Historical Biblical Archaeology and the Future: The New Pragmatism.

• Author: Nakhai, Beth Alpert
• Position: Book review

Historical Biblical Archaeology and the Future: The New Pragmatism. Edited by THOMAS E. LEVY. London: EQUINOX, 2010. Pp. xvi + 375, illus. $39.95 (paper). [Distributed by the David Brown Book Co., Oakville, Ct.]

It is interesting to witness the return of the term "Biblical Archaeology" to our field, in this and other books of the last decade or so. There is, perhaps, a sense of deja vu--but also, in Thomas E. Levy's new articulation of enthusiasm for first-rate syntheses of archaeological, anthropological, and biblical research, there is much to be lauded. Maybe this is what the new millennium is about: making peace with the past, taking the initiative to move forward, and being willing to build a tent large enough to shelter us all.

Historical Biblical Archaeology and the Future: The New Pragmatism revitalizes a discussion that has, at times, seemed rather old. The auspicious event that inspired the book was the 2006 endowment, by Norma and the late Reuben Kershaw, of the "Norma Kershaw Endowed Chair in the Archaeology of Ancient Israel and Neighboring Lands," in the Judaic Studies Program at the University of California, San Diego; Levy is the first scholar to hold this chair. An inaugural conference entitled "Biblical Archaeology and the Future" was held on April 30, 2006 and several articles in this book derive from that felicitous event.

Levy sets out to reconstruct "Biblical Archaeology" as cutting-edge, a methodological paradigm that can be used to integrate textual and archaeological data. He proposes "Levant" and "Levantine" as "culturally and politically neutral" terms reflecting "the tapestry of countries and peoples of the region, without assuming directionality of cultural influence" (p. 8). He calls for a quintessentially American "New Pragmatism" as a way of harnessing scholarly communities and funding resources, reinvigorating "historical Biblical Archaeology," and reinstituting "the tradition of archaeology as a consumer, user, and innovator interested in testing new theories and methods for research" (p. 9). Twenty-two articles, written by Levy and twenty other scholars, move the discussion in these directions. The book is divided into four thematically organized sections. While the subjects, databases, analytical frameworks, and goals of each article vary, as a group they share common elements. Overall, time spent reading this book is time well invested.

Section I, "Into the Future," is, perhaps, not as futuristic as the title posits but its points are well made, nonetheless. Levy's article focuses on technological advances...