Levy Thomas E., Higham Thomas. The Bible and Radiocarbon Dating: Archaeology, Text and Science

Equinox Publishing, 2005. — ISBN: 184553056X.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 (Israel, Jordan, Palestinian territories, southern Lebanon & Syria, the Sinai) 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 (hereafter, simply the Bible). Although this is an academic book that will be of great interest to Biblical scholars, archaeologists, Egyptologists, and 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.'Introduction to the Problems.
Introduction: Radiocarbon Dating and the Iron Age of the Southern Levant: Problems and potentials for the Oxford conference (Thomas E. Levy and Thomas Higham).
The Debate over the Chronology of the Iron Age in the Southern Levant: Its history, the current situation, and a suggested resolution (Amihai Mazar).
A Low Chronology Update: Archaeology, history and bible (Israel Finkelstein).
Shishak, King of Egypt: The challenges of Egyptian calendrical chronology (A.J. Shortland).
Some Methodological Issues.
Improving the Resolution of Radiocarbon Dating by Statistical Analysis (Christopher Bronk Ramsey).
The Early Iron Age Dating Project: Introduction, methodology, progress report and an update on the Tel Dor radiometric dates (Ilan Sharon, Ayelet Gilboa, Elisabetta Boaretto, and A.J. Timothy Jull).
Around the Eastern Meriterranean in the Iron Age.
Radiocarbon Calibration in the East Mediterranean Region: The East Mediterranean Radiocarbon Comparison Project (EMRCP) and the current the state of play (Sturt W. Manning, Bernd Kromer, Sahra Talamo, Michael Friedrich, Peter Ian Kuniholm and Maryanne W. Newton).
A Dendrochronological ¹⁴C Wiggle-match for the Early Iron Age of North Greece: A contribution to the debate about this period in the Southern Levant (Maryanne W. Newton, Kenneth A. Wardle, Peter Ian Kuniholm).
High Precision Dating and Archaeological Chronologies: Revisiting an old problem (Sue Sherratt).
Jordan in the Iron Age.
Lowland Edom and the High and Low Chronologies: Edomite state formation, the Bible and recent archaeological research in southern Jordan (Thomas E. Levy, Mohammad Najjar, Johannes van der Plicht, Thomas Higham, and Hendrik J. Bruins).
Radiocarbon Dating of the Khirbat en-Nahas Site (Jordan) and Bayesian Modeling of the Results (Thomas Higham, Johannes van der Plicht, Christopher Bronk Ramsey, Hendrik J. Bruins, Mark Robinson, and Thomas E. Levy).
Mesha, the Mishor, and the Chronology of Iron Age Màdabà (Timothy P. Harrison and Celeste Barlow).
Israel in the Iron Age.
Ladder of Time at Tel Rehov: Stratigraphy, archaeological context, pottery and radiocarbon dates (Amihai Mazar, Hendrik J. Bruins, Nava Panitz-Cohen, and Johannes van der Plicht).
Quality Control of Groningen ¹⁴C Results from Tel Rehov: Repeatability and intercomparison of Proportional Gas Counting and AMS (Johannes van der Plicht and Hendrik J. Bruins).
The Groningen Radiocarbon Series from Tel Rehov: OxCal Bayesian computations for the Iron IB-11A boundary and Iron IIA destruction events (Hendrik J. Bruins, Johannes van der Plicht, Amihai Mazar, Christopher Bronk Ramsey, Sturt W. Manning).
¹⁴C Results from Megiddo, Tel Dor, Tel Rehov and Tel Hadar: Where do they lead us? (Eli Piasetzky and Israel Finkelstein).
High or Low: Megiddo and Rehov (Israel Finkelstein).
Correlation and Chronology: Samaria and Megiddo Redux (Norma Franklin).
Iron-Age ¹⁴C Dates from Tel Dan: A high chronology (Hendrik J. Bruins, Johannes van der Plicht, David Ilan and Ella Werker).
Iron I Chronology at Ashkelon: Preliminary results of the Leon Levy expedition (Daniel M. Master).
Desert Settlement through the Iron Age: Radiocarbon dates from Sinai and the Negev Highlands (Hendrik J. Bruins and Johannes van der Plicht).
Trajectories of Iron Age Settlement in North Israel and their Implications for Chronology (Anabel Zarzecki-Peleg).
Historical Considerations.
Stamp-Seal Amulets and Early Iron Age Chronology: An update (Stefan Munger).
Problems in the Paleographic Dating of Inscriptions (William M. Schniedewind).
Some Methodological Reflections on Chronology and History-Writing (William G. Dever).
David Did It, Others Did Not: The creation of Ancient Israel (Baruch Halpern).The View from Mount Nebo (Andrew Sherratt).