ABSTRACT
There is a substantial difference between studying literary texts and studying material remains, material artifacts from past cultures. Literature has its own peculiar character, as do material artifacts; thus the work of biblical interpretation is clearly not the same as the work of biblical archaeology. Literary and textual evidence is undoubtedly important for historical reconstruction; without it historians could not do their work. But historians need to account for the peculiarities of literary material when they use it for historical work. The archaeological evidence in Jerusalem is massive, and it provides a wealth of information for historians and students of the Bible. Many archaeologists have been reluctant to get too close to traditional biblical scholarship. The evidence unearthed by archaeologists often gives us a rather direct look into the everyday life of ancient peoples. By digging through layers of dirt and remains, archaeologists create a window that provides historians with a view of the ancient world.
