BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY. Old Archaeology is literally °ac count of the old," but it has become limited in application, first, to the old in relation to man, thereby distinguished from geology and palm ontology, and secondly, to man as a creator of civilization, thereby distinguished from palmol ogy and palmethnology. As an account of ancient civilization, archaeology itself divides into antiquarianism, dealing with antiquities, the mere physical products and agents of ancient civilized life, such as houses, temples, tombs, tools, arms, household articles and the like, and other artifacts, and epigraphy, which deals with the written legacies of ancient peoples, such as inscriptions on stone, brick, papyrus, pottery, vellum, parchment. The former makes appeal to our artistic nature, but the documents are laden with far richer and more definite infor mation and historic content. Biblical archx ology draws upon both for the illumination of the Scriptures, but in far larger measure upon the second.
The history of the Holy Land, and therewith the peculiar significance of the people Israel with its literature and religion, were decidedly conditioned, though not determined, by the geographic singularity of its lying on the high road of nations, midway between the two cradles of civilization, Egypt and Mesopotamia, the ever-growing deposits of the Nile and of the Twin Rivers. The independent civiliza tions of these valleys reach back in high devel opment to remote epochs, being definitely cer tified in Egypt 4240 a.c. (beginning of the first Sothic Cycle, of 1460 (i.e., 4x365) years, circuit of New Year's day through theyear), and the Nippur tablets carry back the Mesopotamian perhaps still further. Between these two lay Canaan, for millenniums apparently little in fluenced by either, but gradually drawn into the widening vortex of their ambition and em pire. The earliest Hebrew tradition recognized this double dependence, reaching out one hand to the Nile, and the other to the Euphrates. According to Gen. xi, 27, xii, 4, Abram hailed from Chaldean Uz, or Haran, whence he went into Canaan at the hest of Yahveh. Again it is to Paddan-Aram (Gen xxviii, 2) that Isaac sends Jacob to get him a wife among his own clansmen. Such early contact of East and West is not unlikely, since the inscriptions attest that Lugalzaggisi, King at Erech of all Babylonia about MO B.c., ex tended his sway from the Persian Gulf to the Western Sea, and his successor, the great Sargon, is even said to have crossed it. But again, even Abram is brought into close rela tions with Egypt: he goes thither in time of famine (Gen. 10), dwells there, departs thence, and his concubine, Sarah's maid Hagar, is an Egyptian. Much more, however, the most outstanding facts in the racial consciousness would seem to be the descent of Jacob and his family into Egypt, the sojourn and perse cution there, above all their deliverance through the lugh hand and outstretched arm of Yahveh, followed by the legislation at Sinai and the wandering in the desert. It would appear then that Egypt bulked far larger than Mesopotamia in the national imagination, but this does not quite prove that the ties of blood and history were really stronger. Indeed, as already ob served, it is not certain that Egypt is always meant by the M-z-r-m of the Hebrew text, and critics of the highest eminence suspect a con fusion of geographic names at the base of the whole Egyptian story.
When now we ask about the witness of archmology to these Biblical statements, which undoubtedly represent the popular Hebrew consciousness, the answer is somewhat disap pointing. Palestine is geologically a huge fault in the earth-crust, the western strata having slipped down nearly a mile and become ex tremely crumpled in the dislocation. Hence has resulted its extraordinary variety of sur face, climate and production,* well matched by a long and highly varied racial history gradually coming to light from the mounds that dot it and the caves that afford glimpses of man 10,000 years ago. Since as early as A.D. 333, the Holy Land has been a goal of pious pilgnmage and loving inquiry and exploration. A little later the learned Eusebius composed (and the still more learned Jerome turned into Latin) the (Onomasticon,) a careful list of the places in Palestine that are named in the Bible, identify ing as many as possible and adding data con cerning distances and events. His general
method, though not his alphabetic order, has been followed by many travelers and culminated (1841, 1856) in the capital