Review of Garfinkel, The First Expedition to Lachish

BOOK REVIEW: The First Expedition to Lachish: A Colonial Archaeology Story. Archaeology at the biblical city of Lachish began a century ago and went neither well nor smoothly. In a new book, Yosef Garfinkel tells the fascinating tale of the hazards the archaeologists faced (Robin Twite, Haaretz).

Yosef Garfinkel, Colonial Archaeology in Palestine in the 1930s: The First Expedition to Lachish. Jerusalem: The Israel Exploration Society and Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2024. 712 pages, ILS 260 (about $75 US dollars).

Though the title of the book by Garfinkel, a professor of archaeology at Hebrew University, is somewhat forbidding, its content is the reverse. In his new book, Garfinkel tells the fascinating tale of the first archeological expedition to Tel Lachish and the many hazards those involved faced – among them incomprehension from the local population, the fear of violence in a time of trouble, distance from health and other services, and difficult relations with donors.

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Lachish is a very important archaeological site. For some of the many PaleoJudaica posts on its archaeology and epigraphic discoveries (including the famous Lachish Letters and the Canaanite lice comb), see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and follow the links

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