Silent Cities, Sacred Stones:Archaeological Discovery in the Land of the Bible: Archaeological Discovery in the Land of the Bible

London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. Very Good/Good. 1971. First Edition. Hard Cover. Sm 4to 0297004263 Dust jacket wear to edges, tiny tears, unclipped. Brown cloth with bright gilt titling on the spine, gilt illustration on upper cover. Illustrated end papers. 272 pages clean and tight. In the sand and soil of modern Israel the most exciting archaeological adventures of our time are taking place. Man's ancestor, the shambling Homo erectus, lived in this fertile crescent of the Eastern Mediterranean. Great empires towered and crumbled beneath the restless dusty wind. David captured Jerusalem to serve as his capital and Solomon raised his mighty cities. But until this century, these milestones of man's history were cloaked in mystery and legend. Now those silent cities have been given a voice, those sacred stones are clear to see. With the revolutionary skills and tools of modern science, archaeology has revealed year by year the living past of a land that is part of the world's cultural heritage, the birth-place of two of the world's great religions. This is the story of how it was done - how the Philistine stronghold at Ashdod, the destructive trail of Joshua's army, the great waterworks of Ahab and Hezekiah, Herod's fortress of Masada, the writings of the Essene predecessors of Christianity and the grotesque evidence of crucifixion dated to the time of Jesus have all been brought to light in this century. In telling the story, Jerry Landay has produced a simple but gripping narrative of a treasure hunt for knowledge of a buried world on whose foundation we live today. With more than 250 black-and-white illustrations and 16 pages in full colour. .