This is all accurate (well the technical bits, I don't know much about biblical history or its historicity) however I will make one maddening correction: archeologists conventionally use the word "sherd" (short for "potsherd") when referring to broken pieces of ceramic artifacts. The word "shard" has an almost identical meaning, except that it connotes some sharpness, and is not exclusive to ceramics as "sherd" is.
Thank you for pointing this out. As a non-native speaker of English, I am thankful for this correction. I sometimes miss such distinctions in my active vocabulary, even if I encountered the spelling before. (And there are this more embarassing mistakes regarding "belief"/"believe" and "live"/"life", that slip into my writing nevertheless sometimes.)
