The new Indiana Jones movie is providing the media with an opportunity to discuss archaeology. Byron McCane of Wofford College has the floor in an article about what archaeology is really about:

“There are some similarities between
what he does and what I do,” McCane said. “We both go to the desert. We
both go into catacombs and tombs. We both find really old stuff. We are
both college professors. And we both wear hats.”

“But,” he adds with a good deal of
professorial emphasis, “I’ve never been shot at (yet) with guns,
arrows, blow darts, tanks, bazookas or slingshots. Nothing has exploded
or burned down or crashed. I haven’t found the Lost Ark or the Holy
Grail or a crystal skull. I’ve only had one romantic relationship on a
dig, and that was last summer when my fiancée, Ellen Goldey, went
digging with me.”

And he manages to get in an important sentence about Biblical Archaeology:

“Archaeology gives us a glimpse into
what was ordinary and typical in the ancient world,” McCane said. “It
complements biblical studies by showing us what the biblical writers
took for granted and thus didn’t bother to say. We don’t dig to prove
or disprove the Bible; we dig to enrich our understanding of the world
of the Bible.”

From my blog, Zionism and the State of Israel.