Mapping the Z-Axis: Early Archaeological Engagement with Time and Space in the Ancient Near East

Abstract

The development of the archaeology of the ancient Near East as an independent discipline in the nineteenth century, with its focus on uncovering the peoples and places of the past, particularly from the biblical world, contributed to a visual tradition that presented the time and space of an idealized historical past often influenced by religious preconceptions. Using the physical materials from excavated sites, and linking these discoveries with literal and uncritical readings of the Bible, European and American scholars in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries created maps for the public showing peoples, places, routes, and events from the past imposed on the contemporary landscape of the present. In so doing, the archaeology of the ancient Near East helped to define and create visual presentations of a particularized view of the past that continues to hold significance for common understandings of history in the present.