With Liverpool Ancient Worlds.
8th Annual Archaeology and the Bible Conference
Archaeology and the History of Ancient Israel
Saturday 16th March
The history of Ancient Israel, as described in the Bible, is a subject of interest to Jews and Christians alike. It is even invoked in current disputes in the Middle East. But what do the biblical books detailing the history of Ancient Israel say and can they be trusted? Does archaeological evidence confirm or invalidate this history
10 - 10.05am Welcome and Introduction - Dr. Paul Lawrence (University of Liverpool)
10.05 – 10.45am: Was Ancient Israel's History Unique? - Emeritus Prof. Alan Millard (University of Liverpool)
The Bible presents the history of ancient Israel exclusively, but Israel and Judah were small kingdoms among others threatened by Egypt, Assyria and Babylonia. How does the biblical history compare with the histories of other realms? In particular, this lecture will examine the claim that the Bible's religious nature makes its history unreliable.
10.45 – 11.15am Break
11.15am – 12am A Refuge for Absalom: The Contribution of Excavations at et-Tell to Understanding Geshurite Culture - Dr. Chris Sinkinson (Moorlands Bible College)
We begin with a brief overview of the Bethsaida Excavations Project and its discovery of a significant Iron Age city from the Old Testament period. Literary references to Geshur are almost exclusively Biblical, but we can compare them with plausible references to the same city and region in extra-Biblical texts. Putting this material together, the discoveries from et-Tell help us to imaginatively reconstruct who the Geshurites were. With this information we will survey their artistic culture, political position and their religious worldview. This will allow us to attempt to ascertain their relationship to the ancient Israelites.
12 – 12.45pm Down by the River: recent discoveries from Tell Damiyah, Jordan - Diederik Halbertsma (University of Liverpool)
Recent archaeological excavations at Tell Damiyah, located in the Jordan Valley, have yielded many unique finds and significant results. The settlement mound, situated at the confluence of the Jordan and Zerqa (Biblical Jabbok) rivers, has often been associated with ancient Adam, where the Israelites crossed the river. Interestingly, Tell Damiyah commanded one of the few fords over the Jordan. During recent excavations a 7th century BC sanctuary complex was encountered, which shows connections with ancient Israel, Ammon, and Moab, both in trade and culture. This lecture will present results from ongoing research on this small but significant site, and place them in a larger historical and archaeological perspective.
12.45 – 1.45pm Lunch
1.45 – 2.30pm Inscribing Text in Stone: Scribes, Stonemasons, and the Standard Inscription of Ashurnasirpal II from Nimrud - Dr. J. Caleb Howard (Tyndale House, Cambridge)
The Standard Inscription of Ashurnasirpal II is attested in hundreds of exemplars, most of them incised into the faces of stone wall-panels from the Northwest Palace at Kalḫu/Nimrud, biblical Calah. Close examination of the cuneiform signs incised into the stone reveals some of the techniques of stonemason and scribe, as they worked together to produce a carefully designed artistic and textual rhetorical program in the Northwest Palace.
2.30 – 3pm Jonah in Nineveh: Dr. Paul Lawrence (University of Liverpool)
The story of Jonah is one that many will remember from childhood, but it is more than just about the luckless Jonah’s encounter with a whale. The Old Testament (2 Kings 14:25) claims that Jonah lived in the early 8th C BC. This lecture explores the political situation in Assyria at that time, shedding some surprising light on this claim.
3 - 3.30pm Break
3.30 – 4pm Merneptah’s Israel Stela: Dr. Glenn Godenho (University of Liverpool)
While this stela of New Kingdom Pharaoh, Merneptah, is relatively well-known for containing one of the earliest mentions of Israel, this presentation will aim to give an account of the wider context in which Israel is mentioned in the stela, how it has all been interpreted by various scholars, and the consequences of those interpretations.
4 – 4.30pm Questions and Answers
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