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The new Biblical archaeologist. Although at one time William Dever called for the abandonment of the term “Biblical archaeology” and seemed embarrassed at his colleagues’ Biblical bias, he later concluded that many of his colleagues had inappropriately distanced themselves from the Bible. Now he is committed to what he calls the new Biblical archaeology. We need more dialogue between Biblical studies and Palestinian archaeology, he says. “An explanation of what really took place in ancient Israel in the Iron Age must look not only at the material remains of that culture, but also at those ideals, spiritual and secular … that motivated those who were the bearers of that culture,” writes Dever, who directed renewed excavations at Gezer from 1966–1971 and again in 1984 and 1990.