Comments on BiblePlaces Blog: Kh. Qeiyafa: Survey vs. Excavation

Aren - thanks for the insights. I am, however, ha...

2009-10-21T09:42:54.716-05:00

Aren - thanks for the insights. I am, however, having trouble squaring the idea that a survey is a "very valuable tool" when it is "often quite inaccurate." It's not that it is inaccurate on peripheral matters (size and intensity of occupation), but it is apparently inaccurate with regard to its primary purpose (occupational history). It's one thing for a survey to not collect potsherds from a period or two that excavation later determines is present. It's quite another to conclude that one period is present and another is not, and both conclusions to be wrong.

What is the source of the errors? Are potsherds appearing on the surface from periods when the site was never settled? Is pottery analysis so imprecise? Are some surveyors or excavators unable to properly date pottery? I need to know more before I believe that any survey data should be trusted. This is obviously of major importance, as significant conclusions have been drawn on the basis of surveys. It is not enough to say that since we don't have the resources to excavate, we'll have to rely on survey data, hoping that they happen to be accurate on the matters of interest to us.

Time and time again, it has been shown that archae...

2009-10-20T06:49:36.767-05:00

Time and time again, it has been shown that archaeological survey is a very valuable tool for general info about a site and its occupation, but it is often quite inaccurate as to the size and intensity of occupation in different periods. There are many examples of this. Just for another example of the difference between Yehuda Dagan's survey and subsequent excavation results, Dagan surveyed the site of Kh. er-Rasm and believed that it was an Iron Age fort. A. Faust excavated subsequently, and it turned out that it was a Hellenistic period farmstead, with only a very little evidence of Iron Age occupation!
Survey is an important tool for research (and I've used it extensively myself), but it has its limitations. The differences between the survey and excavations at Qeiyafa are a case in point!

Aren Maeir
Aren Maeir

When Prof. Garfinkel & I briefly chatted about the...

2009-10-19T22:28:37.952-05:00

When Prof. Garfinkel & I briefly chatted about the prodigious jar handles (with rounded depressions), he mentioned that the final excavation report from the 2007-2008 seasons had just finished its English editing, but the exact publication date is in question due to funding problems, which is disheartening due to the importance of the site. This report should help clarify some of the issues, but I'm sure there'll be some interesting discussion in the Q&A sessions at the upcoming conferences!