Interesting Books

One thing about running a used bookstore. You do come across a great many interesting books. So I thought it might be a good idea to do a little write-up on books that have caught my fancy and hopefully you'll find them interesting too. I'll normally cover one book per post and I see this as an ongoing series.

The first book I want to talk about is "The Art of Warfare in Biblical Lands in the Light of Archaeological Study" by Yigael Yadin.  Yigael Yadin was an Israeli archaeologist, politician, and the Second Chief of the Israel Defense Forces.  In 1956 he received the Israel prize for his doctoral thesis on the translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls. As an archaeologist he excavated some of the most important sites in the region, including the Qumran Caves, Masada, Hazor, and Tel Megiddo.

The "Art of Warfare in Biblical Lands" covers all lands of the Bible, from Anatolia to Egypt and from Palestine to Mesopotamia, a part of the world containing nations and countries that had been fighting each other over long periods of history. The author felt that only a complete analysis from both the military and archaeological point of view would allow the reader to comprehend the development of warfare in all its aspects: weapons, fortifications, army organizations, and tactics.

This is a two volume set. The books are organized to first present an overview of the different aspects that all of the military organizations had in common, such as mobility, firepower, and security. The books then break down these by country/kingdom beginning with the fortifications of Jericho (7000 B.C.) through the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah (920-586 B.C.) 

The text is rich in detail and is augmented by line drawings and color plates showing various fortifications, weapons, battles, tactics as they appear in the archaeological record. This set is truly an interesting read and should appeal to both the person interested in ancient archaeology as well as those interested in ancient military tactics and warfare.