Objectivity and salvage excavation policy in mandate Palestine and the State of Israel : an appraisal of its effects on understanding the archaeological record

Archneological research in the Holy Land grew out of the discipline of Biblical Archaeology, an approach which has, to date, directed the lion's share of field activity towards sites related to Biblical History. This selective approach has been responsible for the creation of a large and important, but extremely subjective primary archaeological data base ; one which is inherently biased away from non-Biblical periods. The result has strongly influenced all understanding of the arclneological record, often detrimentally. However, since the time of the British Mandate for Palestine until the present, the implementation of a determined, objective policy of salvage archeology in the territory of the State of Israel has acted as a curb on this tendency by adding a healthy, non-biased increment to this data base. It is a policy which makes no distinctions between Biblical related and non related sites and it has been responsible for major discoveries which have, in certain instances, radically altered scholarly comprehension of the archacological record.