Archaeology and the Bible

Archaeology is important for biblical studies in a number of indirect ways. It not
only shines light on the geographical, cultural, political, and religious backgrounds of
biblical texts but also helps our understanding of biblical languages and provides insight for textual criticism. Texts discovered at Tell el-Amarna (Amarna letters), Tell-Mardikh (Ebla tablets), Tell-Hariri (Mari tablets), Yorghun Tepe (Nuzi tablets), Ras Shamra (Ugarit archives), Boghazkoy (Boghazkoy tablets), Qumran (Dead Sea Scrolls), and Jerusalem (silver amulet scrolls) are examples of archaeological finds that are tremendously important for these reasons.