Author Description

Palestine, religion and archaeology. Words evocative of places, tales, images, peoples, holy books (the Bible and Coran), gods (only one or many?), figures (historical or mythical?) and monuments (real or invented?). But in this text they are something different. Ancient Palestine, whose geographical, political and cultural boundaries are difficult to define, is here considered as a large area covering all the southern Levant, from Cis-Jordan to the Philistine coast, from the Negev to southern Phoenicia and Syria. It not only deals with the kingdoms of Israel and Judah but also with the Philistines, Moabites, Ammonites, Arameans and Phoenicians. Religion is considered not as a "category of the spirit" but as a particular dimension of human culture, therefore correlated to the social, political and economical life. This perspective offers a new reading not only of the texts but also of the "mute" evidence of architecture, objects and images. Finally archaeology is regarded as a historical discipline which allows us to interpret remains of ancient cultural practices without being influenced by texts, in particular by the Bible, the "Book", which for a long time has been the only source used in reconstructing the history and culture of those lands. The book, thanks to a rigorous approach, gives a new and original picture of Palestinian "religion," from the end of the II millennium to the Persian period.