Thoughts on Archaeological Method

Anson Rainey’s eulogy to Yohanan Aharoni (“Yohanan Aharoni—The Man and His Work,” BAR 02:04) notes Aharoni’s refusal to “bow down and worship at the balk.”a As one who has helped remove more than one balk, I appreciate Aharoni’s flexibility. I note with interest too, his openness to new evidence and his refusal to waste energy perpetuating his own infallibility. Here is the continuing spirit of William Foxwell Albright. What really caught my eye, however, was Aharoni’s judgment against chopping up strata in a restricted space because this ruins the horizontal picture for future excavation. A review of near eastern […]