applying aincient religious texts (esp the bible) to anthropology?

[bholdr]

I'm watching the history channel, a show about finding physical evidence for the biblical flood, and it got me thinking:

Often, when delving into aincient history, the common and believeble historical sources, writings by greek scholors, roman documents, etc, are not enough to satisfactorily explain the aincient world. anthropoligists, geologists, historians, etc, will sometimes use religious sources like the bible to shed some additional light on their feild of study. I'm a history buff, but generally not aincient history, so i don't know:

1: how much creedence is the bible given as a historical refrence (by serious students of history, etc- not by the curches)? are the facts, dates, and stories that are in the bible (conquest of jeruselem, fall of babylon, etc) considered to be accurate enough to use in a scientific manner?

2: do you (posters) think that the bible is historically accurate and useful as a source of info about antiquity? are the stories in it considered to be mostly fact, or allegory, or metaphor... or myth?

3: what about other regions and religions? i am fascinated by aincient native american civalizations... links?

i'd like replies/links with a scientific/scholoraly perspective, please, but religious perspectives are welcome too.

thanks!