Re-Excavating Jerusalem: Archival Archaeology(Schweich Lectures on Biblical Archaeology)

Re-excavating Jerusalem: Archival Archaeology is concerned with the archaeology and history of Jerusalem, and with the story of its people over many centuries. It is a story of ongoing crisis, of adaptations and inheritance under successive rulers, where each generation has owed a cultural debt to its predecessors, from the Bronze Age to the modern world. Illustrated with over 80 photos and drawings, Re-excavating Jerusalem: Archival Archaeology reflects on events as revealed in a major programme of archaeological excavation conducted by Dame Kathleen Kenyon in the 1960s, which is still in the process of publication. The excavation archive has an ongoing relevance today. Even though our knowledge of the city and its inhabitants has increased over the decades since then, the archive still reveals fresh insights to set against contemporary work. The preservation of such archives has great importance for future historians. Amongst topics addressed are the nature of a dispersed settlement pattern in the second millennium BC; a fresh look at the vexed problems of the biblical accounts of the work of David and Solomon and the development of the city in the tenth and ninth centuries BC; the nature of the defensive walls of the town re-established by Nehemiah in the fifth century BC; some evidence of the Roman occupation following the almost total destruction of the city in AD 70; and an exploration in the Islamic city during the twelfth to fifteenth centuries.

Table of Contents:
List of Figures List of Tables Preface and Acknowledgements 1: Introduction 2: The Archive 3: The Bronze and Iron Ages in Jerusalem 4: Crisis and Transition in Jerusalem under Rome, Byzantium, Islam and the Crusades 5: The Islamic City, ad 1187-1516: Archaeology and the Human Story Appendix: An Inscribed Lead Ornament from Jerusalem Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Dr Kay Prag studied Near Eastern archaeology at the Universities of Sydney, London, and Oxford. She was a field supervisor on Kathleen Kenyon's Jerusalem excavation in the 1960s, has curated the archive since 1980, and works on the publication of the final reports. As well as research and teaching, she has led field surveys in Jordan and Lebanon, directed excavations at Tell Iktanu in Jordan, and was Honorary Editor of the journal Levant for many years. Her principal publications concern the later third millennium in the Near East, and Jerusalem.

Review :
Built upon these archives, the book is one of the most comprehensive summaries of the archaeology and history of Kenyon's excavations, in which the views of the author intertwine with Kenyon's conclusions, and later findings by other researchers... To summarise, this is a most comprehensive and invaluable synthesis of the stratigraphic puzzles that Jerusalem presents to researchers, written by someone who has been immersed in this subject for many years. The strength of this book is in the presentation of archaeological data and hypotheses in chapters three through five which brings Kenyon's data alongside or sometimes in contrast to conclusions from more recent excavations. ... Overall, this volume is helpful for the reader who wishes to understand what archaeologists have uncovered and what the data means to a present-day understanding of ancient Jerusalem.