Ancient Scrolls: Introduction to Archaeology

'Archaeology' Michael Avi- Yonah explains at the outside of this illuminating introduction to the field is a word made up of two Latin words meaning together ' ancient lore' Avi- Yonah describes then how this general concept in time comes to be whittled down to focus on the lore related to the material culture of ancient societies. He defines Ancient in this context as anything prior to the Middle Ages. In the opening section of the work he writes about major Excavations of trhe past in Greece and Rome, Asia Minor, Syria, Mesopotamia, Persia and India. He then in the second chapter focuses on the archaeological history of the Holy Land beginning with Prehistory and up and through the Byzantine and Arab periods. His last very instructive section deals with methods of archaeological research, such as dating,stratigraphical excavations, deciphering ancient scripts, conservation and restoration. This is a condensed and clearly written introduction to a vast subject, a small gem of a work.