The Archaeology of the Old Testament

Christopher Edens

In this book Chris Edens explores the archaeology of the Old Testament and the knowledge that over a century of excavation on the southern Levant has given us about the Israelites and their predecessors, the Canaanites. Beginning with the search for Noah's Ark, Edens traces the origins of these two cultures.The southern Levant was the site of important developments in human history, including an early appearance of anatomically modern human beings during the Ice Ages. As a prelude to Canaanite culture, Edens examines the regions' pre-Bronze Age archaeology, and the cultural tolerance and syncretic religious beliefs of the Persian and Hellenistic empires which profoundly shaped not only the Jewish community returning to the Holy Land from Babylonian exile, but also the milieu from which emerged first Christianity then Islam. Using evidence still being gleaned from the remarkable sites of the Old Testament, Edens assessses the influences of neighbouring peoples - Egypt and Syria, the Hittites, Assyria, Babylonia and the early Greeks - on the arts and religious practices of the Holy Land, and discusses archaeological debates about episodes in the Old Testament, conflicting ideas about archaeological evidence and the Bible as a historical source.