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5
The House that Albright
Built
Seymour Gitin
The structure that represents Albright’s most enduring
legacy is not one of bricks and mortar, but formed by ideas,
knowledge and vision. These make up the fabric of his pioneering
scholarship that created the foundations of the discipline
of biblical archaeology and that also had a critical influence
on the study of the languages, literature, history and religions
of the ancient Near East. The author shows us that while the
world of scholarship has radically changed since Albright’s
day, and some of his major conclusions are
no longer accepted, what has not changed is the primary role
played by Albright’s approach to researching the past.
11
W.
F. Albright and Assyriology
Paul-Alain Beaulieu
Albright’s 1916 doctoral dissertation at Johns Hopkins
was entitled “The Assyrian Deluge Epic.” In the
beginning of his career he published some 35 articles on Mesopotamian
topics. Though little of Albright’s assyriological scholarship
has withstood the test of time, Beaulieu describes his rediscovery
of Albright as “mesmerizing … overwhelmed with the
same feeling of intellectual excitement, almost of elation,
that one experiences at the contact of a truly great mind.”
17 Ugaritic
Studies and Israelite Religion: A Retrospective View
Mark S. Smith
The author surveys the field of Ugaritic studies in the twentieth
century, outlining the development of new scholarly interests
and approaches as well as their attendant difficulties, especially
in the study of religion, one of the fields that captivated
W. F. Albright’s interest.
30 Traveling
the Ways of Horus: Studying the Links between Egypt and the
Levant
Carolyn Higginbotham
In the post-Albright years, Egyptology and other areas of
ancient Near Eastern study went their separate ways. Crossover
between Egyptology and the history, archaeology and literature
of Syria- Palestine was minimal. In recent years, however,
there has been a resurgence of interest in the relationship
between Egypt and the Levant. The author presents us with
the state of the field today.
35 W.
F. Albright and Early Alphabetic Epigraphy
Gordon Hamilton
Albright, a “master of the typological sciences”
according to Frank Moore Cross, was an expert authority in
West Semitic epigraphy and palaeography. His wide-ranging
research includes insights into the Nash Papyrus, the Dead
Sea Scrolls, the Lachish Ostraca, the Gezer Calendar and the
like. Here Hamilton concentrates on Albright’s contributions
to the knotty problem of the Proto-Canaanite inscriptions.
Hamilton sketches the current state of the field of these
important inscriptions that are directly related to the origin
and early transmission of the alphabet.
43 Reading
Between the Lines: W. F. Albright “in” the Field
and “on” the Field
J. P. Dessel
Albright is considered the father of biblical archaeology
and the dean of American archaeologists working in the southern
Levant from the 1920s through the 1960s. Yet his impact on
archaeological methodology is negligible. Although he had
little interest in developing new excavation techniques, he
did have strong
opinions about field methodology. A rich but overlooked source
for these opinions is his numerous reviews of almost all the
major excavation reports published in the mid-twentieth century.
Using these reviews as a lens, we are able to gain insight
into Albright’s thinking not only on the practice of
field archaeology but on the leading Near Eastern archaeologists
of the time.
51W.
F. Albright and the History of Pottery in Palestine
Larry G. Herr
The publication of the pottery of Tell Beit Mirsim by Albright
was a watershed event in the history of archaeology in the
region. The author looks at the history of the publication
of pottery from the earliest days in the second half of the
nineteenth century. On the way, he looks at the way researchers
treated their pottery during excavation, how they drew and
described the pots and potsherds and what sorts of interpretive
goals they hoped to reach with their presentations.
56 W.
F. Albright and the Origins of Israel
J. David Schloen
Current scholarship has jettisoned much of Albright’s
view of early “Israel” as a collective entity with
a distinctive ethnic identity. Nonetheless, the author argues
that the “Albrightian approach” of a synthetic overview
of cultural developments has not been exhausted. But how can
we achieve such in today’s intellectual climate? Schloen
critiques Albright’s holistic and idealist cultural typology
as well as the models presented by radical postmodernism and
the so-called “human ecosystem paradigm.” Instead
he argues that the answer is to be found in a methodologically
individualist model à la Max Weber.
63
W. F. Albright’s
Vision of Israelite Religion
J. Edward Wright
Albright was above all else a historian of Israelite religion.
The goal of his life’s work was to trace the origin and
development of Israelite religion based on the biblical texts
and the archaeology of the biblical world. But Albright’s
vision of Israelite religion was clouded by his clear affinity
for the strictly monotheistic religious attitude of the Hebrew
Bible’s latest editors and his own traditional Christian
worldview. The author takes us through Albright’s world,
reconstructing the intellectual environment of the mid-twentieth
century that helped to shape his thinking.
69 From
the Hills of Adonis through the Pillars of Hercules: Recent
Advances in the Archaeology of Canaan and Phoenicia
Aaron Brody
Albright’s research on Canaanite and Phoenician civilization
remains fundamental some thirty years beyond his passing.
These three decades have seen an explosion of archaeological
excavation of Canaanite and Phoenician sites on land and under
water around the Mediterranean and along the Atlantic
shores of Spain and Morocco. The author takes us on a tour
through the new discoveries—from archaeological surveys,
architectural finds, material cultural and technology studies,
burials, the study of trade items, and underwater excavations—that
have revolutionized our understanding of Canaanite and Phoenician
civilization.
81
The Dead
Sea Scrolls: Retrospective and Prospective
Sidnie White
Crawford
The author traces the history of the involvement of the W.
F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research (the American
School of Oriental Research in Jerusalem) in the discovery,
identification and publication of the scrolls from the Judaean
Desert. The author sketches the “explosive” impact
of the
Dead Sea Scrolls for studying the text of the Hebrew Bible
and looks to future directions of scholarship that should
prove equally exciting.
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