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September 30, 2007

The Reluctant Archaeologists

Eric Cline, chair of the department of classical and Semitic languages and literature at the George Washington University and associate director of the current excavations at Megiddo, takes archeologists to task for not challenging the fantastic claims of amateurs who sell pseudo-science in the name of archaeology. Here's a sample of Cline's Boston Globe piece.

The tools of modern archeology, from magnetometers to precise excavation methods, offer a growing opportunity to illuminate some of the intriguing mysteries surrounding the Bible, one of the foundations of western civilization. Yet the amateurs are taking in the public's money to support ventures that offer little chance of furthering the cause of knowledge. With their grand claims, and all the ensuing attention, they divert the public's attention from the scientific study of the Holy Land - and bring confusion, and even discredit, to biblical archeology.

Unfortunately, when fantastic claims are made, they largely go unchallenged by academics. There have been some obvious exceptions, such as the recent film "The Lost Tomb of Jesus," which inspired an outcry from scholars by claiming that archeologists had found, but not recognized, the tomb of Jesus more than 20 years ago. But much more common is a vast and echoing silence reminiscent of the early days of the debate over "intelligent design," when biologists were reluctant to respond to the neocreationist challenge. Archeologists, too, are often reluctant to be seen as challenging deeply held religious beliefs. And so the professionals are allowing a PR disaster to slowly unfold: yielding a field of tremendous importance to pseudoscientists, amateur enthusiasts, and irresponsible documentary filmmakers.

Cline gives several reasons for the reluctance of archaeologists to challenge the nonsense of junk archaeology: because "snobbery that runs through many academic fields;" because of the "uncertainty of the stories themselves: many biblical questions are so shrouded in uncertainty as to be inherently unsolvable" and "because scientific findings may challenge religious dogma."

But I am afraid that underlying the last of these reasons, "scientific findings may challenge religious dogma," is more than the issue of concerns for religious sensitivities. Much of the funding, at least in the US, for legitimate archaeological research in the southern Levant, comes from those whose religious dogma might be challenged.

Another area that Cline mentions, somewhat in passing, is the modern use of Syro-Palestinian archaeology in the propaganda wars between the Palestinians and the Israelis. This is an important topic; but like the issue of fear of offending religious sensitivities, it reinforces my own view that Syro-Palestinian archaeology would be better off being an abnormal interest rather than the all too normal interest of large special interest groups.

Please read Cline's article. Good stuff.

Via Jim West and Jim Davila

Posted by Duane Smith at September 30, 2007 9:07 AM | Read more on Archaeology |

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Posted by: mnuez at October 3, 2007 8:42 PM

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