Deux chemins hétérogènes seront déployés dans cette thèse, deux façons de conduire la quête d’une « méthode archéologique » qui mette le présent « dans une position critique », en interrogeant à nouveau l’écriture de l’histoire et la construction de ses objets. Le but est d’approcher la conception de l’histoire exposée par Walter Benjamin – dans Le livre des Passages, dans les thèses Sur le concept d’histoire et dans les matériaux préparatoires – et l’archéo-généalogie de Michel Foucault, examinée à travers les textes, les entretiens et les Cours au Collège de France faisant partie de sa première production. Au-delà des différences entre les lieux d’origine des œuvres en question, la thèse suggère une possible confrontation en limitant la comparaison à certains vecteurs fondamentaux de leur grille conceptuelle, y compris la critique du concept d’origine, le rôle des discontinuités, la perspective des « sans nom », la désagrégation en images de l’expérience historique et enfin la défense d'un usage de l’histoire qui est à la fois tactique, stratégie et surface fertile de la philosophie. L’histoire devient urgence de la pensée. / In this dissertation I will plot out two heterogeneous paths used in conducting the search for an “archeological method” which would be able to place the present “in a critical position” and therefore question the modality in which history is written and its object constructed. My aim is to compare the conception of history exposed by Walter Benjamin in the Arcades Projects, in the theses On the Concept of History, and in other preparatory materials, with Michel Foucault’s archeo-genealogy, which I will explore making reference to Foucault’s shorter texts, interviews, and the Lectures at the Collège de France from the first phase of his carrier. While aware of the inevitable differences separating Benjamin’s and Foucault’s works, I suggest a possible convergence by limiting my comparison to some essential vectors of their conceptual frameworks, such as: the critique of the concept of origin, the role of discontinuity, the perspective of the “anonymous,” the fragmentation of history into singular images, and, eventually, the defense of the use of history as both fertile soil for philosophy as well as political strategy. History becomes the urgency of thought.

本論文的架構分作五章，第一章為緒論，第二章依序描繪西方十六世紀以來的知識空間，第三章探討法學在其中賦有的形象，第四章則以前兩章為框架，從知識空間和法學的轉變出發，重新檢討法典化之爭的實際意義，第五章為結論。

The archive as a site of ‘knowledge retrieval’* has long been the exemplary domain of astute historical inquiry. Following the recent ‘historic turn’* to address the politics of knowledge in the broader human and historical sciences, rather than its function as a site of ‘knowledge retrieval’*, I will reflect on the function of the archive as a site of ‘knowledge production’* in the writing of the histories of ancient Israel. Aligned within the conversations among historians and archivists and the new archival turn, the research will endeavour to offer a contribution to the debate on the topic of historical methodology of ancient Israel in the disciplines of Biblical Archaeology and History of ancient Israel. I will argue that an examination into the function of the archive as historical a priori in a study of the discourses on the Lachish reliefs in the disciplines discloses the practical and theoretical tenets that converge to construct knowledge on the Lachish reliefs and hence also knowledge on ancient Israel. The research will contend that a bounded formation of knowledge on the Lachish reliefs has evolved in the disciplines since the nineteenth century that is along the British imperial archival grain. * Terminology from Stoler, A L 2002. Colonial Archives and the Arts of Governance: On the Content in the Form, in Hamilton C, Harris, V, Taylor, J, Pickover, M, Reid, G & Saleh, R (eds) 2002. Refiguring the Archive. Cape Town: David Philip, 83-102. / Biblical and Ancient Studies / MA (Biblical Archaeology) / 1 online resource (xii, 194 leaves) ; illustrations (some color), maps