the creation of the classic work of J. Smith (The Historical Geography of the Holy Land. N.Y., 18973).
Interwar years
(Especially 1920-1935) is called the “golden age” of the Middle East. archeology. After the First World War, the lands of the former were opened for archaeological work. The Turkish Empire, for which England and France received mandates to govern them. Near In the East, excavation methods developed by prehistoric and classical archeology were increasingly used. Of particular importance were the increased interest in archeology, as well as the continuation of the theological polemics between “modernists” and “traditionalists.”
Since the 20s XX century discoveries followed one after another: El Amarna (where J. Pendlebury began work) and Byblos (biblical Ebal), the port of ancient Phenicia, where P. Monte discovered the tomb with the sarcophagus of King Ahiram (see Ahiram sarcophagus), Beth Shean in Decapolis, where C. S. Fisher, A. Rowe and G. Fitzgerald uncovered layers up to the 3rd millennium BC; C. L. Woolley (until 1914 he led the work in Carchemish) led an expedition of the British Museum (until 1934) to the ruins of Ur, the city of Abraham (Ur, or Tell el-Mukayyar); 1925 - opening of an “archive” in Nuzi, containing information about the era of the Old Testament patriarchs (Yorgan Tepe, northern Baghdad, near the mountains of Southern Kurdistan).
For the development of archeology of the Holy Land, a favorable time began with the establishment of Britain. mandate (1917). Authorities for the protection of monuments were created, similar to the British. (Palestinian Department of Antiquities). Of particular importance was the beginning of the work of the American Schools of Oriental Research under the leadership. W. Albright. Arriving in Jerusalem in 1919, he organized work on Tell el-Ful and Kiriath Sefer (1922). His students also worked at Bet Tzur (see Beth Tzur), Tell Beit Mirsim, Bet Shemeshei, etc. The excavation area quickly expanded, work was carried out in Ras Shamra (Ugarit) and Ascalon, in different parts of Jerusalem (McAlister , K. Duncan and J. W. Crowfoot since 1923 explored the hill of Ophel; E. L. Sukenik - city walls) and in caves above the Galilee metropolis, where traces of prehistoric man were found. At the same time, one of the first agricultural crops, Natufian, was discovered and studied (D. Garrod, 1928-1934). Excavations began at Megiddo (Fisher et al.), Geras in Jordan (Horsfield and Crowfoot), at Mizpah (Tell en Nasbeh) and Tell Beit Mirsim southwest of Hebron. The organization of work and fixation of excavated objects were brought to the proper level. Albright was able to draw up a clear typology and chronology of Iron Age pottery (refined by Fidian-Adams at Ascalon, Albright himself at Giveath and Tell Beit Mirsim, works at Bethel (see Bethel) and Megiddo), Crowfoot at Samaria and E. Grant (excavations on Bet Shemesh, which opened the period of its capture by ancient Jews in the 12th-9th centuries BC).
Seal with the inscription: "Shem, servants of Jeroboam." VIII century (?) BC Megiddo. Copy
Seal with the inscription: "Shem, servants of Jeroboam." VIII century (?) BC Megiddo. Copy
30s XX century were marked by the work of J. Garstang (Palestinian Department of Antiquities) in Jericho, where the first urban Neolithic culture was discovered (in 1952-1958 by K. Kenyon). Excavations began at the Maccabean era fortress at Beth Tzur. J. L. Starkey dug in Lachish and collected important information about the era of the preaching of the prophet. Jeremiah (626/27-586 BC). Work in the biblical Ai made it possible to further identify this city. Of particular importance were the 13-year surveys of Transjordan, from the Gulf of Aqaba. to sir. borders. N. Gluck identified and dated the Nabatean-era cemetery at Jebel et Tannur (1937), northeast of Dead Sea, and, in the post-war period, Etzion Gever. B. Mazar began studying the largest Heb. Beth Shearim cemeteries. The results of the excavations of Mari (Tell Hariri) on the Euphrates, which continued until 1960 (A. Parro), as well as the work of K. Schaeffer on Ras Shamra (Ugarit), which provided examples of the world's oldest alphabetic writing, are important.
During the interwar period, expeditions were better organized, their composition became more professional, reports were written more carefully, and materials were analyzed more quickly, compared with others, and published. On the eve of the Second World War, relations between the colonial authorities and the local population took on a conflictual form, sometimes leading to the death of archaeologists.
2nd half XX century
The basis of work in the 50-60s. Western European projects remained. and Amer. scientific schools: complex excavations of Jericho were carried out under the guidance of K. Kenyon (1952-1968); work in Shechem (under the direction of E. Wright) proved that the city dates back to the Bronze Age. They dug at Gibethon (J.B. Pritchard), at Jericho rome. era (D. L. Kelso, J. B. Pritchard), in Beth-san (N. Zori), in Divon (W. Merton) and Dothan (J. P. Free). P. Lapp excavated Arak el-Emir, Taanakh, a settlement of the 4th millennium BC Bab-ed-Dra (with a large necropolis) and discovered a papyrus from Samaria near Jericho, dated 722 BC. During excavations An inscription mentioning Pontius Pilate was found in Caesarea. In the 70-80s. a major project was carried out - long-term excavations in Gezer (W. Dever, J. D. Seger, etc.). Israeli archaeologists trained in Gezer then began work on the sites of synagogues in Galilee, Tell el-Hesi, Sepphoris, Lahav, Tell Mikna and other places.
Work was especially widespread in Petra: in the 50s. The Jordanian Department of Antiquities began restoration of monuments and excavations (F. Hammond), from the 60s. continued by an expedition from Princeton Theological Seminary. In Marib, many works of Sabaean art and an 8th century temple of the Moon goddess have been identified. BC J. Perrault worked in Tell Abu Matara (near Beersheba). A number of Chalcolithic settlements to the east were found and studied. shore of the Dead Sea, in Jordan (Teleilat el-Ghassoul).
The Russian expedition under the leadership also made a significant contribution to the research of Mesopotamia. R. M. Munchaeva, N. Ya. Merpert and N. O. Bader, who worked since 1969 in Iraq and Syria on monuments of the 7th-3rd millennium BC.
The independent states that formed after the war, and especially Israel, were interested in the study of archeology. Along with Western European. and Amer. Scientists began to develop work in the museums of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, the Israeli Research Society, the Jewish University and other organizations. They were led by the first generation of local archaeologists, who had been educated in Europe and America even before the war - Mazar, Sukenik, Avigad, Avi-Yona, etc. The first information about the manuscripts of the Dead M. (see Qumran manuscripts), which appeared in 1947, played a major role 2 years later, R. de Vaux launched research at the site of Qumran and the rural settlement of Ain Feshka.
Israeli archaeologists adhered to several. methods other than European ones. and Amer. They paid more attention to local history and comprehensive surveys of territories (N. Gluck’s exploration in the Negev Desert, etc.), and purposefully studied the Late Bronze Age; early iron; Second Temple period. I. Yadin launched a search for monuments of the last phase of the history of Dr. Israel, especially the period of the Bar Kochba rebellion (the first serious finds were made in 1951 by Harding and de Vaux, including the “copper scroll” - a list of Qumranite treasures). In the 60s, while exploring the Dead Sea, Yadin determined the site of Rome from aerial photographs. camp near En Gedi and found the remains of Bar Kochba fighters in the surrounding caves. Soon the remains of the Israeli fortress of Masada were explored.
Israeli scientists of the new generation since the 50s. began to dig in Hazor (since 1955), on Ramat Rachel and Arad (Aharoni, 50-60s of the twentieth century), in Ashdod and in Caesarea (Avi Yona, A. Negev), explored synagogues of the first centuries R. Kh., Mampsis - the easternmost. city Center Negev. In con. 60s excavations began in the Old City of Jerusalem (in 1968 under the direction of Mazar, south of the Temple Mount) and in Sinai. Finds followed one after another: a scroll from Qumran - a “textbook” of religions. rules, notes for the construction of the temple and even a plan for military mobilization; in one of the many ossuaries the remains of a man subjected to crucifixion were found; inscriptions containing plural names mentioned in the Gospels and Acts. Work begun in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem (under the direction of Avigad) revealed villas and cobbled streets of the Hellenistic era, the remains of ancient walls, the residence of Herod, baths, and Byzantium. church.
The works of the 70s played an important role. at Tell el-Hesi, showing the complexity of the fortifications and the high level of development of the Bronze Age city. It has been proven that the habitation of Tell Hisban dates back to approximately 1200 BC and it could have been ancient Sihon. When working in the yard, arm. Church on Mount Zion (Jerusalem) a settlement of the 7th century was discovered. BC, where figurines of animals and people were found; in 1975, a cemetery of the 7th-8th centuries was opened. BC on the slope of the Kidron Valley, north of the Damascus Gate; In Dana, they found a “horned altar” of the ancient Jews (a cubic block of limestone from the 9th century BC), standing in the courtyard on a hill. New materials from the era of the Second Temple have appeared: in Jerusalem, these are streets built in the era of Herod. The first sanctuaries of the Philistines were also discovered (for example, the temple in Tell Kasil, the remains of 2 wooden columns resemble those described in the Book of Judges (16.26)). In the 70s In Lachish, storage vessels with royal seals were discovered, levels of destruction of the city by Sennacherib (beginning of the 8th century BC) and Nebuchadnezzar II (6th century BC), as well as Egypt. inscription in the 12th century, which made it possible to attribute the death of the Canaanite city to the era of the conquest of Canaan by Heb. tribes. The most important for A. b. discoveries were made in Syria - Ras Shamra (Ugarit), in Lebanon - Baalbek, Byblos, Sidon, Tire, Kamed el-Loz (Kumidi) and Zarefat, Eble (Tell Mardih, near Aleppo). Italian archaeologist P. Mattie found evidence that the inhabitants of Ebla, the city-state of the 2nd half. III millennium BC, they spoke a special Semitic language. language, their beliefs can be correlated with information from the OT.
Outside the Holy Land, the study of monuments important for Abkhazia has intensified in the widest range, from the “era of the patriarchs” to New Testament times, and over a vast territory: from the North. Africa to Ephesus and Corinth, from the East Nile to England. In 1979, the opening of Egypt was announced. archaeologists of the ancient city of Yona, where Joseph, Moses, and Plato visited.
Based on new data that has appeared, A. b. scientists came to the conclusion about the special role of the Middle. The East and its ancient history in the development of mankind: thus, agriculture discovered in this region turned out to be more ancient than previously thought. The most important link in the transition to sedentism and the creation of “proto-villages” (the Natufian culture of the Mesolithic) was identified. K. Kenyon’s excavations in Jericho showed the following stage: the flourishing of the productive economy and the formation of the first “cities”. Based on a developed system of stratigraphy, Kenyon discovered layers of a previously unknown era - the “pre-ceramic Neolithic”. It turned out that already in the 9th-7th millennium BC, humanity firmly mastered the skills of agriculture and the construction of stone fortresses, that monuments close to ancient Jericho cover the south of Asia, the foothills of the Zagros Mountains, the North. Mesopotamia, Jordan (Beida), Syro-Palestinian region (Ain Ghazal, Beisaman, etc.).
Archaeological evidence for the biblical history of the OT
Archaeological sites Nearby The East has features that allow us to reconstruct history over many centuries. centuries. The most important of them are telli - hills formed by the remains of long-term settlements (including cities that grew up on the basis of an agricultural economy), successively layered one on top of another. This sequence reflects the continuity of development, sometimes with short or long breaks marking natural or historical cataclysms: seismic and climatic shifts, wars, migrations, regrouping or change of population. The average chronological framework for the existence of tells is from 1 to 2 thousand years, but among them there are such “long-livers” as Tell es-Sultan, first inhabited more than 11 thousand years ago (on its top stands modern Jericho). In Palestine, telli are characteristic primarily of coastal, intermountain and river valleys; their height in some cases exceeds 20 m, the area ranges on average from 2.8 to 8 hectares, very small (0.8 hectares) hills and telly giants are known (Asor, 80 hectares). The information content of the tells is exceptionally great: they are standards both for establishing the relative chronology of monuments and for the historical interpretation of their materials.
Single-layer monuments, which are not as durable as telli, are also important. Their diversity (partly dictated by the sharp difference in the natural zones of the Holy Land, see the article “Biblical Geography”) makes it possible to study the structure of the region’s settlement. Known to many thousands of settlements: from agricultural villages, coastal and river valleys with adobe above-ground houses to karst caves and basalt houses of mountainous regions, underground dwellings and mines of ancient miners. A special group of monuments are copper mines, documenting the special role of the Holy Land in the emergence of metallurgy. For judging the ideology, worldview and spiritual culture of the population, funerary monuments are the most important. In Palestine, a variety of forms of ritual are recorded: corpses in pits (extended or crouched), secondary burials of bones in ossuaries, above-ground (dolmens, stone boxes, domed tombs, etc.) and underground structures. Some burials are accompanied by funeral gifts, sometimes quite rich and informative. To religious monuments include less common desert sanctuaries and single stone zoomorphic images. The most important type of finds (relatively rare in Palestine) are the most ancient inscriptions on stone, clay and other materials, starting from the famous Gezer calendar (X century BC) and the Mesha stele (IX century BC) to Qumran manuscripts.
Development of a unified generally accepted methodology for comparing archaeological materials with the texts of the Holy Scriptures. The Scriptures are still far from complete, since the task of combining archaeological and written data is complicated by two apparently opposite trends: attempts to find accurate archaeological confirmation even of those biblical events that could hardly have left a significant archaeological trace at all, or, conversely, to refute the biblical tradition of little use for this archaeological material. In addition, the researcher is faced with the temptation to somehow connect every significant monument in the region with biblical history. Even very prominent scientists made similar attempts, for example. from N. Gluck, who, according to the data of his excavations, connected the desolation of Transjordan in the middle. II millennium BC with the raid of Chedorlaomer on this territory (Genesis 14), although such a raid could hardly have significantly affected the settlement of the region, subsequent excavations showed that there was no desolation itself. On the other hand, information from the Bible about the capture of a particular city is often questioned, since archaeological excavations have not revealed traces of destruction there in the corresponding era; however, traces can only remain from a defeat on a large scale, and it may not have been reflected in the biblical narrative.
Archeology, as a rule, records individual details of cultural development or the main stages of the history of settlements and regions, reflecting large-scale processes - climatic, economic and social changes, but it cannot accurately determine either the cause-and-effect relationship or what exactly caused these processes and changes.
For a long time, the era of the Old Testament patriarchs was associated with the period known from the excavations of Mari (XIX-XVIII centuries BC), since both the biblical narrative and these excavations depict the life of the “nomadic” Westerners. Semites; however, a similar way of life was extended to the Middle East. East both in earlier and in later times and only by chance became known through the discovery of Marie's archive.
In the Holy Land for the period earlier than the end. XI - 1st half. X century BC (the reign of kings David and Solomon), archaeological material paints a general picture of development, but does not reveal specific events in biblical history: the vicissitudes of the existence of a small ancient Hebrew. group, the material culture of the swarm is not distinguished from the related Semites. environments known from the Bible are still archaeologically elusive. But since the emergence of the Hebrew kingdoms, when the scale and illumination of the ancient Hebrew. stories grow in comparison with previous eras, archaeological correlates of many. the most important events of St. stories can be established.
A. b. shows that the process of settlement of Palestine by Israeli groups starting from the early 12th century. BC covered the Central Highlands, a number of regions of Transjordan and Northern. Negev, while in Galilee it is recorded mainly in the 11th century. BC XI century BC pl. the villages were abandoned and not revived (Silom, Ai, Tell Masos, etc.). Others (Beth Tzur, Hebron, Tell Beit Mirsim, Dan, Hazor, Tell en Nasbeh) were restored and flourished during the One Kingdom period, which was associated with the concentration of population in the emerging Israeli cities and, apparently, the Philistine invasions, however, most of the settlements lack fortification, and their layout speaks of the building traditions of semi-nomadic Bedouins.
Direct archaeological evidence of the era of the United Kingdom of David and Solomon is small, with the exception of Jerusalem and other cities that have preserved the remains of their construction activities, but these traces are not always sufficiently definite (which is partly due to the difficulties of archaeological work in Jerusalem).
Jebusite Jerusalem was located on the high hill of Ophel, its natural security was complemented from the very beginning by fortifications. Appearing back on Wed. Bronze Age, they were subsequently rebuilt many times, supplemented, and replaced with new ones. The wall of the era of the Jebusites and King David repeated the line of the wall cf. Bronze Age and enclosed an area of approx. 4.4 hectares. On the steep east. on the hillside, above the Gihon spring, a gigantic supporting wall supported a destroyed monumental structure - perhaps the Jebusite “fortress of Zion,” taken during the assault on Jerusalem and becoming the “city of David” (1 Chron. 11.5). Under Solomon, the citadel was shifted to the north.
It is assumed that the Temple of Solomon was located to the west of the sacred rock, which possibly played the role of an altar-altar (now covered with a large dome and included in the complex of the Muslim shrine of Haram el-Sherif), and its long axis was oriented from east to west.
The era of David includes modest, unfortified villages that arose on the ruins of those destroyed during the wars. XI - beginning X century BC Canaanite and Philistine cities (Megiddo, layer V B; Tell Kasile, layer IX). Lachish, defeated in the middle. XII century BC, was revived in the 10th century. BC on a limited, initially unfortified area (layer V). These monuments are considered indicators of the urbanization process that has begun in Israel. For the X century. BC, a similar picture of the origin of Israeli settlements on the ruins of cities was recorded by excavations at Tell Beit Mirsim and Timna.
Evidence of Israel's exit to the Aqaba Hall. and the flourishing of the Red Sea trade under Solomon, described in the Bible (1 Kings 9. 26-28), is considered to be powerful fortifications in the Elath region (Tell Keleifa, dated according to ceramics of the 10th century BC). Probably, control over the routes is associated with the rapid and widespread appearance of new settlements in the Negev desert (including about 50 fortified ones), dating back to the time of kings David and Solomon. They arose primarily at water sources where agriculture was possible; houses were placed outside the fortresses, along rivers and wadis. The ceramics of the settlements demonstrate the symbiosis of the newcomer settled agricultural (Israeli?) and local semi-nomadic population: vessels of the same group are common for the period of the United Kingdom, ch. arr. for Judea; the second is the so-called Negev pottery, related to that used among local nomads since the Late Bronze Age.
Excavations also confirm the capture of the Assyrians. King Sennacherib in 701 BC in the densely built-up city of Lachish. It was protected by 2 walls: the outer one, in the middle part of the hill, and the inner one, the edges enclosed the top and reached six meters in thickness; The six-chamber internal gates (exceeding in size the gates of Megiddo, Hazor and Gezer) were particularly powerful. The palace-fortress stood on a high (6 m) podium - the largest of the Iron Age structures known in Palestine, varying in size from a square of 32´ 32 m to a rectangle of 36´ 76 m.
Direct archaeological evidence from Layer III of Lachish fits well with biblical texts, written and pictorial evidence of the Assyrians about the defeat of the city. Judging by the relief of the palace of Sennacherib in Nineveh, one can imagine the assault on both walls with gates and towers: the defenders of the city threw stones from slings, arrows, stones and torches, battering rams pulled up along specially built ramps hammered the walls. Indeed, in the southwest. corner of the city wall, a siege stone ramp was discovered, equal in height to it, accumulations of sling stones and iron arrowheads, powerful fire layers, heavy blocks of stone thrown by the city’s defenders onto the enemies, a counter-ramp built by them, which strengthened the wall against the ram, and even a chain for catching and stopping the ram (assumption by I. Yadin).
Picture of the fall of the euro. kingdoms is complemented by the complete destruction of Samaria, which resisted until 722: even the foundations of its fortifications and the royal quarter, which were razed to the ground, were chosen. The city was turned into one of the centers of Assyrian domination: the casemate walls preserved around the top now protected structures built according to completely different plans, and the ceramics also changed dramatically. A complete break in the course of the cultural process is recorded in Megiddo, Tell el-Far and a number of other cities. Dominion of Assyria in the 7th century. BC demonstrates the appearance in Palestine of forms of the so-called. Nimrud style and the development of cities in Assyria. and sire. (Aram.) traditions (documented by the III layer of Megiddo, turned into a typical center of the Assyrian province).
The invasion of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar is archaeologically recorded in many ways. cities of Judea, some of which (Tell Beit Mirsim, Bethsami) were no longer restored. The destructiveness of Babylonian policy for the country’s economy is also confirmed: it could no longer support the densely populated cities of Heb. kingdoms Lachish was defeated and burned twice (in 597 and 588 BC). The third layer of the city is covered with calcined building remains, the palace-fort is completely destroyed, and outside the city a huge accumulation of human skeletons (over 2 thousand) was found, placed in an ancient cave tomb.
After the defeat of 598 BC, Lachish was partially restored, but in 588 BC it was burned a second time, as they say. “Lakhish letters” - a cluster of 18 ostracons in the layer of the fire, in the security room between the outer and inner gates of the city. Some of the letters are military reports from Hoshayahu, the commander of the forward fortification, to Yaush, the ruler of Lachish, including about the cessation of communication with Azek (cf. the role of Azek in Jer 34.7). It is believed that the "Lachish letters" reflected the confrontation between adherents and opponents (the prophets Jeremiah and Uriah) of resistance to the enemy.
About the siege and fall of Jerusalem in 588-587. BC says the condition of the city walls. The fortifications withstood the Babylonian assaults for many months; sections of them were even reconstructed and strengthened (for example, the eastern wall above the Kidron Valley). But during the final assaults, the lower walls, the outer edge of the terrace system resting on them, and the structures standing on these terraces collapsed (the stones of the old wall were partially used by Nehemiah when building a new wall upon his return from Babylonian captivity). After the Babylonian defeat, the large cities of Judea actually turned into villages, the centuries-old tradition of the development of the material culture of Palestine was suppressed forever, the monuments of later times (for example, the Nehemiah bypass wall in Jerusalem) belong to a different tradition, formed in the multi-tribal power of the Achaemenids, with the undivided dominance of the Aram. influence in the Syro-Palestinian region.
A. b. and archeology of the Syro-Palestinian region: problems of methodology and interpretation
As a field of biblical studies A. b. uses general archaeological methods of field and desk research, borrowed from classical, primitive and Middle Eastern studies. archeology. However, the approach to interpreting sources in A. b. for a long time was determined by a special view of the object under study and was formed both in connection with the unfolding of field work and in discussions of theology, history and religion. and even political in nature.
Recently, professional archaeologists are increasingly abandoning the name A. b. in favor of “archeology of the Syro-Palestinian region”, “archeology of the Near. East of the Bronze and Early Iron Ages" (cf. the titles of the publications "Near Eastern Archaeologist" and "Encyclopaedia of the Near Eastern Archaeology", etc.). Behind these names there is a complete distinction between two scientific fields. One studies material culture using accepted modern methods. archeology, methods of field work and an integrated analytical approach with the aim of restoring the historical and cultural process as part of the global one. The second remains a branch of biblical studies and seeks through archeology to more deeply, comprehensively understand the Bible both as a complex historical source and as a sacred book.
At the pre-scientific stage, the incentive to study antiquities was to treat them as relics. During the era of the birth of rational knowledge, 2 schools of religious studies arose. antiquities - Rome. and Protestant. (see section “Christian Archaeology”), which during this period in the East set themselves not so much archaeological as biblical-geographical tasks: to identify the places described in the Bible with the real landscape and thereby “illustrate” the information, known from the Holy Scriptures.
In the 2nd half. XIX century To the task of identification was added the need to confirm the historicity of OT messages as a reaction to the development of modern history. historical-lit. criticism of the Bible (see article “Biblical Studies”). The search for independent, external arguments led theologians to the need to study the archeology of Palestine. It was from this time that the methodological level of field work and the procedures of desk analysis in the field of A. b. began to lag behind the general development of science, since research was often carried out by theologians who were not professional archaeologists. A significant part of the work was controlled by monastic orders (Italian Franciscans, French Dominicans) and other religions. org-tions.
Archaeologists were not interested in Palestine for a long time, because it did not promise bright field discoveries; the finds were modest compared to Ugarit, Ur or Egypt. But scientists who set themselves the goal of apologizing the Bible, starting from the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. studied Palestine very actively. They chose first of all those monuments that could be directly connected with the OT (for example, Jericho, Shechem), and tried to “dig up” direct confirmation of the sacred text. The obtained facts of ancient history were considered strictly within the framework of the Old Testament - observations that were not correlated with the text were simply not taken into account. A. b. began to develop separately, the materials of individual works were not compared for a long time, and a general chronological scale for Palestine was not created.
fundamentalism and modernism. Bloom of A. b. in the 20-60s. XX century determined the efforts of the head of the Amer. school of W. Albright, who proved the fundamental possibility of forming this scientific field. Under his influence, a research method was finally formed, in many ways akin to the old “Roman school,” where the goals and methods of archeology were subordinated to the tasks of interpreting the Bible. The choice of excavation site had to be justified by the candidate. biblical text, personnel were selected almost exclusively from teachers of theological educational institutions, financial and business support was provided to religions. (mostly Protestant.) structures. Albright considered it possible to archaeologically confirm the historicity of the figures of the Old Testament patriarchs and Moses, the early appearance of monotheism, and the conquest of Canaan. The position of his follower E. Wright, who argued that “today belief in the Bible depends entirely on the answer to the question whether the main events described in it really took place” (God Who Acts: Biblical Theology as Recital. L., 1952), was closer to fundamentalism than Albright's historicism.
Changes in A. b. occurred in the 70-80s. Although plural US archaeologists remained within the framework of tradition. A. b. (J. A. Gallaway, P. Lapp, J. B. Pritchard), the younger generation of Albright’s students became convinced in practice that the field methods and scientific approaches of A. b. needs to be updated. For the development of A. b. Kenyon’s “stratigraphic revolution” was influenced, as well as the complexity of the excavations, which required abandoning the services of amateurs and creating professional personnel, and the financial support for the work increased many times. The emergence of “field schools” and the involvement of students of secular high boots in the work led to the improvement of the methodology. The most important “field school” of the new direction of archeology in Palestine was the work in Gezer, where in the 60-80s. methods were tested and a cadre of scientists was formed.
A. b. succeeded in the 80s. connect modern methods of working with more traditions. approaches. Mn. Scientists, especially Americans, sharply criticized the “old” AB, accusing it of confessional bias and a narrowly pragmatic approach to the history of the Middle East. East. They announced the birth of an academic discipline, independent of biblical studies, with strictly scientific methods of collecting and analyzing materials and broader goals, and the abandonment of the name A. b. in favor of the term “Syro-Palestinian archeology” (proposed by Albright in the 30s). Dr. Canaan (including biblical Iron Age Israel) became just one (albeit very important) area of research for her.
Fragment of a stele with an inscription mentioning the "house of David". 9th century BC Tell Dan
2nd half XX century turned out to be for A. b. no less tense in the political-religious. respect. The struggle between powers for influence in the Syro-Palestinian region has intensified due to the confrontation between Israel and the Arabs. Mr. you. The ability to build a system of national ideology for these states and justify the rights to settlement or control over territories often depended on the solution to issues of ancient history. Already in the 20-30s. XX century Jewish youth organizations in Palestine demanded that young settlers participate in archaeological work, believing that direct contact with antiquities would be one of the means of forming the nation’s identity. Later, Israeli archaeologists created their own system for studying the “biblical past” and aimed to fill the gaps in the history of the “age of conquest” of Canaan, the formation of monotheism, the era of the Second Temple and the Jewish wars. State support helped Israeli archeology in the 70-90s. not only withstand competition in field research, but also quickly create generalizing works that reconstruct the course of the historical process in the Syro-Palestine region in the era from the Bronze Age to the Roman Empire.
The results of the discoveries were used in ideological, political and religious fields. struggle. However, already in the 80s. Some history researchers Dr. In Israel, they started talking about the excessive one-sidedness of the “Israeli paradigm” in the study of the Holy Land. A number of scholars (F.Z. Davis, T.L. Thompson, N.P. Lemhe) accused them of “stealing history”, of trying to appropriate the “heritage of Palestine” belonging to Muslim Palestinians. They proceed from the fact that the texts of the OT date no earlier than the time of the Persians. captivity or the Hellenistic era and are therefore unsuitable for reconstructing the history of ancient Israel. Traditional A. b. They are accused of incorrect conclusions regarding the absence of cities in the center of Bronze Age Palestine, of the failure to develop criteria for distinguishing the cultures of the Canaanites and Jews, and even of the lack of archaeological evidence of the existence of the Canaanites, and of the impossibility of the existence of a state in Judea before the 7th century. BC due to its weak population, etc. This caused a reaction from the younger generation of Albright’s students, led by W. Dever, who countered the refusal to recognize the antiquities of the early Iron Age as “Israelite” with specific finds, such as inscriptions 9th century BC from Dan (Northern Israel), where the “House of David” and the “King of Israel” are mentioned, as well as the polyethnicity of the monuments of Palestine of the Iron Age era, attributing them to different cultures (Gezer - Canaanites, Izbet-Sartakh - proto-Israelites, Tell Mikna - Philistines, etc.).
Prospects for interaction between archeology and biblical studies
Archaeology is an independent field of study of monuments of the material culture of the past, closely connected with related disciplines (general archaeology, ethnography, sociology), with the natural and exact sciences. Unlike A. b. Syro-Palestinian archeology does not consider the history of ancient Israel as unique, Holy. history, but studies Canaan and Israel as part of the complex process of the development of life on Dr. East, as part of the “history of settlement”, trying to reveal the course of the real cultural process and the very phenomenon of culture in Palestine. Archeology, not having its own confessional interests, is capable of opening up new possibilities for studying the Bible as a historical source and is almost the only one capable of introducing independent sources and new data about the events described in the Bible into scientific circulation. Archaeological finds provide insight into the cultural background of Dr. East, in which, through comparative research, the features of Israel as a cultural and historical region are revealed.
Lit.: Macalister R. A. A Century of Excavations in Palestine. L., 1925; Watzinger C. Denkmäler Palaestinas. Lpz., 1933-1935. 2 Bde; Aharoni Y. The Present State of Syro-Palestinian Archaeology // The Haverford Symp. on Archeology and the Bible / Ed. E. Grant. New Haven, 1938. P. 1-46; idem. The Old Testament and the Archeology of Palestine // The Old Testament and Modern Study / Ed. H. R. Rowley. Oxf., 1951. P. 1-26; idem. The Archeology of Palestine, 1960; idem. The Impact of Archeology on Biblical Research // New Directions in Biblical Archaeology / Ed. D. N. Freedman, J. C. Greenfield. Garden City (N.Y.), 1969. P. 1-14; idem. The Archeology of the Land of Israel. Phil., 1979; Wright G. E. The Present State of Biblical Archaeology // The Study of the Bible Today and Tomorrow / Ed. H. R. Willoughby. Chicago, 1947. P. 74-97; idem. Archeology and Old Testament Studies // JBL. 1958. Vol. 77. P. 39-51; idem. Biblical Archeology Today // New Directions in Biblical Archaeology / Ed. D. N. Freedman, J. C. Greenfield. Garden City (N.Y.), 1969. P. 149-165; idem. Archaeological Method in Palestine // Eretz Israel. 1969. Vol. 9. P. 13-24; idem. The “New Archaeology” // BiblArch. 1974. Vol. 38. P. 104-115; Dever W. G. Archaeology and Biblical Studies: Retrospects and Prospects. Evanston, 1973; idem. Two Approaches to Archaeological Method - The Architectural and the Stratigraphic // Eretz Israel. 1974. P. 1-8; idem. Biblical Theology and Biblical Archaeology: An Appreciation of G. Ernest Wright // HarvTR. 1980. Vol. 73. P. 1-15; idem. Archaeological Method in Israel: A Continuing Revolution // BiblArch. 1980. Vol. 43. P. 40-48; idem. The Impact of the “New Archaeology” on Syro-Palestinian Archaeology // BASOR. 1981. Vol. 242. P. 14-29; idem. Syro-Palestinian and Biblical Archaeology // The Hebrew Bible and Its Modern Interpreters / Ed. D. A. Knight, G. M. Tucker. Phil., 1985. P. 31-74; Smith M. S. The Present State of Old Testament Studies // JBL. 1969. Vol. 88.Vol. 19-35; Lapp P. W. Biblical Archeology and History. Cleveland, 1969; Frank H. Th. Bible, Archeology and Faith. Nashville (N.Y.), 1971; Ben-Arieh Y. The Rediscovery of the Holy Land in the Nineteenth Century. Jerusalem, 1979; Harker R. Digging up the Bible Lands. 1972; Kroll G. Auf den Spuren Jesu. Stuttg., 19808; Toombs L. E. The Development of Palestinian Archeology as a Discipline // BiblArch. 1982. Vol. 45. P. 89-91; idem. A Perspective on the New Archaeology // Archaeology and Biblical Interpretation / Ed. L. G. Perdue, L. E. Toombs, G. L. Johnson. Atlanta, 1987. P. 41-52; Klaiber W. Archäologie und Neues Testament // ZNW. 1981. Bd. 72. S. 195-215; Lance H. D. The Old Testament and the Archaeologist. Phil., 1981; Moorey P. R. S. Excavation in Palestine. Grand Rapids., 1981; Sauer J. A. Syro-Palestinian Archaeology, History, and Biblical Studies // BiblArch. 1982. Vol. 45. P. 201-209; Bar-Yosef O., Mazar A. Israeli Archeology // World Archaeology. 1982. Vol. 13. P. 310-325; Silberman N. A. Digging for God and Country: Exploration, Archaeology, and the Secret Struggle for the Holy Land, 1798-1917. N.Y., 1982; Dornemann R. H. The Archeology of the Transjordan in the Bronze and Iron Ages. Milwaukee, 1983; Kempinski A. Syrien und Palästina (Kanaan) in der letzten Phase der Mittlebronze IIB-Zeit (1650-1570 v. Chr.). Wiesbaden, 1983; King P. J. American Archeology in the Mideast. Phil., 1983; Recent Archeology in the Land of Israel / Eds. H. Shanks, B. Mazar. Washington, 1984; Stern E. The Bible and Israeli Archaeology // Archeology and Biblical Interpretation / Ed. L. G. Perdue, L. E. Toombs, G. L. Johnson. Atlanta, 1987. P. 31-40; Mazar B. Archeology of the Land of the Bible: 10000 - 586 BCE. N.Y., 1988; Weippert H. Palästina in vorhellenistischer Zeit. Münch., 1988; Kuhnen H.-P. Palästina in griechisch-römischer Zeit. Münch., 1990; The Archeology of Ancient Israel / Ed. Ben-Tor A. New Haven, 1992; Belyaev L. A . Christian Antiquities. M., 1998; Deopik D. IN . Biblical archeology and the ancient history of the Holy Land: A course of lectures. M., 1998; Merpert N. I . Essays on the archeology of biblical countries. M., 2000; Bibliography: Thomsen P. Die Palästina-Literatur. Lpz.; B., 1908-1972. 7 Bde. [Bibliography 1878-1945]; R ö hrich R . Bibliotheca geographica Palaestinae. Jerusalem, 1963. [Bibliography. before 1878]; Vogel E. K. Bibliography of Holy Land Sites: Comp. in Honor of Dr. N. Glueck // Hebrew Union College Annual. 1971. Vol. 42. P. 1-96; Vogel E. K., Holtzclaw B. Bibliography of Holy Land Sites II // Ibid. 1981. Vol. 52. P. 1-91 [Bibliography. before 1980]; Elenchus Bibliographicus Biblicus R., 1968-1984. Vol. 49-65; Elenchus of Biblica. R., 1988-.; Intern. Zeitschriftenschau für Bibelwissenschaft und Grenzgebiete. Leiden, 1954-. Bd. 1-.; Atiqot: Engl. Ser. Jerusalem, 1965-.
L. A. Belyaev, N. Ya. Merpert
BIBLICAL ARCHEOLOGY BIBLICAL ARCHEOLOGY
BIBLICAL ARCHEOLOGY ,
a branch of archeology whose task is to reconstruct and analyze historical realities reflected in the Bible (cm. BIBLE). The specificity of this field of science lies in the comparative analysis of materials from archaeological excavations and texts of the Holy Scriptures. After 1917, this area of archeology, for obvious reasons, turned out to be inaccessible to Russian scientists and until recently was practically not covered in domestic publications. Meanwhile, scientists from Europe, the USA and Israel actively carried out excavations on the territory of the biblical countries throughout the 20th century. The geographical scope of the excavations extended to all territories described in the texts of the Bible, i.e., almost the entire Eastern Mediterranean, Mesopotamia and, partly, Egypt.
The Emergence of Biblical Archeology
Interest in the lands mentioned in the Holy Scriptures has existed in all eras, but regular research into biblical antiquities began only in the 19th century, with the beginning of the identification of ancient cities mentioned in the Old Testament. Beginning in 1865, societies for the study of Palestine began to appear: the first arose in Britain, then in America, Germany and Russia (1882). Early archaeological research was exploratory in nature: ruins located on the surface were recorded and described on maps. The first excavations in Jerusalem were carried out by the Englishman Charles Warren in 1867, but archaeological work at that time did not yet produce satisfactory results due to the lack of strict scientific methods. The beginning of truly scientific archeology can be considered 1890, when the English archaeologist F. Petrie (cm. PETREE FLINDERS William Matthew) developed a method for systematizing ceramic complexes, which made it possible to determine the relative chronology of cultural layers isolated during excavations of a particular settlement. Thus, the first truly scientific excavations in Palestine began at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. They were led by the British (Petrie, Mackenzie, Macalister), Americans (Reisner, Fischer), Germans (Schumacher, Watzinger), and French (Voguse, Clermont-Ganneau). Russian scientists also made their contribution to the study of Palestine at the turn of the century (Olesnitsky, Kondakov (cm. KONDAKOV Nikodim Pavlovich), Rostovtsev (cm. ROSTOVTSEV Mikhail Ivanovich), Archimandrite Antonin (Kapustin) (cm. ANTONIN (Kapustin))).
During this period, active excavations were carried out not only in Palestine, but also in Mesopotamia, where work went in many directions at once: Ashur was excavated (cm. ASSHUR (city)), Nineveh (cm. NINEVEH), Babylon (cm. BABYLON) and the most ancient Sumerian centers (Uruk (cm. URUK), Nippur (cm. NIPPUR) and etc.). On the territory of Syria, Alalakh was found - a city that existed from the 4th to the end of the 2nd thousand BC. e.
First half of the 20th century
In the period between the two world wars, the chronological range of research expanded sharply: research began on monuments of pre-literate eras - Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic. During this period, the outstanding American archaeologist W. Albright began working in Palestine, who began researching small centers, thereby forming a new, broader archaeological context for the analysis of biblical sources. Excavations at Ras Shamra begin in Syria (cm. RAS-SHAMRA)- a settlement that existed since the Neolithic era and from the middle of 2 thousand BC. e. known as the Amorite center Ugarit (cm. UGARIT). In Mesopotamia the Khalafskaya (cm. HALAF CULTURE) and Ubeid early agricultural cultures (5–4 thousand BC).
Israeli school
The Israeli school of archeology began to take shape even before the creation of the state of Israel itself: excavations were carried out by Jewish scientists from the time when Palestine became the territory of the English mandate (Mazar, Avigad, Sukenik, Yadin). After 1948, the circle of Israeli archaeologists expanded (Avi-Iona, Dotan, Aharoni, Kaplan, and later Barag, Ronen, Ussishkin, Epstein, etc.). Archaeological excavations were carried out almost throughout the country. It was possible to trace the stages of development of the Syro-Palestinian region throughout the pre-literate period of its history: from the appropriating economy of the Paleolithic and Mesolithic to the early agricultural cultures (7-4 thousand BC) with a producing economy.
Second half of the 20th century
In the middle of the 20th century. on the western coast of the Dead Sea, manuscripts were found in the caves of Qumran and the Judean Desert (cm. DEAD SEA MANUSCRIPTS), dating from the 3rd century. BC e. up to the 8th century. n. e. In northwestern Syria, an Italian expedition discovered the city-state of Ebla (cm. EBLA)(3 thousand BC). In the 1980s Russian scientists (Munchaev, Merpert, Bader) began working in Iraq and Syria, exploring monuments of 7–3 thousand BC. e. Along with the expansion of the chronological and geographical scope of archaeological research, excavations of such famous centers as Jerusalem, Jericho, Megiddo, Samaria, Lachish, Hazor, etc. continued.
Comprehensive Research
Since the late 60s, a multidisciplinary approach has been developed in the archeology of the Middle Eastern region: in addition to field archaeologists and specialists in stratigraphy and ceramics, climatologists, paleobotanists, anthropologists, etc. began to be involved in the work. These revolutionary innovations for archeology were proposed by the American archaeological school, which acquired leading importance in the 70s and 80s. American scientists Dever, Cohen, Seger, Levy, Shaub and others carried out several broad multidisciplinary projects in the Negev Mountains, the Jordan region (Bab ed-Dra), Khirbet Iskander and a number of other places. A new approach to research has made it possible to greatly increase the amount of information extracted from archaeological sites. However, changes in the approach to research entailed a rethinking of biblical archeology as such: it gradually became obvious that the increase in information did not lead to qualitative changes in the understanding of the accumulated material. New data obtained through multidisciplinary research still made it possible to reconstruct the types of settlements and features of life, but not the social organization and, especially, the ideology and religion of the ancient inhabitants of Palestine.
Rethinking
During the birth of biblical archeology in the mid-19th century. scientists believed that the mutual correlation of archaeological sources and biblical texts would make it possible to form a more objective picture of the historical events described in the Bible. The problem of the relationship between archaeological data and biblical texts turned out to be much more complex than it was imagined by the positivist scientists who stood at the origins of this discipline. The hopes that the Bible could be placed on a solid archaeological foundation, characteristic of older generations of archaeologists, gave way to a more pragmatic approach: numerous debates about the relationship between the Bible and archeology led to the realization that there is essentially no direct correlation between archaeological finds and biblical texts exists. Scientists have had to acknowledge the fact that over the fifteen hundred years of its existence, biblical archeology has been unable to prove the historicity of many biblical characters and events, especially in relation to early eras (for example, the era of the patriarchs or the conquest of Canaan). Thus, today the concept of “biblical archeology” is gradually giving way to the concept of “Syro-Palestinian archaeology”. In other words, the archeology of this region began to lose its specific status, and most modern researchers consider it as one of the territorial branches of general archeology.
Nevertheless, no matter what you call this branch of archeology, you cannot help but admit that its achievements in themselves are very significant.
In the lands of the Fertile Crescent
The territory of Palestine has been inhabited since time immemorial: in the town of Ubeidiya, 3 km south of Lake Tiberias, the oldest stone tools were found in the layers of the ancient Paleolithic (about 700 thousand BC). In the Middle Paleolithic (170–45 thousand BC), along with cave sites, open sites were already recorded, as well as the beginnings of funeral rituals. In the Upper Paleolithic (45–14 thousand BC) in the Syro-Palestinian region, the so-called. Kebaran culture (20–13 thousand BC): in its settlements the first artificial dwellings, round or oval semi-dugouts, appeared. The role of plant foods is increasing, as evidenced by the finds of reaping knives, mortars and pestles for grinding grain. In the Mesolithic, the Kebaran culture is replaced by the Natufian one. (cm. NATUFIAN CULTURE)(13–10 thousand BC), spreading from the Mediterranean coast in the west to the middle Euphrates in the east. Within the framework of this culture, extensive long-term settlements already appeared, and at its later stage - above-ground houses with stone walls and thatched roofs. The first signs of social stratification are noticeable in the burials, but the economy still remains appropriative. At this stage there are still no domesticated animals or cultivated plants. The transition to a productive economy occurs only in the Neolithic era.
One of the oldest centers of agriculture in the history of mankind arose in the territory of the so-called. "Fertile Crescent" (from the northern tip of the Negev Desert to southern Turkey, eastern Mesopotamia and the valleys of southwestern Iran). Impressive evidence of the Neolithic revolution that took place here - the transition to productive forms of economy - is the settlement discovered under the Tell es-Sultan hill, better known in later times under the biblical name of Jericho (cm. JERICHO). The age of this city, which has survived to this day in its original location, is 11 thousand years. Excavations by the English researcher K. Kenyon (1952–1958) discovered here a stone wall and a tower about 8 m high - stone structures that are 5 thousand years older than the Egyptian pyramids. Similar early Neolithic settlements (from the era of the so-called pre-ceramic Neolithic), although inferior in scale to proto-Jericho, were found in various parts of Palestine, Syria and southeastern Turkey. In the second half of 7 thousand BC. e. a strong decline of these settlements can be traced, but the reasons for it are unclear. The development of river valleys is gaining predominant importance: individual large centers are replaced by a mass of small ones. During the transition from the early, pre-ceramic Neolithic to the next stage, the Ceramic Neolithic (i.e., the period characterized by the appearance of fired clay vessels), cultural regression was observed in Palestine.
At the early stage of the ceramic Neolithic (6 thousand BC), new centers appeared, among them Byblos (cm. BIBL (city)), an ancient port that played an important role in trade with Egypt in later times. Large agricultural communities began to form in Mesopotamia: the Hassun, Samarra and, a little later, the Khalaf culture.
At the turn of 5–4 thousand BC. e. active mining of copper ore begins. The Chalcolithic (Copper-Stone Age, the era of the coexistence of copper and stone tools) in Palestine dates back to approximately 4300–3300 BC. BC. Chalcolithic settlements were found in the Judean Desert, the Ber Sheva area, and the Golan Heights. Their location indicates that in 5–4 thousand years a different climate prevailed in these now arid territories. One of the significant centers of that era is Teleilat Ghassul, a settlement in the southeast of the Jordan Valley. Worth mentioning are the frescoes discovered there, which have no analogues in the art of the Ancient East: they depict mythological creatures, gods, animals, ritual masks and astral symbols. During this era, the first necropolises appeared in Palestine: before, burials took place on the territory of settlements, under the floors of houses.
At the beginning of the Bronze Age (end of 4 thousand BC), population movements were recorded in Palestine, possibly caused by external pressure from the north and east. At this time, it began to lag behind the early states of Egypt and Mesopotamia in terms of development. Its connections with Egypt are attested: a fragment of a vessel with the name of the Egyptian pharaoh Narmer was found in Arad (cm. NARMER), Palestinian ceramics have been recorded in settlements of the Nile Delta. The active formation of ancient cities begins: Hazor, Megiddo (cm. MEGIDDO), Tell el-Fara, Jericho, Lachish, Arad, etc. Defensive structures appear in them. Population density is increasing, active ties are being established with Lebanon, Syria, Mesopotamia and Eastern Anatolia. There are, for example, cylinder seals with designs characteristic of the Early Dynastic period in Mesopotamia. However, in the last third of 3 thousand BC. e. the development of cities in western Palestine is abruptly interrupted and resumed only after three centuries. The most likely reasons for this decline are considered to be external influences: Egyptian military campaigns or the invasion of nomadic Amorite tribes (cm. AMORITES).
At the turn of 3–2 thousand BC. e. Significant groups of the Semitic-speaking population penetrate into Palestine from the northeast, thanks to which the urban culture begins to revive and develop. The incoming population was agricultural and created a vast and long-lasting cultural community that persisted in the region for more than 500 years. The cities were rebuilt and fortified. Large palace complexes appeared in them. A type of temple building was formed that was characteristic of the entire Syro-Palestinian region: the temples were monumental, rectangular in plan, with an entrance in the end wall and a niche in the wall opposite the entrance. Great changes took place in the field of military affairs: defensive systems became significantly more complex, chariots, rams, and bronze weapons appeared.
The arrival of the Jews in Palestine
Period 18th–16th centuries BC e. characterized by massive movements of nomadic pastoral tribes, which covered not only Mesopotamia and the Syro-Palestinian region, but even Egypt (invasion of the Hyksos (cm. HYKSOS)). Researchers usually associate with this era the events that formed the basis of the biblical stories about the patriarchs: the movement of a nomadic tribal group led by Abraham (cm. ABRAHAM) from Cheers (cm. UR) to Harran and further to the territory of Canaan (cm. CANAAN). However, any hypotheses regarding Abraham's movements are based only on the analysis of narrative sources: archaeological research in no way sheds light on this issue. It is unlikely that the situation here will change, since with the help of archeology it is impossible to trace the paths of small population groups moving in their ethnic and cultural environment.
Mid 2 thousand BC e. the inscriptions discovered in the Sinai in Serabit el-Khadim are dated, and from the place of discovery they are called proto-Sinaitic. They are pictograms with a small number of acrophonic signs (signs that convey not the objects depicted, but the initial sounds of the corresponding words). Later, similar inscriptions were found in Shechem, Gezer and Lachish, and some of them turned out to be even older than the Proto-Sinaitic ones. This type of writing was called Proto-Canaanite. It is generally accepted that it served as the basis for the Phoenician script (cm. PHOENICIAN LETTER), and the latter, in turn, influenced the development of the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet. Along with the proto-Canaanite writing in Palestine in the second half of 2 thousand BC. Another unique type of writing has been recorded: the Ugaritic cuneiform alphabet (cm. UGARITIC LETTER).
Thanks to the excavations of the French archaeological expedition led by A. Schaefer in Ugarit (cm. UGARIT)- an ancient port city, which flourished in the 17th–13th centuries. BC e. - an archive was found consisting of tablets written in different languages (Ugaritic, Sumerian, Akkadian, Egyptian, Hittite, Hurrian). The Ugaritic cuneiform turned out to be a kind of modification of the Akkadian syllabary: the signs of the Ugaritic cuneiform, unlike the Akkadian, were not syllabic, but alphabetic. Ugaritic literary texts are older than biblical ones and therefore they are the most important source for studying the genesis of biblical texts. The similarities between the Ugaritic texts and biblical literature can be traced at the level of linguistic and stylistic commonality. The significance of the Ugaritic texts is especially great because they are essentially the only literary monuments of ancient Canaan, since the literature of the Phoenician cities has practically not been preserved.
Palestine and Egypt
In the third quarter of 2 thousand BC. e. The Syro-Palestinian region began to experience very strong pressure from Egypt: in the 15th century. BC e. Most of the region came under Egyptian rule, and then found itself in the path of Egyptian armies fighting the Hurrians and - later, in the 13th century. BC e., - with the Hittites. As a result, the number of large cities in Palestine decreased. Jericho, Hebron, Dan and a number of other centers suffered, but many cities (Lachish, Ashdod, Megiddo, Hazor, etc.) continued to exist throughout the entire period of Egyptian rule, and new centers even appeared on the Mediterranean coast thanks to intensified maritime trade.
In 1897, a very valuable discovery was made in Egypt: Egyptian fellahs accidentally stumbled upon the royal archive (cm. AMARNA), buried in the sands of Tell el-Amarna (ancient Egyptian Akhetaten - the capital of Amenhotep IV-Akhenaton (cm. AKHNATON)(1351–1334 BC), containing more than three hundred cuneiform tablets, which preserved the correspondence of the Egyptian kings (Amenhotep III (cm. AMENHOTEP III) and Akhenaten) with the Babylonian, Hittite, Mitannian kings, as well as the Syrian and Palestinian vassals of Egypt. These invaluable documents are the main source of information for reconstructing the circumstances of life in Palestine in the 15th–14th centuries. BC e., when it was under the control of the Egyptian kings. It should be noted that the Amarna correspondence does not yet know tribal names that can be attributed to the tribes of the Jewish circle. The names of three such tribes (Israel, Moab (cm. MOAB) and Edom (cm. EDOM)) appear only on monuments of the 19th – early 20th dynasty (13th–12th centuries BC): Moab is mentioned in the texts of Ramesses II (cm. RAMSES II), Edom - in the report of the military commander of the times of Merneptah (cm. MERNEPTHAH), Israel - on the famous so-called. stele of Israel also from the time of Merneptah. Under Ramses III, mention of Edom occurs again.
Another interesting archaeological problem is connected with Egypt - the problem of localizing the biblical city of Pithom, mentioned in Ex. 1:11. This city is presumably identified with Tell el-Maskhuta, a settlement in the eastern part of the Nile delta, whose ancient name was Per-Atum (“House of Atum”). However, archaeological evidence for this hypothesis has not yet been found: the now generally accepted dating of the events of the Exodus places them in the mid-13th century. BC e., and the oldest traces of the presence of Jews on the territory of Tell el-Maskhuta, according to the latest excavations, date back to the turn of the 7th–6th centuries. BC e.
Israel and the Philistines
Last quarter of 2 thousand BC e. - this is the beginning of the Iron Age, which in Palestine was accompanied by sharp ethnic and cultural changes: the invasion of Israeli tribes began from the north and east, and the peoples of the sea from the west. The people of Aegean origin were called the Philistines. According to the Bible (Jer. 47:4, Am. 9:7), the Philistines came from Caphtor (Crete), but archaeological evidence for this has not yet been found. The Philistines took possession of four Canaanite cities: Ashkelon, Ashdod, Gath and Gaza; the fifth city, Ekron, was apparently founded by them. In the 12th–11th centuries. characteristic Philistine ceramics are recorded throughout Canaan; another characteristic feature of the Philistine culture are anthropoid ceramic sarcophagi. The Philistines' own language is unknown: soon after their appearance in Canaan, they adopted the Canaanite dialect, and all known Philistine gods have Semitic names.
Archaeological picture of the Exodus
In the 12th–11th centuries. BC. There are three spheres of influence in Palestine: Canaanite, Philistine and Israelite. Archaeological data do not allow us to talk about a single crushing invasion of the Israeli tribes into the territory of Canaan. A number of cities (Lachish, Hazor, Bethel) were indeed destroyed, but in a number of cases archaeological data contradict biblical evidence (Arad, Jericho). The settlement of Canaan by the Israelites probably occurred gradually and was accompanied by a long series of wars against individual Canaanite cities. A significant number of small Israelite settlements have been discovered that coexisted with Canaanite and Philistine cities. There is very little information about cult centers: in those places where, according to biblical texts, there should have been altars or sanctuaries, as a rule, nothing has been preserved. Sometimes there are monuments that are difficult to identify.
In general, the culture of settled Canaan was superior to the culture of the Israelite nomadic tribes that came here, and it had a great influence on them. Thus, Canaanite traditions were preserved throughout the period described in ceramics and metalworking, and in the cities occupied by the Israelites, the previous architectural canons prevailed. An independent branch of Canaanite culture continued to exist for a long time on the Mediterranean coast (the territory of modern Lebanon), where it became known as Phoenician (probably “Phoenicia” is the Greek equivalent of the name “Canaan”), and retained its specific appearance until the Hellenistic era.
Kingdom of Israel and division
The short period of the united Kingdom of Israel (1000–925 BC) - the reign of the biblical kings Saul (cm. SAUL), David (cm. DAVID (Judea) and Solomon (cm. SOLOMON (Judea))- is also poorly represented by archaeological sites. In Jerusalem, the remains of a bypass wall that existed in the 10th century have been found. BC e., however, the most interesting monument - the Temple of Solomon, described in detail in the 3rd Book of Kings - is currently inaccessible for excavations, since it is located under the Muslim shrine, the so-called. Dome of the Rock. Judging by the description, the Temple of Solomon had undoubted prototypes in Canaanite architecture, but in scale it exceeded its known examples. There is no archaeological data about Solomon's palace. Structures from Solomon's time remain in Megiddo (cm. MEGIDDO), Hazor and Gezer: monumental six-chamber gates were discovered there, built from hewn stones (in Gezer - from wild ones, but lined on the facade) and fortified with protruding towers. The uniform type of monumental structures found in different places indicates centralized royal construction. Artificial water supply systems found in a number of Israeli cities indicate the high development of engineering and the ability to organize large masses of population necessary to create such structures.
In 925 BC. e. the single kingdom split into two parts: Israel (Northern Kingdom) with its capital in Samaria and Judah (Southern Kingdom) with its capital in Jerusalem. Samaria (cm. SAMARIA)- the first city founded by the Israelis in a new location. Here, the remains of buildings from the times of the kings of Omri and Ahab, powerful defensive walls, as well as a treasure of decorative bone plates of Phoenician origin were discovered, possibly a trace of the “ivory house” built by Ahab (1 Kings 22:39).
Active construction activity was also carried out in Dan and Bethel, which became the new cult centers of the Northern Kingdom, as well as in Megiddo, Hazor and Tirzah. In Hazor 9th–7th centuries. BC e. there are as many as five construction phases, reflecting a series of destructions of the city during local wars with Judea and external conquests, ending with the Assyrian invasion, three waves of which - in 732, 720 and 701. BC e. put an end to the existence of the Kingdom of Israel. His capital Samaria resisted for two years, but in 720 (the invasion of the Assyrian king Sargon II (cm. SARGON II)) the city fell and in some places was completely destroyed. Even the removal of stones from the foundations of its defensive buildings has been recorded. Samaria was later restored and turned into the center of the Assyrian province: the archaeological layers of the city dating back to the time of the defeat are sharply different from the previous ones, they can be traced with a strong Assyrian influence, indicating a change in the dominant culture. In Megiddo and Hazor, judging by the abundance of Assyrian pottery, garrisons of the conquerors were stationed.
Judea was also subjected to an Assyrian invasion, but survived and continued to exist as an independent state for more than a century. In Judea, Jerusalem stood out among other cities: its area was more than 7 times larger than the area of Lachish, the second largest city of the Southern Kingdom. In Jerusalem, new defensive walls were erected and the Siloam water tunnel was built - a real miracle of engineering art of that era - which made it possible to provide the city with water from the Gihon spring in any conditions. Thanks to this, Jerusalem withstood the invasion of Sennacherib. (cm. SINACHERIB) in 701 BC e., as a result of which the Kingdom of Israel was finally destroyed and a number of cities of Judea were destroyed, including Lachish. The siege and assault of Lachish are depicted in detail on the reliefs of the palace of Sennacherib in Nineveh (cm. NINEVEH). The archaeological layers of the city corresponding to this destruction are very informative and are combined with biblical texts. An Assyrian siege mound, large layers of ash and numerous arrowheads were found here.
An important settlement of Judea in the 8th century BC. e. there was Arad - a fortress that protected the routes to the Red Sea and Edom. Many ostracons were found here, most of which consist of letters from the archives of the military leader who commanded the fortress. These ostracons represent the largest and most informative group of written sources covering the end of the First Temple era.
Captivity and the Second Temple Era
The Kingdom of Judah fell in 586 BC. e. under the blows of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar (cm. NEBUCHADNEZZOR II). The Babylonian invasion of Judea, like the earlier Assyrian invasion that destroyed Israel, came in several waves: during the first and second invasions of 598 and 588. BC e. The long-suffering Lachish was defeated twice. After this, it was no longer revived as a significant center. In 588, the siege of Jerusalem began, lasting 18 months. At the end of the siege, the system of terraces resting on the lower walls of the city collapsed. The collapsed stones were subsequently partially used in the construction of new walls. As a result of this military campaign by Nebuchadnezzar, a significant part of the population of Judah was resettled into the territory of the Babylonian Empire.
Babylon ( cm.
Biblical archeology is intended to give a more specific idea of the course of these events, to supplement biblical data with independent evidence from monuments, to clarify the chronology of facts and the dating of texts. The results of biblical archeology also help in elucidating the meaning of biblical books by reconstructing the historical background of their writing.
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Science and archeology confirm the BIBLE.
Introduction to Biblical Archaeology. Lecture 1.
Lecture by A. S. Pilipenko “Ancient DNA in evolutionary biology, archeology and anthropology”
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Old Biblical Archeology
Old biblical archeology developed before the main monuments of the Ancient East and antiquity were found, shedding light on biblical history. It limited itself to systematizing the data of the Holy Scripture itself and Greco-Roman authors related to everyday life, social system, calendar, customs and cult of the times of the Old and New Testaments. The development of such knowledge made it possible for the reader of the Bible to navigate more freely in the “biblical world.” The importance of such an understanding of realities was noted by the Antiochian school of exegesis, which received biblical information not only from the Bible, but also from familiarity with Eastern customs. Saint John Chrysostom repeatedly called on his readers and listeners to imagine the living historical circumstances in which certain events of Scripture took place in order to better understand them. It was for this purpose that biblical archeology arose.
New Biblical Archeology
A new biblical archeology began to take shape after the first monuments of the East and antiquity were discovered, dating back to the biblical period and shedding light on the events mentioned in the Bible, and the writing of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Canaan, and the Hittite kingdom was deciphered. By that time, only the Talmud, Targum, and the works of Josephus and fragments preserved by ancient authors and the Church Fathers were known from post-biblical texts.
Sections of Biblical Archeology
Biblical archeology in our time is divided into two sections: general and Palestinian.
General biblical archeology studies extra-biblical writings and material culture that shed light on the evidence of scripture. In this case, the study of the antiquities of not only the Hebrew people themselves, but also those peoples with whom the Jews came into historical contact, such as the Egyptians, Assyro-Babylonians, Persians and others, is introduced into the circle of biblical archeology.
The biblical archeology of Palestine (Israel) is limited only to the antiquities of the Jewish people as a separate historical unit that occupied a certain position in history, lived its own special cultural life and was in certain relationships with surrounding peoples, so the study of the antiquities of other peoples mentioned in the Bible can only be included in it to the extent that it can serve to explain the antiquities of the biblical people themselves.
General Old Testament
In the field of general biblical Old Testament archeology, many discoveries were made in the 19th and 20th centuries.
In the 1920s, the English archaeologist L. Woolley discovered traces of an ancient flood that occurred in Southern Mesopotamia. In his opinion, this discovery is connected with the Old Testament story of the Flood. Woolley also discovered many other ancient monuments
In March 2016, Israeli walkers found a gold Roman coin with the profile of Emperor Augustus. This is the second such coin known to science, the other is in the British Museum. The coin was minted during the reign of Emperor Trajan. Until now, a gold coin from the era of the Roman Emperor Trajan (107 AD) with the profile of Emperor Augustus minted on it existed in the only […]
The biblical story of Valaam has been proven by archaeology. In March 1967, in the east of the Jordan Valley, on a hill called Tell Deir ‘Alla, a Dutch expedition led by Professor Henk J. Franken excavated an ancient pagan sanctuary (temple). This tell has been identified by some scholars as the biblical Succoth (Genesis 33:17), by others as […]
Discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls The Dead Sea Scrolls remained hidden until 1947, when a Bedouin shepherd made the initial discovery. He was a member of the Temerian Bedouin tribe, which settled in the desert region between Bethlehem and the Dead Sea. It was a teenager who was tending a herd. In search of a lost goat, he entered one of the caves. According to […]
Parts of a marble stele with the inscription of the Persian king Darius I were discovered by archaeologists during excavations at the site of the ancient Greek city of Phanagoria in the Temryuk district of the Krasnodar region. This was reported on Thursday by the press service of Oleg Deripaska’s Volnoye Delo Foundation, with the support of which the excavations are being carried out. “The deciphered inscriptions indicate that they were made on behalf of the Persian king Darius the First. Inscription […]
Philistine cemetery found An incredible discovery took place in southern Israel. The discovery of a large Philistine cemetery outside the walls of ancient Ashkelon, which was the main city of the Philistines between the 12th and 7th centuries BC, is a first of its kind in the region. The archaeological find will help to learn about the origins of the Philistines, from whom the Israelites suffered the most. For more than a century [...]
We continue to publish materials from the “Biblical Archaeology” series. In this article we will talk a little about the findings concerning the Emperor Tiberius, and at the beginning we will present one of the passages of the Bible that talks about him. This happened in the fifteenth year of the reign of the Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate ruled Judea, Herod ruled in Galilee, his brother Philip was governor of Ituraea and […]
Jacob's Well is a deep well carved into the rock. It is located near the archaeological site of Tel Balat, considered the site of the biblical Shechem (Shechem). According to legend, this well, filled with water from a spring, was dug by Jacob, the son of Isaac. Near this place there is a road along which the patriarchs once traveled. Currently, the well is located in the Greek Orthodox monastery of that […]