25 - Some Methodological Reflections on Chronology and History-Writing

Summary

Abstract

My participation in this project concerning the Bible and radiocarbon dating is largely that of an observer since I am not an authority on ¹⁴C dating, and my work on Syro-Palestinian chronology until recently has had to do mostly with the Bronze Age. I have now become involved in Iron Age chronology, however, since it is a crucial aspect of my current research on the question of the socalled ‘United Monarchy’ and state-formation processes in early Israel (Dever 1997, 2004).

Why Chronology Matters

First, we need not make any apologies for what some might consider an obsession with chronology, especially our desire for closely fixed absolute dates. Chronology is ‘the backbone of history’, the time-line. It is the thread upon which individual events are strung like beads, so as to create a connected, believable series of happenings that constitute what we would call ‘narrative history’, the most fundamental level of history-writing. Yet without relative dates—and absolute dates when possible—all our reconstructions of the past remain unordered, and they can only create the impression of chaos. Yet the apparent chaos is an illusion. History, if not purposeful, is at least orderly; and culture is patterned. That, and only that, is what makes a perception of the ‘meaning of events’ (the whole point of the historical enterprise) possible—but only once we have a reliable chronology, that is, a concept of evolution, and a framework for explaining cultural change.