"If you were a rising young archaeologist in the 1970s, you were skeptical of stories about Jewish kings. The ascendant critical school in biblical scholarship, sometimes known by the general name "minimalism," was making a strong case that there was no united Israelite monarchy around 1000 B.C."
From this article: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/archaeological-dig-re...
For a long time, people dismissed the idea that Vikings made it to the Americas ahead of Columbus. That changed in the 1960s:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/new-dating-met...
It was laughable until it wasn't. I could point out similar discoveries that have been made about the history of American peoples before Columbus arrived that 19th scholars would have found unbelievable. In the same way, many places mentioned in the Bible were laughed away by scholars until archeology started digging up lots of finds in the 20th century. Sure, plenty of people are biased before they start digging, but it's similar to when you know there's buried treasure in the vicinity so it helps narrow down your search. A lot of discoveries in archeology, science or whatever are made when people have something specific in mind that they're looking for before they even start exploring, and when they discover something, no amount of hand waving makes the discovery untrue. :)