This rich and magisterial work traces Palestine's millennia-old heritage, uncovering cultures and societies of astounding depth and complexity that stretch back to the very beginnings of recorded history. Starting with the earliest references in Egyptian and Assyrian texts, Nur Masalha explores how Palestine and its Palestinian identity have evolved over thousands of years, from the Bronze Age to the present day. Drawing on a rich body of sources and the latest archaeological evidence, Masalha shows how Palestine’s multicultural past has been distorted and mythologised by Biblical lore and the Israel–Palestinian conflict. In the process, Masalha reveals that the concept of Palestine, contrary to accepted belief, is not a modern invention or one constructed in opposition to Israel, but rooted firmly in ancient past. Palestine represents the authoritative account of the country's history.

"Breaks new ground regarding how to think about colonial encounters in innovative ways that pay attention to a wide range of issues from health and demography to identity formations and adaptation."—Debra L. Martin, coeditor of The Bioarchaeology of Violence "Amply demonstrates the breadth and variability of the impact of colonialism."—Ken Nystrom, State University of New York at New Paltz European expansion into the New World fundamentally altered Indigenous populations. The collision between East and West led to the most recent human adaptive transition that spread around the world. Paradoxically, these are some of the least scientifically understood processes of the human past. Representing a new generation of contact and colonialism studies, this volume expands on the traditional focus on the health of conquered peoples by considering how extraordinary biological and cultural transformations were incorporated into the human body and reflected in behavior, identity, and adaptation. By examining changes in diet, mortuary practices, and diseases, these globally diverse case studies demonstrate that the effects of conquest reach further than was ever thought before—to both the colonized and the colonizers. People on all sides of colonial contact became entangled in cultural and biological transformations of social identities, foodways, social structures, and gene pools at points of contact and beyond. Contributors to this volume illustrate previously unknown and variable effects of colonialism by analyzing skeletal remains and burial patterns from never-before-studied regions in the Americas to the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. The result is the first step toward a new synthesis of archaeology and bioarchaeology. Contributors: Rosabella Alvarez-Calderón | Elliot H. Blair | Maria Fernanda Boza | Michele R. Buzon | Romina Casali | Mark N. Cohen | Danielle N. Cook | Marie Elaine Danforth | J. Lynn Funkhouser | Catherine Gaither | Pamela García Laborde| Ricardo A. Guichón | Rocio Guichón Fernández | Heather Guzik | Amanda R. Harvey | Barbara T. Hester | Dale L. Hutchinson | Kristina Killgrove | Haagen D. Klaus | Clark Spencer Larsen | Alan G. Morris | Melissa S. Murphy | Alejandra Ortiz | Megan A. Perry | Emily S. Renschler | Isabelle Ribot | Melisa A. Salerno | Matthew C. Sanger | Paul W. Sciulli | Stuart Tyson Smith | Christopher M. Stojanowski | David Hurst Thomas | Victor D. Thompson | Vera Tiesler | Jason Toohey | Lauren A. Winkler | Pilar Zabala

"... 6th International Congress of the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East held in Rome on May 5th-10th, 2008 (www.6icaane.it)"--Foreword.

Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century is devoted to frontier studies and to the structures of the Arab federates of Byzantium. It deals mainly with the Ghassanids of Oriens in the sixth century, a time of transition from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages. The focus of this study is on the military, religious, and civil structures of the Ghassanids. The detailed study of these buildings contributes to our understanding of Byzantine provincial art and architecture in Oriens, as they were adopted by the federate Arabs and later adapted to their own use. As monuments of Christian architecture, these federate structures constitute the missing link in the development of Arab architecture in the region--the link between the earlier pagan (Nabataean and Palmyrene) and later Muslim (Umayyad).

.".. 6th International Congress of the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East held in Rome on May 5th-10th, 2008 (www.6icaane.it)"--Foreword.