A Brief History of Jerusalem

From the Earliest Settlement
to the Destruction of the City in AD 70

Archaeologically, Jerusalem is one of the most intensively researched cities in the world. Nevertheless, the architectural history of the city resembles a puzzle of which only a fraction of the pieces are known, which, in addition, belong to different historical levels.

Since 1838, numerous archaeological investigations have taken place. The most important breakthrough discoveries were made by the excavations of Kathleen Kenyon, Benjamin Mazar, Nahman Avigad and Yigal Shiloh. Although all four have only published preliminary, roughly sketched initial reports, on the basis of their results an overall picture of the pre-Hellenistic history of the city was developed in the 1970s and 1980s, possessing an almost canonical status for a long time.

The final excavation reports have only been published in recent years ¨C still incomplete ¨C and show findings which do not fit into the established overall picture. Added to this, there have been new excavations, which are likely to call the current overall picture into question even further.

Therefore not only survey-archaeological investigations into the settlement history of the western Jordanian hillcountry and the re-adjustment of pottery chronology, but also and especially these new findings in Jerusalem itself make a revision of the conventional overall picture necessary.

This ?Brief History of Jerusalem?, under critical discussion of current attempts, creates a synthesis of the findings in order to present a new paradigm for discussion.

Klaus Bieberstein
A Brief Hstory of Jerusalem
From the Earliest Settlement to the Destruction of the City in AD 70
Abhandlungen des Deutschen Pal?stina-Vereins 47
Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag 2017
ISBN 978-3-447-10782-2
48 €
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