* 18 William G . Dever Introduction For this conference on the theme of early Israelite statehood, a capital in Jerusalem, and re - assessing the archaeological and biblical data, I am going to talk about history . That’s because we archaeologists are historians or nothing – historians of material culture, of things, of artifacts that are the embodiment of human thought and behavior . I am going to highlight our two sources for writing new and better histories of ancient Israel : archaeology and the Hebrew Bible . And throughout I am going to emphasize the crucial need for a dialogue between our two sources . Neither can stand alone ; but combined in the proper way, they can yield a portrait of Israel’s remote past that is almost unequalled anywhere else in the world ( especially given Israel’s relatively small size ) . I . Toward a Dialogue : A Renewed Appreciation of the Hebrew Bible as History All of you here today, and many other Israelis, are amazingly well informed about arch...
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