HISTORICAL SITES IN ISRAEL
Let’s Begin at the Beginning …
Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations… (Deuteronomy 32:7)
The birthplace of the Jewish people is the Land of Israel (Eretz Yisrael). There, a signific…ant part of the nation’s long history was enacted, of which the first thousand years are recorded in the Bible; there, its cultural, religious, and national identity was formed; and there, its physical presence has been maintained through the centuries, even after the majority was forced into exile. During the many years of dispersion, the Jewish people never severed nor forgot its bond with the Land. With the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Jewish independence, lost 2,000 years earlier, was renewed.
Archeology in Israel involves the systematic investigation of all the remains of the country’s past – from prehistory to the end of Ottoman rule. The profusion of material remains is evidence of the many cultures that have left their imprint on the Land.
Above all archeological research clearly reveals the historical link between the Jewish people, the Bible and the Land of Israel, uncovering the remains of the cultural heritage of the Jewish people in its homeland. These visible remains, buried in the soil, constitute the physical link between the past, the present and the future of the Jewish people in its country.
This unbroken chain of history can be observed at sites all over the country. Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, has been the focus of extensive archeological activity and remains of 5,000 years of history have been revealed.
TIMELINE OF HISTORICAL HIGHLIGHTS
17th-6th C. BCE BIBLICAL TIMES
(BCE – Before the Common Era)
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob – patriarchs of the Jewish people and bearers of a belief in one God – settle in the Land of Israel.
Famine forces Israelites to migrate to Egypt
