Was 19th up to mid-20th century archaeology in fact similar to the types of stuff seen in movies like Indiana Jones? Exactly how was it back in those days?
>>18052728Back in the early days, Archeology was a lot more amateur profession, and most guys who practiced it cared all about finding lost mythical lands, or uncovering the greatest treasures to make themselves famous for their discoveries, so you had a lot of quackpots digging around, exploring jungles and blowing stuff up with dynamite until they got a lucky break.
>>18052728When I was doing pre-seminary work in college, one of my profs was an archaeologist, and taught Hebrew and Old Testament classes. He made a point of talking about how much time you spend on digging, scraping with trowels, until you finally spend time with paint brushes, patiently brushing away loose dirt, until you long to get back to the shovels and trowels. As much as he loved the Indiana Jones movies, he emphasized that in reality, it had NOTHING to do with reality. He WISHED it had been like that, lol.
Pretty much. Ancient sources were important, but cross-checking and dating were primitive.
