Israel Finkelstein – författare

In the past three decades, archaeologists have made great strides in recovering the lost world of the Old Testament. Dozens of digs in Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Lebanon have changed experts' understanding of ancient Israel and its neighbours- as well as their vision of the Bible's greatest tales. Yet until now, the public has remained almost entirely unaware of these discoveries which help separate legend from historical truth. Here, at last, two of archaeology's leading scholars shed new light on how the Bible came into existence. They assert, for example, that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob never existed, that David and Solomon were not great kings but obscure chieftains and that the Exodus never happened. They offer instead a new historical truth: the Bible was created by the people of the small, southern nation of Judah in a heroic last-ditch attempt to keep their faith alive after the demise of the larger, wealthier nation of Israel to the north. It is in this truth, not in the myths of the past, that the real value of the Bible is evident.

The exciting field of biblical archaeology has revolutionized our understanding of the Bible - and no one has done more to popularise this vast store of knowledge than Israel Finkelstein and Neil Silberman, who revealed what we now know about when and why the Bible was first written in THE BIBLE UNEARTHED. Now, with DAVID AND SOLOMON, they do nothing less than help us to understand the sacred kings and founding fathers of western civilization. David and his son Solomon are famous in the Bible for their warrior prowess, legendary loves, wisdom, poetry, conquests, and ambitious building programmes. Yet thanks to archaeology's astonishing finds, we now know that most of these stories are myths. Finkelstein and Silberman show us that the historical David was a bandit leader in a tiny back-water called Jerusalem, and how - through wars, conquests and epic tragedies like the exile of the Jews in the centuries before Christ and the later Roman conquest - David and his successor were reshaped into mighty kings and even messiahs, symbols of hope to Jews and Christians alike in times of strife and despair and models for the great kings of Europe.A landmark work of research and lucid scholarship by two brilliant luminaries, DAVID AND SOLOMON recasts the very genesis of western history in a whole new light.

This 3-volume set is the third in the series of final publications of the Megiddo Expedition (see Megiddo III: The 1992–1996 Seasons, 2000; Megiddo IV: The 1998–2002 Seasons, 2006). It reports the finds in the 2004–2008 seasons, with several references to the campaign of 2010. The main topics dealt with are: a final account of the Early Bronze Age cultic compound; excavations of the late Iron I layer in Area H and the Late Bronze II–III layers in Area K; report on the investigation of Schumacher’s Nordburg and Chamber f and its surroundings; the Late Bronze II–III, Iron I, and Iron IIA pottery of Megiddo; and a variety of microarchaeology studies.

Megiddo, a key site for the study of the Bronze and Iron Ages, is unique among the sites of the ancient Near East. Featuring remains from over 30 settlements, Megiddo is strategically located on the main highway of the Old World, leading from Egypt to Mesopotamia. It is mentioned in important verses in the Bible and in Egyptian and Assyrian texts. Beyond archaeology, it is of great significance to the fields of the history of ancient Israel and biblical studies. The Tel Aviv University excavations at the site aim, through the implementation of modern methods, to achieve a full stratigraphic-chronological sequence, while placing special emphasis on studies related to the exact and life sciences. The three volumes of Megiddo VI: The 2010–2014 Seasons display a rich set of finds, spanning about 1,000 years of history from the Middle Bronze Age to the Iron Age IIB. They include a large number of studies in archaeology and the exact and life sciences, including topics such as radiocarbon dating, geoarchaeology, paleomagnetism, and metallurgy.

Megiddo VII reports in meticulous detail the archaeological findings from two elite, interrelated tombs from the Late Bronze I period, both exceptionally preserved and richly furnished: Tomb 16/H/50, a monumental masonry-constructed chamber tomb from the Middle Bronze III, and Burial 16/H/45, a simpler pit within the former’s mausoleum.Carefully excavated under unusually pristine conditions, these tombs afford a unique opportunity for in-depth study. Directed by experts from Tel Aviv University and supported by an international consortium of institutions, the excavation employed cutting-edge techniques, documentation, and analytical methods to capture, preserve, and study archaeological data. Presented in twenty-four chapters, the report deploys an arsenal of archaeological scientific methods on a targeted area of the mound. It chronicles the architectural and artifactual finds and situates them within their broader temporal, spatial, and cultural contexts.Presenting fresh insights into the funerary practices and societal structures of the Middle and Late Bronze periods, this volume is indispensable for researchers in the fields of Near Eastern archaeology and archaeological science and for those interested in the complexities of ancient funerary practices.

In diesem Band untersucht Israel Finkelstein die Welt des alten Israels, einschließlich des Zeitrahmens für die Komposition der historischen Texte in der Bibel. Er diskutiert Schlüsselfragen wie die Historizität des Großreiches von David und Salomo, den Einfluss Israels auf das spätmonarchische Jerusalem, den Umfang der Komposition von Texten in der persischen Zeit und die Legitimationsbedürfnisse der Hasmonäer.