A spellbinding history of the hidden world below the Holy City—a saga of biblical treasures, intrepid explorers, and political upheaval.

In 1863, a French senator arrived in Jerusalem hoping to unearth relics dating to biblical times. Digging deep underground, he discovered an ancient grave that, he claimed, belonged to an Old Testament queen. News of his find ricocheted around the world, evoking awe and envy alike, and inspiring others to explore Jerusalem’s storied past.

In the century and a half since the Frenchman broke ground, Jerusalem has drawn a global cast of fortune seekers and missionaries, archaeologists and zealots, all of them eager to extract the biblical past from beneath the city’s streets and shrines. Their efforts have had profound effects, not only on our understanding of Jerusalem’s history, but on its hotly disputed present. The quest to retrieve ancient Jewish heritage has sparked bloody riots and thwarted international peace agreements. It has served as a cudgel, a way to stake a claim to the most contested city on the planet. Today, the earth below Jerusalem remains a battleground in the struggle to control the city above.

Under Jerusalem takes readers into the tombs, tunnels, and trenches of the Holy City. It brings to life the indelible characters who have investigated this subterranean landscape. With clarity and verve, acclaimed journalist Andrew Lawler reveals how their pursuit has not only defined the conflict over modern Jerusalem, but could provide a map for two peoples and three faiths to peacefully coexist.

The thirty-nine articles in this volume, One Who Loves Knowledge, have been contributed by colleagues, students, friends and family in honour of Richard Jasnow, professor of Egyptology at Johns Hopkins University. Despite his claiming to be "just a demoticist," Richard Jasnow's research interests and specialties are broad, spanning religious and historical topics, along with new editions of demotic texts, including most particularly the Book of Thoth. A number of the authors demonstrate their appreciation for Jasnow's contributions to the understanding of this difficult text. The volume also includes other studies on literature, Ptolemaic history and even the god Thoth himself. It features detailed images and abundant hieroglyphic, hieratic, demotic, Coptic and Greek texts.

This is the legacy report of an extensive joint US/Afghan archaeological project in the southwest quadrant of Afghanistan: the Smithsonian Institution/ Afghanistan Institute of Archaeology Helmand-Sistan Archaeological Project, 1971-1976. While the fieldwork was conducted in the 1970s, political events in Afghanistan over the past half century make this the first major archaeological synthesis of the region and the only one for decades to come. The Helmand River is one of the main routes between the Middle East, South, and Central Asia over the past 5,000 years and project findings reflect that cross-cultural mixing of cultures. The research identified key monuments from Bronze Age, Persian, Greek, Buddhist, Zoroastrian, and Islamic cultures, and explored the role of intensive irrigation agriculture in one of the world's driest regions. Volume 1 describes the 200 archaeological sites surveyed or excavated by the survey and their material culture.

In this book, Nadine Moeller challenges prevailing views on Egypt's non-urban past and argues for Egypt as an early urban society. She traces the emergence of urban features during the Predynastic period up to the disintegration of the powerful Middle Kingdom state (c.3500-1650 BC). This book offers a synthesis of the archaeological data that sheds light on the different facets of urbanism in ancient Egypt. Drawing on evidence from recent excavations as well as a vast body of archaeological data, this book explores the changing settlement patterns by contrasting periods of strong political control against those of decentralization. It also discusses households and the layout of domestic architecture, which are key elements for understanding how society functioned and evolved over time. Moeller reveals what settlement patterns can tell us about the formation of complex society and the role of the state in urban development in ancient Egypt.

The book presents the discoveries made by the Polish archaeological mission in Saqqara, the central part of the largest ancient Egyptian royal necropolis. The area adjacent to the Pyramid of King Djoser on the monument's west side, so far neglected by archaeologists, turned out to be an important burial place of the Egyptian nobility from two periods of Pharaonic history: the Old Kingdom (the late third millennium BC) and the Ptolemaic Period (the late first millennium BC). The earlier, lower cemetery yielded rock-hewn tombs with splendid wall decoration in relief and painting. The book also describes methods of conservation applied to the discovered artefacts and episodes from the mission's life.

The royal necropolis of New Kingdom Egypt, known as the Valley of the Kings (KV), is one of the most important-and celebrated-archaeological sites in the world. Located on the west bank of the Nile river, about three miles west of modern Luxor, the valley is home to more than sixty tombs, all dating to the second millennium BCE. The most famous of these is the tomb of Tutankhamun, first discovered by Howard Carter in 1922. Other famous pharaoh's interred here include Hatshepsut, the only queen found in the valley, and Ramesses II, ancient Egypt's greatest ruler. Much has transpired in the study and exploration of the Valley of the Kings over the last few years. Several major discoveries have been made, notably the many-chambered KV5 (tomb of the sons of Ramesses II) and KV 63, a previously unknown tomb found in the heart of the valley. Many areas of the royal valley have been explored for the first time using new technologies, revealing ancient huts, shrines, and stelae. New studies of the DNA, filiation, cranio-facial reconstructions, and other aspects of the royal mummies have produced important and sometimes controversial results. The Oxford Handbook of the Valley of the Kings provides an up-to-date and thorough reference designed to fill a very real gap in the literature of Egyptology. It will be an invaluable resource for scholars, teachers, and researchers with an interest in this key area of Egyptian archaeology. First, introductory chapters locate the Valley of the Kings in space and time. Subsequent chapters offer focused examinations of individual tombs: their construction, content, development, and significance. Finally, the book discusses the current status of ongoing issues of preservation and archaeology, such as conservation, tourism, and site management. In addition to recent work mentioned above, aerial imaging, remote sensing, studies of the tombs' architectural and decorative symbolism, problems of conservation site management, and studies of KV-related temples are just some of the aspects not covered in any other work on the Valley of the Kings. This volume promises to become the primary scholarly reference work on this important World Heritage Site.

The excavations of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology on Bates's Island at Marsa Matruh, on the seacoast at the north of Egypt's western desert, uncovered a small site with a metalworking workshop and nearby houses. The pottery indicates that this small Late Bronze Age settlement had links to several cultures: Cyprus, the Aegean, Egypt, the coast of western Asia, and the local Marmarican people. The volumes publish the architecture, the local and imported pottery, the crucibles and other evidence for metalworking, the ostrich egg shells and other faunal remains, and the other discoveries made at the site.

This volume is dedicated to Stuart Swiny who served as long-time Director of the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute. Stuart Swiny was professor in Classics and Anthropology at the University at Albany; he is an archaeologist whose work on Cyprus now spans six decades. His research, mentorship as professor, and leadership as CAARI Director has had a profound effect on the development of the discipline on the island and benefited many archaeologists working there. This volume celebrates his contributions to Cypriot archaeology with papers from colleagues, friends, and former students, covering a wide range of topics that reflect his interests in the history and culture of Cyprus. Ranging from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic to ethnoarchaeology in the recent past, the papers cover archaeological landscapes, material culture, settlement studies, and regional interaction. The influence of Swiny's contributions is a common thread tying topics together. Beginning chapters recount the personal and professional history of Stuart Swiny, and the focus then moves to academic papers that document his methodological foresight in archaeological survey and excavation, build from his prior work with particular artifact classes, publish new information about his major excavation site Sotira Kaminoudhia, or take inspiration from his interest and encouragement in studying all things Cypriot. Specific chapter topics include: Bronze Age climate change, textile technology, evidence for use of the opium poppy, ancient board games, Roman to modern carob trade, Iron Age Cypriot coinage, ethnoarchaeology of pottery production, and intra-island interaction in the Neolithic. The volume is also forward-looking, taking stake of where Cypriot archaeology stands after roughly forty years since Swiny's directorship began. It anticipates new projects, innovations and approaches that the next generation of Cypriot scholars will use to build on his work.

The results of the many years of excavation by the Combined Caesarea Expeditions, a project to explore the city and harbour of ancient Caesarea, built by the Jewish king, Herod the Great, at the end of the first century BCE. The volume publishes the discoveries on land, both on the Temple Platform (Area TP), built by Herod for his magnificent harbour temple to Roma and Augustus, the neighbouring quarters (Areas TPS and Z), and in the Inner Harbor quays (Area I). Holum presents CCE's original research questions, the overall stratigraphy of the site, and the team's findings about Caesarea from the Hellenistic period to the end of antiquity in the seventh century CE. In so doing, the book makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the transition from paganism to Christianity in Late Antiquity. It explores in depth King Herod's pagan temple, which existed until about 400 CE, when the now Christian authorities deliberately dismantled it, removing all but its deepest foundations, and let the site lose its holiness. A century later, in 500 CE, the authorities built a grand Octagonal Church in exactly the same spot and on the same alignment as Herod's temple, so that it functioned as a harbour church, visible from far at sea. In the Byzantine period, Caesarea prospered and reached its largest extent. This book presents the archaeological evidence for these developments, paying careful attention to the foundations of the temple and church, fragments of the superstructure of both monumental buildings, the Herodian and Byzantine staircases that rose directly from the harbour to the temple and church, the pottery, coins, and other evidence, as well as of the vibrant city which surrounded these commanding religious structures.

It is often thought that the story of Tutankhamun ended when the thousands of dazzling items discovered by Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon were transported to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and put on display. But there is far more to the boy-king's story. Tutankhamun and the Tomb that Changed the World explores the 100 years of research on Tutankhamun that have taken place since the tomb's discovery, from the several objects in the tomb made of meteoritic iron that came from outer space to new evidence that shows that Tutankhamun may actually have been a warrior who went into battle. Author Bob Brier also takes readers behind the scenes of the recent CT-scans of Tutankhamuns mummy to reveal more secrets of the young pharaoh. The book also illustrates the wide-ranging impact the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb had on fields beyond Egyptology. Brier examines how the discovery of the tomb influenced Egyptian politics and contributed to the downfall of colonialism in Egypt. Outside Egypt, the modern blockbuster exhibitions that raise great sums of monies for museums around the world all began with Tutankhamun, as did the idea of documenting every object discovered in place before it was moved. And to a great extent, the modern fascination with ancient Egypt DL Egyptomania DL was also greatly promoted by the Tutmania that surrounded the discovery of the tomb. Deeply informed by the latest research and presented in vivid detail, Tutankhamun and the Tomb that Changed the World is a compelling introduction to the worlds greatest archaeological discovery.

Discover and explore the most incredible statues, monuments, temples, bridges, and ancient cities with this unparalleled survey of the most famous buildings and structures created by humans. From Stonehenge to the Sagrada Familia, from the Great Wall of China to the Burj Khalifa, Manmade Wonders of the Worldplots a continent-by-continent journey around the world, exploring and charting the ingenuity and imagination used by different cultures to create iconic buildings. This truly global approach reveals how humans have tackled similar challenges - such as keeping the enemy out or venerating their gods - in vastly different parts of the world. As writer, historian, and broadcaster Dan Cruickshank writes in his foreword, "reading this book is like taking a journey through the world not only of the present but also of the past, because the roots of many wonders lie in antiquity." By combining breathtaking photography with 3D cutaway artworks, floorplans, and other illustrations, the hidden details and engineering innovations that make each building remarkable are revealed. Featuring the most visited monuments in the world - such as the Eiffel Tower, Taj Mahal, and Machu Picchu - as well as some hidden gems, Manmade Wonders of the World can help you to map out the trip of a lifetime or simply be enjoyed as a celebration of the world that humans have built over thousands of years.

The Battle of Pinkie, fought between the English and the Scots in 1547, was the last great clash between the two as independent nations. It is a well-documented battle with several eyewitness accounts and contemporary illustrations. There is also archaeological evidence of military activities. The manoeuvres of the two armies can be placed in the landscape near Edinburgh, despite considerable developments since the 16th century. Nevertheless, the battle and its significance has not been well understood. From a military point of view there is much of interest. The commanders were experienced and had already had battlefield successes. There was an awareness on both sides of contemporary best practice and use of up-to-date weapons and equipment. The Scots and the English armies, however, were markedly different in their composition and in the strategy and tactics they employed. There is the added ingredient that the fire from English ships, positioned just off the coast, helped decide the course of events. Using contemporary records and archaeological evidence, David Caldwell, Victoria Oleksy, and Bess Rhodes reconsider the events of September 1547. They explore the location of the fighting, the varied forces involved, the aims of the commanders, and the close-run nature of the battle. Pinkie resulted in a resounding victory for the English, but that was by no means an inevitable outcome. After Pinkie it briefly seemed as if the future of Britain had been redefined. The reality proved rather different, and the battle has largely slipped from popular consciousness. This book provides a reminder of the uncertainty and high stakes both Scots and English faced in the autumn of 1547.

This important volume focuses on the contribution of excavated material to the interpretation of biblical texts. Here, both practicing archaeologists and biblical scholars who have been active in field work demonstrate through their work that archaeological data and biblical accounts are complementary in the study of ancient Israel, early Judaism, and Christianity. Illustrations.

The Sumerians are widely believed to have created the world's earliest civilization on the fertile floodplains of southern Iraq from about 3500 to 2000 BC. They have been credited with the invention of nothing less than cities, writing and the wheel, and therefore hold an ancient mirror to our own urban, literate world. But is this picture correct? Paul Collins reveals how the idea of a Sumerian people was assembled from the archaeological and textual evidence uncovered in Iraq and Syria over the last 150 years. Reconstructed through the biases of those who unearthed them, the Sumerians were never simply lost and found, but reinvented a number of times, both in antiquity and in the more recent past.

This book is the first economic history of ancient Egypt covering the entire pharaonic period, 3000-30 BCE, and employing a New Institutional Economics approach. It argues that the ancient Egyptian state encouraged an increasingly widespread and sophisticated use of writing through time, primarily in order to better document and more efficiently exact taxes for redistribution. The increased use of writing, however, also resulted in increased documentation and enforcement of private property titles and transfers, gradually lowering their transaction costs relative to redistribution. The book also argues that the increasing use of silver as a unified measure of value, medium of exchange, and store of wealth also lowered transaction costs for high value exchanges. The increasing use of silver in turn allowed the state to exact transfer taxes in silver, providing it with an economic incentive to further document and enforce private property titles and transfers.

In this interdisciplinary study, Leire Olabarria examines ancient Egyptian society through the notion of kinship. Drawing on methods from archaeology and sociocultural anthropology, she provides an emic characterisation of ancient kinship that relies on performative aspects of social interaction. Olabarria uses memorial stelae of the First Intermediate Period and the Middle Kingdom (ca.2150-1650 BCE) as her primary evidence. Contextualising these monuments within their social and physical landscapes, she proposes a dynamic way to explore kin groups through sources that have been considered static. The volume offers three case studies of kin groups at the beginning, peak, and decline of their developmental cycles respectively. They demonstrate how ancient Egyptian evidence can be used for cross-cultural comparison of key anthropological topics, such as group formation, patronage, and rites of passage.

The Archive of Thotsutmis, Son of Panouphis presents for the first time one of the largest collections of Demotic ostraca to have been discovered intact by archaeologists in the twentieth century. They were excavated at the site of Deir el-Bahari, on the west bank of the Nile, opposite the city of Luxor, Egypt. Rarely have such deposits been found in situ. Excavated by Ambrose Lansing on behalf of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1915-16, the integrity and context of this find are critical to the proper understanding of the texts it contained. Through the publication and analysis of this archive of Demotic and Greek texts recorded on ostraca, the authors reconstruct the microhistory of Thotsutmis, son of Panouphis, and his family, who worked in Egypt on the west bank of Thebes as priests in the mortuary industry during the early Ptolemaic Period in the third century BC. The forty-two ostraca published in this volume provide a rare opportunity to explore the intersections between an intact ancient archive of private administrative documents and the larger social and legal contexts into which they fit. What the reconstructed microhistory reveals is an ancient family striving to make it among the wealthy and connected social network of Theban choachytes and pastophoroi, while they simultaneously navigated the bureaucratic maze of taxes, fees, receipts and legal procedures of the Ptolemaic state.

First published in 1988. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Modern biblical scholarship's commitment to the historical-critical method in its efforts to write a history of Israel has created the central and unavoidable problem of writing an objective and critical history of Palestine through the biblical literature with the methods of Biblical Archaeology. 'Biblical Narrative and Palestine's History' brings together key essays on historical method and the archaeology and history of Palestine. The essays employ comparative and formalistic techniques to illuminate the allegorical and mythical in Old Testament narrative traditions from Genesis to Nehemiah. In so doing, the volume presents a detailed review of central and radical changes in both our understanding of biblical traditions and the archaeology and history of Palestine. The study offers an analysis of Biblical narrative as rooted in ancient Near Eastern literature since the Bronze Age.

Syria-Palestine in the Late Bronze Age presents an explicitly anthropological perspective on politics and social relationships. An anthropological reading of the textual and epigraphic remains of the time allows us to see how power was constructed and political subordination was practised and expressed. Syria-Palestine in the Late Bronze Age identifies a particular political ontology, native to ancient Syro-Palestinian societies, which informs and constitutes their social worlds. This political ontology, based on patronage relationships, provides a way of understanding the political culture and the social dynamics of ancient Levantine peoples. It also illuminates the historical processes taking place in the region, processes based on patrimonial social structures and articulated through patron-client bonds.

Women, Gender and Identity in Third Intermediate Period Egypt clarifies the role of women in Egyptian society during the first millennium BCE, allowing for more nuanced discussions of women in the Third Intermediate Period. It is an intensive study of a corpus that is both geographically and temporally localized around the city of Thebes, which was the cultural and religious centre of Egypt during this period and home to a major national necropolis. Unlike past studies which have relied heavily on literary evidence, Li presents a refreshing material culture-based analysis of identity construction in elite female burial practices. This close examination of the archaeology of women's burial presents an opportunity to investigate the social, professional and individual identities of women beyond the normative portrayals of the subordinate wife, mother and daughter. Taking a methodological and material culture-based approach which adds new dimensions to scholarly and popular understandings of ancient Egyptian women, this fascinating and important study will aid scholars of Egyptian history and archaeology, and anyone with an interest in women and gender in the ancient world.

In this expansive new biography of George Reisner, Egyptologist Peter Der Manuelian examines the life and work of America's greatest archaeologist. Manuelian presents Reisner's undeniable impact and considers his life within the context of Western colonialism, racism, and nationalism. Pyramids with hidden burial chambers. Colossal royal statues and minuscule gold jewelry. Decorated tomb chapels, temples, settlements, fortresses, ceramics, furniture, stone vessels, and hieroglyphic inscriptions everywhere. This is the legacy of forty-three years of breathtakingly successful excavations at twenty-three different archaeological sites in Egypt and Sudan (ancient Nubia). George Reisner (1867-1942) discovered all this and more during a remarkable career that revolutionized archaeological method in both the Old World and the New. Leading the Harvard University-Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition, Reisner put American Egyptology on the world stage. His uniquely American success story unfolded despite British control of Egyptian politics, French control of Egyptian antiquities, and an Egypt yearning for independence, all while his Egyptian teams achieved the fieldwork results and mastered the arts of recording and documentation. Reisner's lifespan covers the birth of modern archaeology. It also intersects powerfully with aspects of colonialism, racism, and nationalism, as Western powers imposed their influence on Egypt especially during the two World Wars. The wholesale export of dynastic Egypt's treasures to European and American museums also raised issues of repatriation and cultural patrimony long before they became the hot topics they are today. Walking Among Pharaohs, by distinguished Egyptologist Peter Der Manuelian, gathers unpublished documents from all over the world to present a fascinating and intimate biography of one of the founding fathers of modern Egyptology and one of America's greatest archaeologists.

In the 660s BC Egypt was a politically fragmented and occupied country. However, this was to change when a family of local rulers from the city of Sais declared independence from the Assyrian Empire, and in a few short years succeeded in bringing about the reunification of Egypt. The Saites established central government, reformed the economy and promoted trade. The country became prosperous, achieving a pre-eminent role in the Mediterranean world. This is the first monograph devoted entirely to a detailed exploration of the Saite Dynasty. It reveals the dynamic nature of the period, the astuteness of the Saite rulers and their considerable achievements in the political, economic, administrative and cultural spheres. It will appeal not only to students of Egyptology but also, because of the interactions of the Saite Dynasty with the Aegean and Mesopotamia worlds, to anyone interested in ancient history. -- .

The first book of its kind to be published for a general readership from youngsters upwards, Hidden in the Sands: Uncovering Qatar's Past is the fascinating, fun and educational story of Qatar's heritage and the exciting discoveries being made by archaeologists. This informative and delightful book is published through the generosity of Maersk Oil as part of its programme to support education and unlock Qatar's history and heritage. Hidden beneath the sand and sea and revealed on rocks are the clues which explain why this ancient land has been such a key region throughout history. Here you can follow the detective work of archaeologists and discover Qatar's rich past. In conjunction with a fully interactive website and also available in an Arabic edition, Hidden in the Sands describes in words and pictures the treasures uncovered by archaeologists, the methods they use, and the significance of their discoveries. Today, using state-of-the-art technology for excavation, dating and conservation, teams of experts are working all over Qatar to reconstruct its past. Hidden in the Sands is fully illustrated with photographs, maps and diagrams, and embellished by the vivid and evocative illustrations of the artist Norman MacDonald. Told simply and with in-depth and up-to-date detail, it leads readers through the fascinating world of archaeology. Like reconstructing an earthenware jar from a hundred little shards, this work pieces together the fragments of the past to produce a complete and beautiful whole.

Archaeology of Jesus' Nazareth is the first book on the archaeology of first-century Nazareth: Jesus' hometown in Galilee. Requiring no previous knowledge of biblical history or archaeology, it outlines the latest archaeological evidence, placing the Gospels' account of Jesus' youth in the Bible, and origins of Christian pilgrimage, in a new context. The book concentrates on the fascinating Sisters of Nazareth site in the centre of the present city. There, twenty-first century archaeological research identified a Byzantine pilgrimage church, which is likely to be the Church of the Nutrition - dedicated to the upbringing of Christ - the most important previously 'lost' early Christian church in the Holy Land. A seventh-century pilgrim said that a vaulted area under the Church of the Nutrition contained the actual house where Jesus was brought up by Mary and Joseph. Intriguingly, below the Byzantine church at the Sisters of Nazareth site a vaulted area preserved what are probably the ruins of a first-century house. Even before the Byzantine church was built, a - probably fourth-century - cave-church was constructed next to the first-century ruins, suggesting that they were assigned Christian religious importance. The similarities with the pilgrim's description raise the question of whether the Sisters of Nazareth house really could have been the childhood home of Jesus. The book draws to its conclusion by means of a discussion of this historical existence for Jesus and the implications of the archaeology of Nazareth for understanding the Gospels.