The History of Archaeology, Part 3

When early geological investigations proved without a doubt that there was no planet-wide flood as described in the Old Testament of the bible, there was a great cry of outrage. Early archaeologists fought against and lost battles of this sort time and again. The results of David Randal-McIver's excavations at Great Zimbabwe, an important trading site in southeastern Africa, were suppressed by the local colonial governments who wanted to believe that the site was Phoenician in derivation, not African. The beautiful effigy mounds found throughout North America by Euroamerican settlers were wrongly attributed to either the "mound builders" or a lost tribe of Israel. The fact of the matter is, that ancient texts are renditions of ancient culture, which may be partly reflected in the archaeological record, and partly will not be. Not "fact," not "fiction." "Culture."

So, let's not ask if the Bible is true or false. Instead, let's ask a series of questions.

1. Did the places and cultures that are mentioned in the Bible and the other ancient texts exist?
Yes, in many cases, they did. Archaeologists have found evidence for many of the locations and cultures mentioned in the ancient texts.

2. Did the events that are described in these texts happen?
Some of them did; archaeological evidence in the form of physical evidence or supporting documents from other sources can be found for some of the battles, the political struggles, and the building and collapse of cities.

3. Did the mystical things that are described in the texts occur?
It's not my area of expertise, but if I were to hazard a guess, if there were miracles that occurred, they wouldn't leave archaeological evidence.

4. Since the places and the cultures and some of the events that are described in these texts happened, shouldn't we just assume that the mysterious parts also happened?
No. Not any more than since Atlanta burned, Scarlett O'Hara really was dumped by Rhett Butler.

There are many many ancient texts and stories about how the world began; and many are at variance with one another. From a global human standpoint, why should one ancient text be more accepted than any other? The mysteries of the bible and other ancient texts are just that--mysteries. It is not, and never has been, within the archaeological purview to prove or disprove their reality. That is a question of faith, not science.