Remember critics stated that there was no evidence of Pontius Pilot in History. Did that make it a fact? Latter, an inscription verified that, in fact, Pilot did exist.
With respect, I offer the other side of the coin:
The names Yitzchak (Isaac), Ya'akov (Jacob), Yoseph (Joseph), and Yishmael (Ishmael) all begin with something linguists call the "Amorite imperfective." From studying lists of thousands of names found from the third millennium and later, Kitchen shows that 55 percent of the names during the time of the Patriarchs begin with an i / y sound, but already "by 1500 the whole thing drops to a tiny percentage and never ceases dropping after that." Where, Kitchen asks, did did fiction writers of the middle first millennium B.C. get these names if they were composing their biblical novellas (a short novel) a thousand or more years after the names had fallen from popular use?
Kitchen asks the same question about Genesis 37:28, which states that Joseph was sold by his brothers to slave traders for 20 silver shekels while on their way to Egypt. Tracking the price of slaves sold from 2400 B.C. to 400 B.C. Using extrabiblical sources, he finds that this amount matches exactly tile going price in the eighteenth century B.C. Steady inflation had driven it up to 30 shekels by the thirteenth century, which corresponds to Exodus 21:32; 50 shekels in the eighth century, which corresponds to 2Kings 15:20), and to nearly 100 shekels soon after the exile from Egypt in the sixth century.
It is worth noting that the practice of using forced labor for building projects is only documented for the period 1450 to 1200 B.C., the time most biblical historians place the Israelites in Egypt. The realization that there were others enslaved along with the Hebrews may explain who the "mixed multitude" of Exodus 12:38 are who joined the freedom train. (for more on the Israelites coming out of Egypt see the article 'Did The Exodus Never Happen', in September 7, 1998, Christianity Today Magazine )
-David in archaeology:-Kings David and Solomon reigns spanned from about 1000 B.C. to 920 B.C.
In 1993, excavations at the ancient city of Dan (named after one of the twelve tribes of ancient Israel) unearthed a stone slab dating to 841 B.C. It contained the first ancient extrabiblical reference to the "House Of David" (a phrase used more than 20 times in the Old Testament. Discovered in two pieces the Tel Dan Stele stone slab is helping to muffle those who say King David was a myth.
In addition, an ancient receipt (in stone) for three shekels donated to the "Temple of Yawweh" gives us the oldest known reference outside the Bible to King Solomon's temple. And, a seal with Solomon's name on it could very well date to the 10th century B.C. when Solomon still lived. ... Journal for the Study of the Old Testament .
-Israel in archaeology:-On a seven foot high stone slab, Pharaoh (King) Merneptah (son of Rameses II, 1203 B.C.) boasted (prematurely) that "Israel is laid waste and his seed is not." This was the first extrabiblical mention of Israel.
