re: #155 Buck

Again a lie, putting words in my mouth. It was not my favorite archaeologist. It was one of many that I listed. You wanted to invalidate the entire argument based on the fact that you could find some who disagreed with him. You wanted to make everything he did invalid, and I (very reasonably) argued that was not true.

Nope. The other people you listed weren’t archaeologists, they were christian ministry types. The one archaeologist you mentioned is indeed very out of date, and his timeline has been overturned. Claiming that I wanted to make everything he did invalid is a very silly lie, since I said that his greatest achievement was as a teacher, and that he inspired an entire generation of biblical archaeologists who did amazing work in the Middle East. Their work also happened to invalidate his timeline and his other major theories.

It is not unusual for an archaeologists entire work to be overturned. It doesn’t mean that they were bad, or wrong, or did anything incorrectly, just that new information has come to light. This is scientific progress. In his particular case I do think his evangelical Christianity led him to hopeful conclusions, but that’s a side point because the heart and soul of field archaelogy— scrupulus, detailed, accurate records of what he found and where he found it— he did excellently and he instilled that same engine of excellence into his students.