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Short abstract:

This paper argues that Victorian archaeology in the Near East was sustained by the religious questions it promised to answer. The story of late 19th century Biblical Archaeology is key to the history of the relationship between science and Christianity in Britain.

Long abstract:

In late 1872, George Smith, a young cuneiform enthusiast, presented to a London meeting of the Society of Biblical Archaeology his sensational “Chaldean Account of the Deluge” (now known as the Epic of Gilgamesh), emphasizing its similarities to the story of Noah’s Flood. That a newly decipherable canon could corroborate Old Testament stories—potentially disproving Darwinian theories of an ancient Earth and Godless evolution—was extraordinary indeed. The Daily Telegraph, recognizing this public excitement, capitalized on these stakes and announced it would send the inexperienced Smith to the Ottoman site where the tablets had been found, seeking further insight into Biblical antiquity on their readership’s behalf.

Historians of science and religion have long known faith, theology, and scientific investigation to be complexly intertwined. Terence Keel argues that Christian cosmological assumptions shaped 19th century race scientists’ research, even as they claimed to be untainted by religious bias (Divine Variations, 2018). Victorian Biblical Archaeologists had no such qualms, centering religious text in their research as they sought to confirm Old and New Testament chronologies and narratives, contributing to new fields of Biblical criticism in doing so. This paper argues that The Telegraph’s construction of Smith as expert witness to the Christian past shows how theological concerns made archaeological research worthy of British public investment and enthusiasm. By sending Smith East, The Telegraph mediated and coproduced scientific knowledge at a moment in which the press’s social role was in flux, archaeological norms were in vitro, and Biblical authority was under the microscope.