BIBL4911/SOCI 1211: Biblical Archaeology/Archaeology of Israel

Abstract

This course will present an overview of the archaeological data (including texts) from the Land of Israel during the biblical period. We will examine general Canaanite culture and learn to identify the cultural distinctions between Canaanites, Philistines, and Israelites and how negotiating these differences helped shape a distinct Israelite ethnic identity. While exploring the First Temple period, we will look at the rate of acculturation among these groups as way to better explain the rising tensions between the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah and the diminishing of tensions with the Philistines and Canaanites (now Phoenicians). We will compare the political ambitions of the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Persians and how these ambitions dramatically altered the social, political, and economic landscape of the Land of Israel its inhabitants. By the close of the Biblical Period, we will see the Phoenicians ensconced as coastal sea-farers, the Philistines having disappeared, and the Jews reemerging as a newly defined community centered in Jerusalem.