ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES IN THE HOLY LAND

This is a collection of reports which originally appeared in the magazine Archaeology covering the most important finds made in the Holy Land in the last twenty years. For anyone who has been (or plans to go) there, for others concerned in the external evidence of the factual background of the Old and New Testaments, and for an even wider audience interested in the contemporary breakthroughs of archaeology, the text is sufficiently absorbing even without the accompanying 200 maps and diagrams and photographs. Among the most significant discoveries-- the Dead Sea Scrolls, Masada, Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem, Jericho--which Joshua did not quite destroy, and the Biblical cities, Jaffa, Gibeon, Ashdod. Today, with changing boundaries and a new focus of interest, the digs and tells of Palestine arouse a sense of immediacy. Brief biographical notes conclude.