Archaeological Discoveries in the Holy Land

Since the momentous discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1948, the pace of archaeological exploration and excavation has quickened throughout the Holy Land. During the past two decades, Israel and Jordan have seen a burgeoning of interest and a wealth of discoveries that bear upon the history of biblical times and reveal the formative stages of human culture. The present volume is a record of the accomplishments of these significant years. In it more than a score of working archaeologists, excavators, and researchers describe at first hand some of the most remarkable of these archaeological finds. Photographs, made on site, and explanatory diagrams and maps accompany the reports, made available by the Archaeological Institute of America. Many of them first appeared in "Archaeology," the Institute's magazine. The span of time covered is a long one: from 8000 B.C. (the approximate date by radiocarbon of the earliest villages) to the twelfth century of our own era, when the crusading Knights of St. John build a hospice-fort at Akko. But the area of activity is surprisingly small: a circle with a radius of eighty-five miles, drawn on the map of Palestine, would enclose all of the excavations described.