A Short Introduction to Biblical Archaeology

The Rosetta Stone is an Ancient Egyptian artifact which was instrumental in advancing modern understanding of hieroglyphic writing. The stone is a Ptolemaic era stele with carved text. The text is made up of three translations of a single passage, written in two Egyptian language scripts (hieroglyphic and Demotic), and in classical Greek. It was created in 196 BC, discovered by the French in 1799 at Rashid (a harbour on the Mediterranean coast in Egypt which the French referred to Rosetta during Napoleon Bonaparte's campaign in Egypt) and contributed greatly to the decipherment of the principles of hieroglyphic writing in 1822 by the British polymath Thomas Young and the French scholar Jean-François Champollion. Comparative translation of the stone assisted in understanding many previously undecipherable examples of hieroglyphic writing. The text of the Rosetta Stone is a decree from Ptolemy V, describing the repealing of various taxes and instructions to erect statues in temples.

"Comparative translation of the stone assisted in understanding many previously undecipherable examples of hieroglyphic writing." The Stone is 114.4 centimeters (45 in) high at its tallest point, 72.3 centimeters (28.5 in) wide, and 27.9 centimeters (11 in) thick. Weighing approximately 760 kilograms (1,676 lb), it was originally thought to be granite or basalt but is currently described as granodiorite and is dark blue-pinkish-grey in color. The stone has been on public display at The British Museum since 1802.

The discovery of the Rosetta Stone is important in the study of Biblical Archaeology. It ushered in the era of modern Egyptology and helped us to understand 3000 years of peculiar pictures inscribed on Egyptian temples and statues, confirming Biblical scripture regarding ancient Egyptian times.

In a village called Beni Hasan, some 150 miles south of Cairo, on the east bank of the Nile River, an 8 foot long by 11/2 foot high painting was found in an early 19th Century B.C. cave. Known as the Beni Hasan Painting, it depicts "Asiatics" (but more precisely, eight men, four women and three children, led by two Egyptian officials) entering Egypt to sell eye paint. The men wear multicolored long kilts that cover their chests and one shoulder, and have sandals on their feet. Each man has a full head of hair, a short beard, but no mustache.

Likewise, the women have multicolored garments, but these garments are much longer and have no fringes on the bottom. The women also wear a sort of slipper sock for footwear and a small headband on top of their heads of long hair. Two donkeys, accompanied by an ibex and a gazelle, transport what are perhaps bellows on their backs. The men are equipped with what appear to be water-skins, a musical instrument (lyre?), and weaponry of spears and bows and arrows. The kilts of many colors remind us of Joseph's coat (Gen 37:3; cf 2 Sam 13:18), and provide a picture as to what the Patriarchal culture and its economic and political contacts with Egypt may have looked like. It is a fascinating picture of life about the time of the Patriarchs.

The Basalt Stelae from Dan, found in 1993 and 1994 with the words "house of David," gave us the first external evidence to the Bible of the reality of King David's existence. Previous to this, it had been fashionable to dismiss the David narratives in the Bible as so much priestly propaganda that had tried to give Israel a respectable past history as they sat in the Babylonian captivity. Avraham Biran, of the Hebrew Union College, excavating a site in northern Israel known as Dan, found in an exposed wall of stones one basalt fragment about 12 inches high. In the same wall a year later, two other smaller pieces were found to be part of the original inscription. When the Aramaic words were translated from the paleo-Hebrew script, here was the first extra-biblical reference to King David.

The Basalt Stelae from Dan, found in 1993 and 1994 with the words "house of David," gave us the first external evidence to the Bible of the reality of King David's existence.This announcement caused scholars to take another look at a basalt stone known as the Mesha Stele, from the Moabite King Mesha, that had been found a century earlier. This text complained about "Omri, King of Israel," who had oppressed the kingdom of Moab, a land east of the Dead Sea and Jordan River (1 Kings 16:21-27). In a partially broken line of the Mesha Inscription, a French scholar named Andre LeMaire supplied two missing letters of the original five Hebrew letters so as to be able to now read the "House of David." Thus, the stele told how Mesha threw off the yolk that the house of David had imposed on Moab years previously (LeMaire, "The House of David..." BAR, 1994, pp. 30-37). Now we had two external references to a David that some claimed never existed.

Tablet 11 of the 12-tablet story called the Gilgamesh Epic is another flood story named after the principal character, King Gilgamesh, who was alleged to have ruled the Babylonian city of Uruk around 2600 B.C. This epic, written in Semitic wedge-shaped letters known as cuneiform Akkadian, has many striking similarities to the biblical story of Noah in Genesis 6-9, as well as just as many substantial differences. While Austen Henry Layard uncovered literally tens of thousands of tablets in Nineveh, which he shipped back to England up to 1851, it was George Smith, an assistant to the British Museum's Assyrian department, who in 1872 discovered tablet 11 related to a flood story. Since the tablet was broken, Smith returned to Nineveh and within five days, on May 14, 1873, found another tablet with the missing lines.This epic, written in Semitic wedge-shaped letters known as cuneiform Akkadian, has many striking similarities to the biblical story of Noah in Genesis 6-9, as well as just as many substantial differences.

In the Akkadian epic, Gilgamesh is told about the flood by a man named Utnapishtim. He had safely passed through a flood because a creator god named Ea had warned him that a flood was coming and he was to build a boat (as was the biblical Noah, Gen 6:2, 13-17). The storm that wiped out the rest of mankind ended on the seventh day and all emerged from the boat on the twelfth day (contrary to Gen 7:24). Utnapishtim's boat rested on Mount Nisirin Kurdistan (rather than the Biblical Mt. Ararat in Turkey), as Utnapishtim sent out a dove, a swallow and finally, a raven (cf. Gen 8:3-11). When the raven failed to return, all left the Babylonian boat and offered a sacrifice to the gods (cf. Gen 8:12-22). Both accounts seem to reflect a similar event, but the Gilgamesh Epic has numerous legendary additions with a tone that is vastly different from the biblical account.

It was around this pool that 12 of King David's men, under commander Joab, met 12 of King Saul's men, under commander Abner, in a wrestling contest in which all 24 died as they grabbed each other by the hair and plunged a sword into one another.
The site of the Pool of Gibeon, mentioned in 2 Samuel 2:13 and Jeremiah 41:12, was first identified by Edward Robinson in 1833 at the Palestinian village of el-Jib. James B. Pritchard excavated here in 1956-1960 and confirmed this identification with 31 jar handles with the Hebrew word for Gibeon on them. Apparently, Gibeon was a producer and exporter of wines, which required special provisions of water, since the summer months lacked any rainfall. Pritchard found two separate water systems: (1) a pool or reservoir measuring 37 feet in diameter, and (2) a tunnel that sloped down from inside the city walls to a water chamber just outside the city at the base of the tell.

The Gibeon Pool was cut through limestone bedrock to a depth of 82 feet to the water level, with a staircase and railing cut into the limestone winding down 37 feet to a level floor about halfway down. From there the stairs drop straight down another 45 feet to the water table. It was around this pool that 12 of King David's men, under commander Joab, met 12 of King Saul's men, under commander Abner, in a wrestling contest in which all 24 died as they grabbed each other by the hair and plunged a sword into one another.

The Seal of Baruch was one of the 250 inscribed bullae, or small clay baked buttons, that turned up in 1975 through an Arab East Jerusalem antiquities dealer. While they must have come from illegal digging in Jerusalem, they are important because they were originally meant to seal documents or containers to prevent tampering. A lump of soft clay, attached to a sealing string, was stamped with a seal and left to harden. Most of the documents and containers, to which many of these were attached, were destroyed in a fire, but the bullae survived and were preserved by the fire all the more. This Baruch was none other than the confidant and personal scribe of the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah who took dictation from the prophet and had to hide with Jeremiah as King Jehoiakim sought to arrest both of them (Jer 36:26).Among them was a seal containing this name, "Berekhayahu [Baruch] son of Neriyahu [Neriah] the scribe" (Jer 36: 4, 8, 14; 45:1). The suffix on both names, yahu, is a shortened form of Yahweh or Jehovah. This Baruch was none other than the confidant and personal scribe of the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah who took dictation from the prophet and had to hide with Jeremiah as King Jehoiakim sought to arrest both of them (Jer 36:26).

Another bulla in this same lot contained the name of Ishmael, who assassinated Gedaliah (Jer 40: 7), the governor appointed by the Babylonians after Jerusalem fell in 587 B.C. An additional 51 bullae were found on the floor of the House of Bullae. Among the names recorded there was a bulla of "Gemaryahu [Gemariah] the son of Shaphan," a scribe who served in the court of King Jehoiakim and who advised the king not to burn the scroll Jeremiah had written (Jer 36:10-12, 25-26). Almost 400 of these bullae have been found belonging to the period of the 8th to the 6th Century B.C.

One of the persons named in the Scriptures, but whose existence was doubted until modern Biblical Archaeology "discovered" him, is King Sargon II of Assyria. Isaiah 20:1 was sure he was the King of Assyria, but he was not among those found in the excavations of the Assyrian capital, Nineveh. However, in 1843, Paul Emile Botta discovered that Sargon had gone to Dur-Sharrukin (modern Khorsabad), a virgin site some 12 miles northeast of Nineveh, where he began construction in 717 B.C. Stretching one mile on each side, this construction site was never completed or occupied before Sargon died, and was abandoned by his successors. A massive 25 ton bull-man-god was one of several that guarded the entrance to the throne room at Khorsabad.

The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III, standing 6 feet 6 inches high, was found at the Northwest palace at Nimrud commemorating Shalmaneser's campaigns during his reign. On the second panel from the top, King Jehu of Israel (2 Kings 10:34) can be seen kneeling before Shalmaneser (known from elsewhere to have taken place in the year of 841 B.C.). This monument is of enormous historical value, for it is the only secular piece of evidence where a historical personage of Scripture is depicted. The inscription below the depiction reads: "the tribute of Jehu (Ia-w-a), son of Omri (Hu-um-ri); I received from him silver, gold, a golden saplu-bowl, a golden vase with pointed bottom, golden tumblers, golden buckets, tin, a staff for a king, [and] wooden puruhtu."This monument is of enormous historical value, for it is the only secular piece of evidence where a historical personage of Scripture is depicted.

The High Priest Caiaphas, who served as the leader of the Sanhedrin from A.D. 18-36, is known as the one who gave cynically expedient advice that it was better for one man (i.e., Jesus) to die than for the whole nation to suffer (John 11: 49-53). Indeed, it was he who later presided over the late-night trial of Jesus (John 18:14). In what some considered to be the courtyard of Caiaphas' house, where Peter waited for news about Jesus (Matt 26:69-75), the Caiaphas Ossuary, or bone chest, was found by accident in 1990 south of the Temple Mount as workers were building a water park in Jerusalem's Peace Forest.
Inscribed on the ornately decorated bone chest or ossuary was the inscription found in two places, "Qafa" and "Yehosef bar Qayafa," i.e., "Caiaphas," and "Joseph, son of Caiaphas." The historian Josephus gives his full name as "Joseph, who is called Caiaphas of the high priesthood." Inside the ossuary were the bones of six people, including one 60-year-old man, probably Caiaphas. This was a remarkable discovery.