The Red-Haired Archaeologist Digs Israel

Israel, historical-figures, historical-places-events, historical-research, historical-setting, archaeologist, archaeology, family, international-tensions, tour, Biblical-references, Torah-references, Quran-references***** What a fun way to learn about archaeology and travel in Israel! The author skipped out on working toward a law degree and went for one in archaeology instead after taking a required religion course, this time in biblical archaeology, and acquiring a full scholarship to go on a dig at Tel Rehov. Unfortunately, it was at a time of unrest and although the dig was canceled, she met her future husband and went on to study biblical archaeology at Harvard. In 2004 she was invited to a dig at Ashkelon and learned just what physically hard and exacting work archaeology was. She was able to tour other sites and some of the places important to several religions. There follows much information correlating archaeological finds with various translations of the Bible and also the Torah. Reminded me of our devouring the Canadian TV series The Naked Archaeologist but without the bias inherent in cases where archaeology is deemed for use to prove whatever religious point. She also points out how very much more precise archaeology has become with the development of technological devices. The next part is a travelogue given by an archaeologist on vacation with husband and parents to places she has seen before and comments on the changes as well as the complications and potential dangers inherent to the region today (2018-19) complete with more educational history. She has lots of anecdotal fun including an Israeli guide who relates that he is from the Peoples Republic of Berkeley, and another with a very thick Texas accent. There is also a good bibliography complete with plenty of websites. I totally enjoyed this book and plan to get the softcover so I can appreciate the photos and maps better and hopefully an audio so I can learn to pronounce people, places, and things correctly. I requested and received a free ebook copy from Harvest House Publishers via NetGalley. Thank you! I now have the audio narrated by Lisa Larsen and it was wonderful to learn correct pronunciations of so many words. Her narration style is perky and excited, just like the author!