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Useful Books about Biblical Archaeology
Algaze, Guillermo. The Uruk World System: The Dynamics of Expansion of Early Mesopotamian Civilization. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005. This is a mainstream liberal archaeological study of the earliest complex urban culture in human history. It is written at a masters or doctoral level. While it is not a conservative study, it is worth reading. If his evidence is reinterpreted in light of a high view of Scripture, Uruk might have been the Tower of Babel culture. Algaze would disagree strongly with that suggestion. Barrick, W. Boyd. "The Funerary Character of 'High Places' in Ancient Palestine: A Reassessment." Vetus Testamentum 25 (1975): 565-595. This is not a conservative study, but it makes some useful points about the nature of high places. That is an important topic since high places were so common in the Old Testament. The article is written at a masters or doctoral level. Hoerth, Alfred J. Archaeology & the Old Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1998. This is a conservative text book written at a college level. Hoerth gives much valuable information. He does argue for an unusual compromise between 18th and 19th Dynasty exodus dates that is not widely accepted in the field. Hoerth, Alfred and McRay. John. Bible Archaeology. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2005. This is a good conservative Bible archaeology text book. It is written at a college level. Kelso, James I. The Excavation of Bethel (1934-1960). Cambridge: American Schools of Oriental Research, 1968. This is a mainstream but useful and valuable study. Kitchen, Kenneth A. On the Reliability of the Old Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2003. This book is written at a college or masters level. Kitchen is the leading conservative Christian Egyptologist working today. Kitchen writes this book to defend the Bible against recent attacks against it. Kitchen does defend a 19th Dynasty exodus, and he sees the Old Testament in light of that chronology. That is unfortunate since the case for an 18th Dynasty chronology is stronger and more useful. However, Kitchen's book is a must read in the field. Kitchen, K. A. The Bible in its World: The Bible & Archaeology Today. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1977. Mazar, Amihai. Archaeology of the Land of the Bible 10,000-586 BCE. New York: Doubleday, 1990. This is a mainstream archaeology text book for the study of biblical history and culture. However, it is surprisingly conservative as these things go. It is an outstanding book and worth reading. Of course, Mazar has no use for Biblical inerrancy or an 18th Dynasty exodus. It is written at a masters level. McRay, John. Archaeology of the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1991. This book is aimed at a college level audience. It is a conservative study, and it is generally pretty useful. Renfrew, Colin, and Bahn, Paul. Archaeology: Theories Methods and Practice. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2000. Colin and Bahn is a standard mainstream college text book about Archaeology in general. It is really useful for understanding archaeological methods. Stern, Ephraim. Archaeology of the Land of the Bible, Volume II: The Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian Periods 732-332 BCE. New York: Doubleday, 2001. Stern is a Jewish scholar working in Jerusalem. His book gives a useful summary of Near Eastern archaeological evidence from around the time of Israel's captivity. Stern's book is a masters level study. Wright, G. Ernest, and Freedman, David Noel. The Biblical Archaeologist Reader. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1961. This is an older paperback. It is aimed at a college level audience. It is a collection of articles first printed in the journal Biblical Archaeologist. The book's authors are not very conservative, and the articles have sometime been proven false by more recent research. However, the articles are sometimes interesting and useful.
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Copyright © 2009 Dr. Rodger Dalman
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