The Palestine Exploration Fund

6pm, Thursday 14th October 2010

Stevenson Lecture Theatre, Clore Education Centre, The British Museum,  London WC1

A Lecture by Philip Davies, Department of Biblical Studies, University of Sheffield & PEF

Followed by wine

Abstract

"There are things we do not know we don't know" said Donald Rumsfeld. He was not thinking of the so-called 'Hezekiah's Tunnel'. What evidence links it to Hezekiah, after all? But 'things we do not know we don't know' can still evoke passionate advocacy. Recent responses to suggestions that we don't really know if Hezekiah really did have a tunnel built betray interests and prejudices that underlie such apparently sensitive questions - and indeed, can be seen to underlie the pseudo-science of 'biblical archaeology' in general.

Above image:  The Siloam (or Silwan) Inscription from 'Hezekiah's Tunnel', Jerusalem, c.700 BC. Istanbul Archaeological Museum, Turkey.