Includes 164 b/w figures and 18 tables. Gesher is a small Middle Bronze Age IIA cemetery site located in the central Jordan Valley in Israel. Initial excavations in 1986-1987 indicated the site's importance for examining population and settlement in the interior of Canaan in the early second millennium BCE. In particular, the nature of the interments and the early date of the site's material culture highlighted the importance of Gesher for studies of MB IIA development. Three additional seasons of excavations were conducted from 2002-2004, which were designed to gain further data regarding the mortuary customs, material culture, and social and economic developments of this population in MB IIA Canaan. During the five seasons of excavation, a total of 23 interments were excavated in the cemetery, together with their associated grave goods, consisting of ceramic vessels, bronze weapons, and one bronze toggle pin. This final report presents the burials and material culture from the cemetery and compares the data with other Middle Bronze Age sites in Canaan. It contributes valuable information regarding Canaanite mortuary customs and increases the corpus of material culture dating to early MB IIA. The burials and material culture from the Gesher cemetery date to the earliest phases of the MB IIA, while also preserving traditions and forms of the preceding EB IV/MB I period in Palestine. As such, Gesher provides a window into the transitional period between EB IV/MB I and MB IIA which is rarely attested at other sites, to date, and thus has significant implications for knowledge concerning this cultural era in Canaan.

King David is a pivotal figure in the Bible, which provides stirring accounts of his deeds, including the slaying of the Philistine giant Goliath and the founding of his capital in Jerusalem. However, no certain archaeological finds from the period of his reign or of the united kingdom he ruled over have been uncovered – until now. In this first-hand and highly readable account, the excavators of Khirbet Qeiyafa in the Valley of Elah, where the Bible says David fought Goliath, reveal how seven years of exhaustive investigation have uncovered a city dating to the time of David – the late 11th and early 10th century bc – surrounded by massive fortifications with impressive gates, a clear urban plan and an abundance of finds that tell us much about the inhabitants, including a pottery sherd with the earliest known Hebrew inscription. The authors clearly describe the methods of the excavation and the evidence they discovered, as well as how we interpret it. But more than just a simple excavation report, this book also explains the significance of these discoveries and how they shed new light on David’s kingdom, as well as discussing the link between the Bible, archaeology and history. This topic is at the centre of a decades-long controversy, with some scholars disputing that the Bible contains a record of historical events and people, an approach that is convincingly challenged here.