Complexity and Diversity in the Late Iron Age Southern Levant

Book excerpt: This study aims to highlight many of the present methodological problems of Iron Age archaeology in the Southern Levant. It starts with a historiography of Iron Age archaeology, showing how socio-political contexts have driven research, and how the Bible has influenced directions of study. Charlotte Whiting then takes the scholarly literature on the Edomites as a case study showing how assumptions based on Biblical scholarship have distorted interpretations of the archaeology, particularly with regards to conceptions of ethnicity and nationhood. She suggests new approaches going back to the archaeological record and includes new analysis of Edomite pottery.