Joint winner of the 2011 Biblical Archaeology Society Publication Award in the category "Best Scholarly Book on Archaeology" The archaeology of the Holy Land is undergoing major change. 'Historical Biblical Archaeology and the Future' describes the paradigm shift brought about by objective science-based dating methods, geographic information systems, anthropological models, and digital technology tools. The book serves as a model for how researchers can investigate the relationship between ancient texts (both sacred and profane) and the archaeological record. Influential archaeologists and biblical scholars examine a range of texts, materials and cultures: the Vedas and India; the Homeric legends and Greek Classical Archaeology; the Sagas and Icelandic archaeology; Islamic Archaeology; and the Umayyad, Abbasid, and Ayyubid periods. The groundbreaking essays offer a foundation for future research in biblical archaeology, ancient Jewish history and biblical studies.

Table of Contents:
INTO THE FUTURE - NEW TRENDS IN HISTORICAL BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY 1. The New Pragmatism: Integrating Anthropological, Digital, and Historical Biblical Archaeologies Thomas E. Levy 2. Re-constructing Biblical archaeology: Towards an integration of archaeology and the Bible Shlomo Bunimovitz and Avraham Faust 3. Future Directions in the Study of Ethnicity in Ancient Israel Avi Faust Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan 4. Biblical Archaeology as Social Action in Israel - Two Case Studies David Ilan Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology, Hebrew Union College, Jerusalem 5. The Archaeology of the Levant in North America: The Transformation of Biblical and Syro-Palestinian Archaeology Aaron Burke University of California, Los Angeles SOME APPLICATIONS 6. Biblical Archaeology and Egypt during the EB III and EB IV: New connections Miroslav Barta Czech Institute of Egyptology, Charles University, Prague 7. New Perspectives on Levantine Mortuary Ritual: A Cognitive Interpretive Approach to the Archaeology of Death Aaron Brody Bade Museum, Pacific School of Religion 8. Under the Shadow of the Four-Room House: Biblical Archaeology Meets Household Archaeology in Israel Assaf Yasur-Landau University of California, Santa Cruz 9. The Philistines and their Material Culture in Context: Future Directions of Historical Biblical Archaeology for the Study of Cultural Transmission Ann Killebrew Penn State University 10. Judha, Masos and Hayil: The Importance of Ethnohistory and Oral Traditions Eveline J. van der Steen East Carolina University, North Carolina 11. Four Chronological Anchors of the Low Chronology in Historical Biblical Archaeology: An Appraisal Daniel A. Frese*, Thomas E. Levy*, and Thomas Higham# *University of California, San Diego and #University of Oxford FROM TEXT TO TURF 12. Texts in Exile: Towards an Anthropological Methodology for Incorporating Texts and Archaeology Tara Carter and Thomas E. Levy University of California, San Diego 13. Excavating the Text of 1 Kings 9 - the Gates of SolomonA". William Schniedewind University of California, Los Angeles 14. Culture, Memory, and History: Reflections on Method in Biblical Studies. Ronald Hendel University of California, Berkeley 15. Archaeology, the Bible and History The Fall of the House of Omri - and the Origins of the Israelite State Baruch Halpern Penn State University 16. Integrating Archaeology and Texts: The Example of the Qumran Toilet Jodi Magness University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill IN PERSPECTIVE 17. Stones, bones, texts and relevance: Or how I lost my fear of biblical archaeology and started enjoying it Aren Maeir Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan 18. A Bible Scholar in the City of David Richard Elliott Friedman University of Georgia, Athens 19. Books and Stones and Ancient Jewish History: A View from Camp David. David Goodblatt University of California, San Diego 20. The Archaeology of Palestine in the Post-Biblical Periods: the Intersection of Text and Artifact Jodi Magness University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 21. The Changing Place of Biblical Archaeology, Exceptionalism or Normal Science? Alexander H. Joffe New Rochelle, N.Y. 22. Does 'Biblical Archaeology' Have a future? William G. Dever University of Arizona (Emeritus)