Exploring Biblical History and Archaeology

During the past week day sessions, I set up three stations in Room 202 designed to provide the students with hands-on lessons about how archaeologists excavate and interpret what they find, and how historians and archaeologists can work in tandem to learn about the past.

It's important for the students to understand several things before we begin our exploration into ancient Israelite history:  (1) Biblical historians and archaeologists can rarely say for certain what happened in Biblical times - often, there are disagreements about the interpretation of documents and artifacts; (2) Archaeology is a science - archaeologists approach their excavations using the scientific method, keeping careful notes of what they find; and (3) the Bible is a wonderful resource for historians and archaeologists, a historical document which can be compared to other recorded sources of past events (kings' annals, stele's describing a king's conquest, etc.) and to unearthed artifacts, to determine what may actually have occurred.

Below are the stations and some photos of the students at each one:

Students at this station were asked to study the pottery typology chart developed by archaeologists of the region, and then determine how old and from which stylistic period the four pieces of pottery pictured on the page to the left were.

As soon as the students completed the first part of this pottery station, they moved to another table where they were asked to re-assemble a broken pot, as archaeologists frequently must do.

This was probably one of the most frustrating activities, requiring a lot of patience, a lot of hands...

...And a lot of concentration!

The second station required a good deal of focus as well. 

Students first had to refer to a paleo-Phoenician alphabet to help them decode a word on a stele (engraved stone column) describing the Moabite King Mesha's rebellion against the Israelites, following King Ahab's death. The word happened to be "Israel." 

They were then asked to compare the Biblical account of this rebellion (in the Second Book of Kings, Chpt. 3, Verses 4-5) to King Mesha's account on the stele. Both accounts agreed on what occurred - King Mesha's rebellion was successful and he no longer had to pay tribute (half his sheep herd) each year.

Finally, the students were asked to use the same paleo-Phoenician alphabet chart to decode one word on a coin minted in Judea during the Roman occupation (the word was "Jerusalem").

The letters on the coin did not look exactly like the letters on the chart, so it was not easy to decode.

The third station was more fun and far less frustrating. So that the students could understand how a clay cylindrical seal worked (and many such seals have been found and provide a treasure trove of information for Biblical archaeologists and historians!)...

...students were asked to use the same paleo-Phoenician alphabet chart described above to figure out how their initials would look back in Biblical times, then carve their initials in that script onto a raw carrot.

The deeper you carved your initials into the carrot...

...the more pronounced the initials would be in the dough.

Voila!

Hopefully, the students can now begin to appreciate the work of archaeologists and historians. As we study our earliest history over the next few weeks using the Tana'ch (Hebrew Bible) as our guide, I'll be sharing what we know for sure, which facts are in dispute, and which stories have not been proved or disproved yet, due to the absence of any historical or archaeological evidence supporting them.