Biblical Archaeology

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This is a topic brought up in another thread that deserves its own.IMO

For the sake of focus let's concentrate on the Old Testament.

This field is part of Near Eastern Archaeology. It does not set out to "prove" the bible in religious terms although in the past only religiously ordained archaeologists were allowed to be part of the research. That has changed since the era of enlightenment. At times, finds that disagreed with the text have been been dismissed and hidden at times.

Most archaeologists see the OT as a guide rather than a blueprint.

Many of the legends or stories in the OT have been found in other cultures although they ascribe different deities or characters according to their personal mythologies or interpretations. Many were written well before the time of the biblical characters.

Think of today's historical novels. Although the characters are fictional, many novelists use real places and historical events as settings.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are an important find for scholarship rather than archaeology since the earliest hebrew texts available were the Masoretic texts from the 9th century CE. The oldest Septuagint(greek) texts were from the 4th century CE. Some of the DS scrolls found dated back to the 2nd century BCE. It was a great find for textual criticism. Although some of the texts disagree with the masoretic text and septuagint(or LXX), most agree. 30 percent of the scrolls are biblical.