The Holy Land (Lost Civilization (Time Life)) [Hardcover]

Time-Life Books (Author), Dale M. Brown (Editor)

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Hardcover: 168 pages
• Publisher: Time-Life Books; illustrated edition edition (June 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0809498669
• ISBN-13: 978-0809498666
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,430,677 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The archaeology and history of the Land of Israel, May 25, 2006

By 

Gary Selikow (Great Kush) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Holy Land (Lost Civilization (Time Life)) (Hardcover)

This coffee table has superb photos and illustrations of ancient sites in the Land of Israel , as well as well as interesting articles and essays on archaeology in Israel and the history of Ancient Israel.
The book describes the labours undertaken in Israel in digging up the evidence and how Biblical accounts has actually been given veracity by the archaeological science.
In 1979 an archaeological expedition on the western shoulder of Israel's Valley of Hinnon "came upon the nine burial caves that had been carved out of rock more than 2 600 years ago, at a time when Solomon's Temple still stood. The tombs appeared to have been looted, but to the team's astonishment one of the caves whose roof had collapsed had not been touched in all the intervening centuries.It contained the remains of nearly 100 people and a vast array of burial gifts, from glass vessels to jewellery . The greatest prizes at first seemed relatively modest: two small rolled up silver scrolls, evidently intended to be worn around the neck as amulets".
Four years later the Israel Museum laboratory, through chemical means, uncovered the Hebrew writings on the scrolls of Yod-He-Weh- which formed the sacred name of G-D.

Verses from the Sixth Chapter of Numbers was revealed, written before 600 BC, using the exact same liturgy used by the Jews in synagogues today.

The historicity of the Biblical narrative was advanced considerably in the 20th century by many discoveries, including the site of the ancient city of Lachshish, the scene of so many Biblical struggles beginning in the days of Joshua, rediscovered in the 1930s by British archaeologist John Starkey.

There is evidence that there were Hebrew communities who migrated from Egypt to Canaan and it is clear that some sort of seminal event along thew lines of the well known Biblical account was part of the early history of the Israelites and also that those Canaanites who were not destroyed or who did not migrate out of Canaan, were absorbed into the Israelite nation.

The book includes instructive details of the science of archaeology. It includes fascinating sections on such subjects as the Dead Sea Scrolls discovered at Qumran, the vast building projects by King Herod, and the Jewish stronghold at Masada.

It has interesting testaments on the cities of Jerusalem and Ashkelon , as well as the escapades of archaeologists in the Holy Land over the last few centuries , like William Albright and Yigal Yadin.
Noteworthy is the description of , how , in order to cut off the Jerusalem and the Land of Israel from it's Jewish roots the Romans renamed Jerusalem , Aelia Capitolina and "The province name of Judea was replaced by "Palestine" - an intentional insult , as it derived from the Greek word for the Philistines , a people who competed for these fields and hills a thousand years earlier".