Becoming an archaeologist doesn't mean just going out and starting to dig.  There are a number of core courses that are required- involving theory, practice, methodology, and so on.  A good archaeologist will be conversant with a number of disciplines related to archaeology as well- such as geology (pedogenesis- soil formation, stratigraphy, and so on), biology (skeletal structure among other topics), and depending on their specialty, other fields.  My specialty- plant usage and diet, requires that I be conversant with aspects of botany, a bit of biological chemistry, and even physics and other fields.  I work with (and thus need to have some knowledge about) mass spectrometers, X-Ray Fluorescence and Refraction units, gas chromatography (assisting a colleague in her research), as well as microscopy and chemical preparation (understanding the chemistry of what I'm doing).

In America it's one of the branches of anthropology.  American archaeologists (for the most part) also study human culture.  I've found that linguistic anthropology, biological anthropology, and cultural anthropology constantly inform any (archaeological research/assisting to teach) that I do.

I KNOW some Biblical Archaeologists (one teaches at my school- and I know him personally).  People like Carnuke gives them a black eye and a bad name.  The real ones have the training and background, they don't go into the field looking to prove or disprove "deh Bible!"- they either are trying to understand what is there or they formulate a hypothesis and then go to test it.  They also publish in peer-reviewed journals so the knowledge they glean is transmitted to others.

I will also say this- that there are finds that support the Bible- and finds that DISPROVE some of the statements in the Bible.  For instance, "Pharaoh's first born" has long been known to have been KILLED IN BATTLE BY A HUMAN BEING- by a blow to the head with a mace.  This was confirmed by the finding of his grave, his skeleton- which had damage consistent with the blow of a mace.  There is only one Pharaoh that matches the biblical description and is in the right time period- Ramses the Great (father of the person mentioned above)- and there was nothing recorded like the great plagues described in the Bible (There WAS a period somewhat like that- something like 600 years previous to the period that Moses would have existed!)  Ramses the Great also lived to be quite old- and a mummy has been pretty well identified as being his.

Note that the death of a Pharaoh's first born would have been a terrible cultural shock in those days.

The Egyptians and others had writing long before the period of Moses- and they recorded a LOT.   Things like plagues and disasters were part of the records!

There are only a couple of finds that support the earlier sections of the Bible (with the exception of the fakes that keep getting pushed on people)- the Tell Dan inscription and a single record talking about the people from the area of Israel (and not by name).   During Ramses' reign, a group of people from the area of the mideast around modern-day Israel were expelled from Egypt, BTW.

Talking about floods- there is NO EVIDENCE WHATSOEVER of worldwide flood.  PERIOD.  We can tell the difference between evidence of a flood, and materials deposited by wind or other action.  There IS evidence of some massive local floods in the mideast - including the formation of the Black Sea (Bob Ballard found evidence of human habitation at about 300 ft down.)  I've also read a hypothesis of a massive meteorite strike in the Red Sea that would have caused a gigantic LOCAL flood- but I'm not aware of any evidence found on land that supports this.  I find it interesting, but one of the first questions we're taught to ask is "What is the evidence?"  I'm waiting on that.

I could go on and on... but suffice it to say that I DO know what I'm talking about- after all, I help to TEACH archaeology - and I earn my income DOING it.  (To be precise- I generally do archaeometry- using aspects of physics and chemistry to discover information about cultures- but I've also done fieldwork a couple of times.)

 What Cornuke is doing is pseudoscience.  He's starting with the Bible and trying to prove it.  ANY TIME you start with something and then try to prove it, you're screwing up.

Suggested reading: Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries. Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology, by Kenneth L. Feder. 5th
edition, 2006 (4th edition is OK, older starts to get a bit dated). McGraw Hill (Mayfield).

This is also a good website: http://www.badarchaeology.net/index.php

I could suggest others- but these two are ones I am very familiar with.  (I also have helped to teach about pseudo-archaeology!)

by ArchaeoBob on Sun May 04, 2008 at 12:57:42 PM EST