Haaretz e-books – Fire and Stone: The History of Man: Israeli Archaeology (English Edition)

Archaeology is the science of digging up and clarifying our past. Some theories are strengthened: the ancient kings of Canaan really did live like, well, kings, and – just possibly – there is a grain of salt in that Noah story. Other theories are thrown into disarray, such as those on the evolution of man, when modern humans discovered essentials such as smelting, and how to press oil from olives. Sometimes archaeology becomes simply a way to touch history. There is nothing like a corroded 2,000-year old chisel found in rubble at the foot of the Western Wall to bring home that it was a man like us, with hands like ours who built the city and who evidently dropped his tool from on high and couldn't be bothered to go pick it up. Some things are, apparently, eternal.