ABSTRACT
The search for a consensus concerning the relationship between archaeology and the biblical text is one of the great lost causes, producing much heated discussion to little effect. Finkelstein describes these as intensive, in fact their dating has been shown to be unreliable. The problem of ethnic identifications of pottery has its parallels in Transjordan too, with 'Edomite' and 'Midianite' pottery, as Finkelstein notes. 'Midianite' pottery has now been renamed Qurayyah ware after the site where it is most numerous. 'Edomite' painted pottery is still generally associated uncritically with ethnic Edomites, even though it is found at sites outside Edom proper, but not at all sites within Edom. Turning specifically to Israel Finkelstein's paper, it is interesting to draw analogies between his discussion of early Israel and the situation in Transjordan. Just as scholarship on early Israel followed a theological construct, so it did in Transjordan.
