1. Overview

Archaeological discoveries are like buried treasure. Many fascinating artifacts have been found, some of which have ended up in national museums. Often, inscriptions and writings are even more exciting because they refer to people and places in history.

It is only in the last 200 or so years that archaeology has had any real relevance to the Bible. Before that time, many of the places and people found in the Bible were not mentioned anywhere else. Critics said that the Bible was myth and legend. But in the last 200 years, names from the Bible have leapt to life with the discovery of palace walls, stones and coins displaying Biblical names and records of Biblical events.

Before we look at the discoveries, we shall very briefly give the geography and history behind the discoveries to enable you to see their background.

We shall look at the discoveries in chronological order as they relate to the Bible.

Bible quotations are in italics.

Translations of inscriptions are on grey panels