The importance of Jerusalem in biblical times as well as subsequent areas cannot be challenged, rendering a reliable and understandable textbook on its archaeology and history a virtual necessity. 'The Archaeology of the Jerusalem Area' is such a book. The approach of this study, writes the author, is basically chronological, covering the archaeological history of the Jerusalem area from earliest times to our modern day. While the archaeological evidence is stressed, care is taken to fill in the picture with historical details gathered from the Bible and other literary sources. After an historical overview of the city, chapters expand on the Jerusalem area in pre-Davidic times, Davidic Jerusalem, Solomonic Jerusalem, the city during the kingdom of Judah, after the exile, from 100 B.C. to A.D. 100, in the Roman period, in the Byzantine period, in the early Islamic periods, and during the Crusader, Mamluk, and Turkish periods. Plentiful maps, photographs, and sketches illustrate the archaeological data. Footnotes and a select bibliography guide the student to additional information available on various aspects of the subject. Jerusalem has always gained her strength and renown from the moral and religious precepts taught within her walls., the author writes. This has been true from the times of the Old Testament prophets into the time of Jesus... and on through the period of Islam. So he addresses such questions as these: What was the nature of the struggles waged over her by pagan, Jew, Christian, and Muslim? What archaeological evidence is there of religious practices? What was the lifestyle of the people who inhabited Jerusalem over the centuries?
