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Thursday, August 15, 2024

Review of Magness, Jerusalem through the Ages

BOOK REVIEW: Unveiling Jerusalem: Jodi Magness’s comprehensive archaeological journey through time. 'Jerusalem through the Ages' is a wonderful survey of what became, uniquely, a holy city to three of the world’s major religions (NEVILLE TELLER, Jerusalem Post).
In the preface to her new book, Jerusalem Through the Ages, Magness asks and answers the obvious question: Why is another book on Jerusalem needed? She points out that most of the books covering the city’s pre-modern history and archaeology are either broad surveys written by non-specialists, edited volumes containing chapters by multiple specialists, or studies by individual specialists focusing on a specific time frame or topic.
I noted the publication of the book here. See also here. There are many PaleoJudaica posts on Professor Magness's work, notably, but far from exclusively, on the Huqoq excavation.

As it happens, another archaeologist, Israel Finkelstein, has also just published a book on the archaeology of Jerusalem: Jerusalem the Center of the Universe (SBL Press). It is a collection of his previous articles, so its remit is rather different from Magness's book.

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