In this illustrated book, some of Israel's foremost archaeologists present a survey of early life in the land of the Bible, from the Neolithic era (eighth millenium BC) to the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the First Temple in 586 BC. Each chapter covers a particular era and includes a bibliography.

"An emerging field of study that explores the Hispanic minority in the United States, Latino Studies is enriched by an interdisciplinary perspective. Historians, sociologists, anthropologists, political scientists, demographers, linguists, as well as religion, ethnicity, and culture scholars, among others, bring a varied, multifaceted approach to the understanding of a people whose roots are all over the Americas and whose permanent home is north of the Rio Grande. Oxford Bibliographies in Latino Studies offers an authoritative, trustworthy, and up-to-date intellectual map to this ever-changing discipline."--Editorial page.

By publishing these ten essays in English in the BAR series the research carried out by the contributors, and the evidence and fieldwork methodologies they cite, is made available to a much wider audience. This volume contains an important collection of case studies and overviews of rural settlement in Israel from late prehistory to the modern period. Addressing broad questions on the physical nature of settlements, their appearance and disappearance from the archaeological record, the relationship between rural and urban sites, settlement patterns and processes, and economic activities, the contributors offer a good cross-section of approaches to the subject.

This work offers a reconstruction of the politics of ancient Israel within the wider political environment of the ancient Near East. Gottwald begins by questioning the view of some biblical scholars that the primary factor influencing Israel's political evolution was its religion.