The Bible and Radiocarbon Dating: Archaeology, Text and Science

Over the past several years, a number of Levantine archaeologists working on the Iron Age (ca. 1200-586 BCE) have begun to employ high precision radiocarbon dating to solve a wide range of chronological, historical and social issues. This is revolutionizing traditional 'Biblical Archaeology' which over the past several decades has been viewed as parochial. The incorporation of high precision radiocarbon dating methods and statistical modeling into the archaeological 'tool box' of the 'Biblical archaeologist' is revolutionizing the field. In fact, Biblical archaeology is leading the field of world archaeology in how archaeologists must deal with history, historical texts, and material culture. A great deal of debate has been generated by this new research direction in southern Levantine archaeology. This book takes the pulse of how archaeology, science-based research methods and the Bible interface at the beginning of the 21st century. The book brings together leading archaeologists, Egyptologists, Biblical scholars, radiocarbon dating specialists and other researchers who have embraced radiocarbon dating as a significant tool to test hypotheses concerning the historicity of aspects of the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible. Although this is an academic book that will be of great interest to Biblical scholars, archaeologists, Egyptologists, radiocarbon specialists, the general public will also be interested because of the important issues concerning the historicity of the Bible tackled in this volume. As this book "raises the bar" in how archaeologists tackle historical issues as manifest in the interplay between the archaeological record and text, its interest will go well beyond the 'Holy Land.'