Archaeology in Palestine

Extract

1. The Stone Age of Mount Carmel; Excavations at the Wady-el-Mughara. Vol. I. By D. A. E. Garrod and D. M. A. Bate. Clarendon Press, 1937. pp. 240, 55 plates, 8 text figures. 42s.

2. Lachish I: The Lachish Letters. By Harry Torczyner, Lankester Harding, Alkin Lewis and J. L. Starkey. Published for the Trustees of the late Sir Henry Wellcome by the Oxford University Press, 1938. pp. 221 (including plates, not numbered separately). 25s.

3. The Quarterly of the Department of Antiquities in Palestine vol. vii, Sela-Petra the Rock, of Edom and Nabatene. By G. and A. Horsfield. Published for the Government of Palestine by the Oxford University Press, 1938. pp. 42,74 plates, 10 text-figures. 5s.

4. The Annual of the American schools of Oriental Research vol. xv, Excavations in Eastern Palestine II. By Nelson Glueck. pp. 161, 38 plates, 45 text-figures.

5. Preliminary report of the University of Michigan Excavations at Sepphoris Palestine in 1931. By Leroy Waterman. University of Michigan Press, 1937. 2 dollars.

The group of books here under review is so varied in subject, that connected discussion is difficult. Apart from the importance of the subjects, however, there is a general interest and connexion in the illustrations they give of the comparatively new approach now being made to Palestinian Archaeology. The inevitably preponderant importance to most people of the association of Palestine with Biblical history has had two effects on the study of its archaeology. In the first place, periods outside that of the Bible have not received much attention, and in the second, it has rather often been the case that distinguished Biblical scholars have undertaken excavations without the supplementary training in field-work which modern archaeological technique now requires. Among the books under review are examples of how this tendency has in recent years been corrected. We see Palestine taking its place as an important connecting link between the great lands of the Near East, and we see how modern methods are now applied to all aspects of field archaeology. There is also unfortunately one example of how modern excavations should not be done.