This challenging volume offers a timely and extensive overview of the current state of archaeology in Israel. Contributed by leading scholars, the essays focus on current problems and cutting-edge issues, ranging from reviews of ongoing excavations to new analytical approaches. Of interest not only to archaeologists, but to social historians as well, the topics include archaeology and social history, archaeology and ethnicity, as well as the overarching issue of how texts and archaeological knowledge are to be combined in the reconstruction of ancient Israel.

This collection of essays treats the fundamental issue of the correlation of archaeology and texts in recreating the ancient Mediterranean world. Contributions from Classical and Near Eastern archaeologists and historians address specific points of correlation, and their potential for future productive research in the Mediterranean.
After an introduction to the issue of texts and archaeology, the essays treat concepts such as: site as text, artifactual contingency of meaning, correlating survey with documents, contextual independence of evidence, textual bases for archaeological...

This book is for students and scholars of ancient civilizations who would benefit from an approach to Ancient Greece which compares anthropological approaches to other early civilizations, including ancient China, the Maya, the Inca, the Harappan, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Japan.