Archaeology and the Synoptic Gospels: Which way do the rocks roll?

Archaeology and the Bible have an uneasy relationship. Many textual scholars have little use for archaeology. Discoveries happen often, so the data change, whereas the written text is stable by comparison. Plus, the stones, so to speak, are sometimes difficult to interpret in relation to the text.
Nonetheless, let’s bring onto the web – the main goal of the entire series – what archaeologists are saying in their books. Though I’m far from being an archaeologist, I decided to include some findings that are more or less stable (but see some of the examples, below).