Does Archaeology Contradict Old Testament Stories? | Lecture 3

In this concluding lecture, Dr. Jeffrey Ludvik confronts the most serious scholarly challenge to the traditional view of David and Solomon's kingdom: Israel Finkelstein's "low chronology," which used radiocarbon dating from Tel Megiddo to argue that the monumental architecture previously attributed to Solomon was actually built a century later — by someone else entirely.

Dr. Ludvik walks through the science of radiocarbon dating, the controversy it ignited, and how subsequent studies using paleomagnetism and expanded site data have complicated and partially revised Finkelstein's original claims. He then turns to his own active excavations — at Tel El Hesi and the nearby site of Khirbet Sumeli — to present fresh on-the-ground evidence for a complex, state-level bureaucracy operating in southern Judah during the 10th century BC.

In this lecture, you'll explore:

· How radiocarbon dating works — and why the calibration curve for Iron Age Israel creates genuine interpretive ambiguity

· Israel Finkelstein's low chronology: what it claims and what's at stake for the biblical narrative

· How paleomagnetic dating has updated and refined Finkelstein's original conclusions

· The distribution of tripartite pillared buildings across Israel and their striking correlation with the borders of Solomon's kingdom in 1 Kings 4

· New excavations at Khirbet Sumeli: a 10th century administrative outpost with a cult room, Egyptian artifacts, Nile perch bones, and over 20 administrative bullae

· What the bullae reveal about trade monitoring, taxation, and state-level governance in biblical Judah

· Why the proximity of Khirbet Sumeli to Tel El Hesi suggests a coordinated military and administrative system

· A 3,000-year-old thumbprint — and what it means to hold physical evidence of the biblical world in your hands

This lecture is ideal for anyone interested in Old Testament archaeology, the historicity of David and Solomon, the science of archaeological dating, and the relationship between faith and empirical inquiry.

ABOUT OUR SPEAKER

Dr. Geoffrey E. Ludvik, an active field researcher, Geoffrey is currently co-director of archaeological excavations at Tell el-Hesi, Israel (occupied 2800 BC through the Persian period). His interests include early Canaanite trade and technology, the cultural world of the Patriarchs, the Iron Age kingdom of Judah, and the Old Testament period generally.

He earned his Ph.D. in Anthropology (Archaeology) with an emphasis in Hebrew and Semitic Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2018 and is the author of numerous articles and book chapters on Biblical and Mediterranean archaeology. Geoffrey is also an instructor at St. Ambrose Academy in Madison, WI, and a research fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Cobb Institute of Archaeology at Mississippi State University. Geoffrey lives in Madison, WI, with his wife and son.

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