Cultural Bias in the Archaeology of Palestine

Abstract

One of the positive developments in archaeology in recent years is the increasing awareness of the role of "bias." I am not referring here to "operational bias"-the way in which natural and cultural forces (e.g., climate and sediment cover, the presence or absence of scavenging living communities) distort the archaeological record. Rather, I want to discuss the cultural bias of the archaeologist that distorts our understanding of the past.