Jacob L. Wright is associate professor of Hebrew Bible at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology and director of graduate studies in Emory’s Tam Institute of Jewish Studies. In an interview with TheTorah.com,1 Wright discusses the tendency to sensationalize Biblical archaeology and the impact this has had on the field.
Q. What do you think could be the next great archaeological find?
A. I am honestly not too interested in the next great archaeological find. Sensational finds in archaeology, at least in the archaeology of Iron Age Levant, are more often than not unsensational finds that are presented to the media with a lot of silly hype. The goal is to attract the public’s attention to the excavations. (The archaeology of ancient Israel is, after all, a highly competitive field.) The danger of these media stunts, which often conceal the problems with the claims, is that they jeopardize the public’s confidence in us as scholars and encourage non-scholars to think of archaeology as a gold-digging adventure of the Indiana Jones variety.
The most certain way to create buzz is to claim that you’ve found something related to the reign of King David. The attempt to link all kinds of finds to this figure betrays an impoverishment of the historical imagination.
The Biblical account represents a thoroughly simplified historical construction, with a pronounced political message and theological-didactic function. Careful research on both the Biblical materials and the archaeological record reveals a much greater diversity of polities, which gradually coalesced into the kingdoms of Israel and Judah.
Khirbet Qeiyafah, which has been in the news for the past few years, is an important site, but it is likely part of a smaller local polity, with no appreciable connections to Jerusalem. In my opinion, the Biblical account makes it likely that Hebron remained David’s capital. Jerusalem appears to have been primarily a fortress on the northern periphery of the Judahite state David established and to have not become the kingdom’s capital until later.
Fortunately we are blessed with a wide selection of wonderful excavation projects (e.g., Tell es-Safi/Gath, Azekah, Tel Eton, Ashdod-Yam, Er-Ras, Abel Beth-Maacah, Gezer, Megiddo, Jezreel and several others) whose directors do an excellent job of studying the so-called longue durée of their sites and seek to attract attention to their projects via creative educational programs.
Jacob L. Wright is associate professor of Hebrew Bible at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology and director of graduate studies in Emory’s Tam Institute of Jewish Studies. In an interview with TheTorah.com,1 Wright discusses the tendency to sensationalize Biblical archaeology and the impact this has had on the field. Q. What do you think could be the next great archaeological find? A. I am honestly not too interested in the next great archaeological find. Sensational finds in archaeology, at least in the archaeology of Iron Age Levant, are more often than not unsensational finds that are presented to […]
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