{"id":5014,"date":"2021-07-05T11:01:05","date_gmt":"2021-07-05T15:01:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/?page_id=5014"},"modified":"2025-01-06T10:31:08","modified_gmt":"2025-01-06T15:31:08","slug":"under-jerusalem","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/under-jerusalem\/","title":{"rendered":"Under Jerusalem"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-builder-row-1 fusion-flex-container has-pattern-background has-mask-background nonhundred-percent-fullwidth non-hundred-percent-height-scrolling fusion-no-small-visibility\" style=\"--awb-border-radius-top-left:0px;--awb-border-radius-top-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-left:0px;--awb-padding-top:30px;--awb-padding-bottom:0px;--awb-margin-top:0px;--awb-margin-bottom:0px;--awb-flex-wrap:wrap;\" ><div class=\"fusion-builder-row fusion-row fusion-flex-align-items-flex-start fusion-flex-content-wrap\" style=\"max-width:1144px;margin-left: calc(-4% \/ 2 );margin-right: calc(-4% \/ 2 );\"><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-0 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-flex-column\" style=\"--awb-bg-size:cover;--awb-width-large:100%;--awb-margin-top-large:0px;--awb-spacing-right-large:1.92%;--awb-margin-bottom-large:20px;--awb-spacing-left-large:1.92%;--awb-width-medium:100%;--awb-order-medium:0;--awb-spacing-right-medium:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-medium:1.92%;--awb-width-small:100%;--awb-order-small:0;--awb-spacing-right-small:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-small:1.92%;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-column-has-shadow fusion-flex-justify-content-flex-start fusion-content-layout-column\"><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-1\" style=\"--awb-content-alignment:center;--awb-margin-top:30px;\"><p>BOOK AUTHOR | MAGAZINE WRITER | TRAVELER<\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"fusion-title title fusion-title-1 fusion-sep-none fusion-title-center fusion-title-text fusion-title-size-one\" style=\"--awb-margin-top-small:10px;--awb-margin-right-small:0px;--awb-margin-bottom-small:10px;--awb-margin-left-small:0px;\"><h1 class=\"fusion-title-heading title-heading-center fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" style=\"font-family:&quot;Public Sans&quot;;font-style:normal;font-weight:900;margin:0;letter-spacing:10px;--fontSize:38;line-height:1.1;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Public Sans'; font-weight: 900;\" data-fusion-font=\"true\" data-fusion-google-font=\"Public Sans\" data-fusion-google-variant=\"900\">ANDREW LAWLER<\/span><\/h1><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-builder-row-2 fusion-flex-container has-pattern-background has-mask-background nonhundred-percent-fullwidth non-hundred-percent-height-scrolling fusion-no-small-visibility fusion-no-medium-visibility\" style=\"--awb-border-radius-top-left:0px;--awb-border-radius-top-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-left:0px;--awb-flex-wrap:wrap;\" ><div class=\"fusion-builder-row fusion-row fusion-flex-align-items-flex-start fusion-flex-content-wrap\" style=\"max-width:1144px;margin-left: calc(-4% \/ 2 );margin-right: calc(-4% \/ 2 );\"><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-1 fusion_builder_column_1_3 1_3 fusion-flex-column\" style=\"--awb-bg-size:cover;--awb-width-large:33.333333333333%;--awb-margin-top-large:0px;--awb-spacing-right-large:0%;--awb-margin-bottom-large:34px;--awb-spacing-left-large:8.928%;--awb-width-medium:100%;--awb-order-medium:0;--awb-spacing-right-medium:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-medium:1.92%;--awb-width-small:100%;--awb-order-small:0;--awb-spacing-right-small:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-small:1.92%;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-column-has-shadow fusion-flex-justify-content-flex-start fusion-content-layout-column\"><div class=\"fusion-image-element\" style=\"--awb-caption-title-font-family:var(--h2_typography-font-family);--awb-caption-title-font-weight:var(--h2_typography-font-weight);--awb-caption-title-font-style:var(--h2_typography-font-style);--awb-caption-title-size:var(--h2_typography-font-size);--awb-caption-title-transform:var(--h2_typography-text-transform);--awb-caption-title-line-height:var(--h2_typography-line-height);--awb-caption-title-letter-spacing:var(--h2_typography-letter-spacing);\"><span class=\" fusion-imageframe imageframe-none imageframe-1 hover-type-none\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"456\" height=\"700\" title=\"under-cover\" src=\"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/under-cover.png\" alt class=\"img-responsive wp-image-14055\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/under-cover-200x307.png 200w, https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/under-cover-400x614.png 400w, https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/under-cover.png 456w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 950px) 100vw, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-2 fusion_builder_column_2_3 2_3 fusion-flex-column\" style=\"--awb-padding-top:20px;--awb-bg-size:cover;--awb-width-large:66.666666666667%;--awb-margin-top-large:0px;--awb-spacing-right-large:2.88%;--awb-margin-bottom-large:0px;--awb-spacing-left-large:0%;--awb-width-medium:100%;--awb-order-medium:0;--awb-spacing-right-medium:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-medium:1.92%;--awb-width-small:100%;--awb-order-small:0;--awb-spacing-right-small:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-small:1.92%;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-column-has-shadow fusion-flex-justify-content-flex-start fusion-content-layout-column\"><div class=\"fusion-testimonials classic awb-testimonials-layout-fade awb-testimonial-content-flex-start awb-speech-bubble-show awb-testimonial-author-inline fusion-testimonials-1\" style=\"--awb-flex-align-items:stretch;--awb-backgroundcolor:#fffcfc;--awb-testimonial-border-style:solid;--awb-testimonial-border-color:#fffcfc;--awb-testimonial-text-font-size:18px;--awb-testimonial-text-line-height:1.5;--awb-textcolor:#747474;--awb-content-valign:center;--awb-initials-bg-color:var(--primary_color);--awb-initials-text-color:#ffffff;--awb-testimonial-icon-size:2em;--awb-navigation-size:12px;--awb-margin-top:20px;--awb-margin-right:20px;--awb-margin-left:20px;--awb-border-top-left-radius:0px;--awb-border-top-right-radius:0px;--awb-border-bottom-left-radius:0px;--awb-border-bottom-right-radius:0px;--testimonial-border-width-top:0px;--testimonial-border-width-right:0px;--testimonial-border-width-bottom:0px;--testimonial-border-width-left:0px;\"><div class=\"reviews awb-carousel awb-swiper awb-swiper-dots-position-below\" data-touchscroll=\"touch\" data-loop=\"yes\" data-pagination=\"bullets\" data-autoplay=\"yes\" data-autoplayspeed=\"3000\" data-autoplaypause=\"no\" style=\"--awb-arrow-bgcolor:#999999;--awb-arrow-color:#fff;--awb-arrow-hover-bgcolor:#808080;--awb-arrow-hover-color:#fff;--awb-dots-align:center;--awb-arrow-position-vertical-transform:none;\" data-slide-effect=\"fade\" data-itemmargin=\"0\"><div class=\"swiper-wrapper\"><div class=\"swiper-slide review no-avatar\"><blockquote><div class=\"awb-quote\"><div class=\"awb-quote-content\">\n<h3>2024 recipient of the Felicia A. Holton Book Award.<\/h3>\n<p>&#8211;The Archaeological Institute of America<\/div><\/div><span class=\"awb-triangle\"><\/span><\/blockquote><div class=\"author\"><span class=\"company-name\"><\/span><\/div><\/div><div class=\"swiper-slide review alignment-left no-avatar\"><blockquote><div class=\"awb-quote\"><div class=\"awb-quote-content\">\n<h3>Told with a historian\u2019s penchant for detail and a journalist\u2019s flair for narration.<\/h3>\n<p>&#8211;Washington Post<\/div><\/div><span class=\"awb-triangle\"><\/span><\/blockquote><div class=\"author\"><span class=\"company-name\"><\/span><\/div><\/div><div class=\"swiper-slide review alignment-left no-avatar\"><blockquote><div class=\"awb-quote\"><div class=\"awb-quote-content\">\n<h3>In a city where the winner takes all, Mr. Lawler does an admirable job.<\/h3>\n<p>&#8211;Wall Street Journal<\/div><\/div><span class=\"awb-triangle\"><\/span><\/blockquote><div class=\"author\"><span class=\"company-name\"><\/span><\/div><\/div><div class=\"swiper-slide review alignment-left no-avatar\"><blockquote><div class=\"awb-quote\"><div class=\"awb-quote-content\">\n<h3>Richly detailed, sensitively argued, and entertainingly written.<\/h3>\n<p>&#8211;Publishers Weekly<\/div><\/div><span class=\"awb-triangle\"><\/span><\/blockquote><div class=\"author\"><span class=\"company-name\"><\/span><\/div><\/div><div class=\"swiper-slide review alignment-left no-avatar\"><blockquote><div class=\"awb-quote\"><div class=\"awb-quote-content\">\n<h3>Comprehensive, even-handed, clear-headed.<\/h3>\n<p>&#8211;New York Journal of Books<\/div><\/div><span class=\"awb-triangle\"><\/span><\/blockquote><div class=\"author\"><span class=\"company-name\"><\/span><\/div><\/div><div class=\"swiper-slide review alignment-left no-avatar\"><blockquote><div class=\"awb-quote\"><div class=\"awb-quote-content\">\n<h3>The book is nearly as fun to read as exploring the underground passages it describes.<\/h3>\n<p>&#8211;Jerusalem Post<\/div><\/div><span class=\"awb-triangle\"><\/span><\/blockquote><div class=\"author\"><span class=\"company-name\"><\/span><\/div><\/div><div class=\"swiper-slide review alignment-left no-avatar\"><blockquote><div class=\"awb-quote\"><div class=\"awb-quote-content\">\n<h3>His account read(s) like an excit\u00ading adven\u00adture sto\u00adry.<\/h3>\n<p>&#8211;Jewish Book Council<\/div><\/div><span class=\"awb-triangle\"><\/span><\/blockquote><div class=\"author\"><span class=\"company-name\"><\/span><\/div><\/div><div class=\"swiper-slide review alignment-left no-avatar\"><blockquote><div class=\"awb-quote\"><div class=\"awb-quote-content\">\n<h3>A terrific story, bursting at the seams with dubiously legal digs and eccentric personalities.<\/h3>\n<p>&#8211;Booklist<\/div><\/div><span class=\"awb-triangle\"><\/span><\/blockquote><div class=\"author\"><span class=\"company-name\"><\/span><\/div><\/div><div class=\"swiper-slide review alignment-left no-avatar\"><blockquote><div class=\"awb-quote\"><div class=\"awb-quote-content\">\n<h3>Clear and engaging.<\/h3>\n<p>&#8211;Library Journal<\/div><\/div><span class=\"awb-triangle\"><\/span><\/blockquote><div class=\"author\"><span class=\"company-name\"><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"swiper-pagination testimonial-pagination\" id=\"fusion-testimonials-1\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-2\" style=\"--awb-margin-top:30px;\"><h5 class=\"\" style=\"text-align: center; --fontsize: 18; line-height: 1.3; --minfontsize: 18;\" data-fontsize=\"18\" data-lineheight=\"23.4px\">Order <em>Under Jerusalem <\/em>at these booksellers, or visit your local bookstore!<\/h5>\n<\/div><div style=\"text-align:center;\"><a class=\"fusion-button button-flat fusion-button-default-size button-default fusion-button-default button-1 fusion-button-default-span fusion-button-default-type\" style=\"--awb-margin-top:20px;--awb-margin-bottom:20px;--button-border-radius-top-left:0;--button-border-radius-top-right:0;--button-border-radius-bottom-right:0;--button-border-radius-bottom-left:0;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"#\" data-toggle=\"modal\" data-target=\".fusion-modal.underjerulsambuyingoptions2\"><span class=\"fusion-button-text awb-button__text awb-button__text--default\">Buy Now<\/span><\/a><\/div><div class=\"fusion-modal modal fade modal-1 underjerulsambuyingoptions2\" tabindex=\"-1\" role=\"dialog\" aria-labelledby=\"modal-heading-1\" aria-hidden=\"true\" style=\"--awb-border-color:#ebebeb;--awb-background:#f6f6f6;\"><div class=\"modal-dialog modal-lg\" role=\"document\"><div class=\"modal-content fusion-modal-content\"><div class=\"modal-header\"><button class=\"close\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\" aria-label=\"Close\">&times;<\/button><h3 class=\"modal-title\" id=\"modal-heading-1\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\">Under Jerusalem<\/h3><\/div><div class=\"modal-body fusion-clearfix\">\n<h5 style=\"text-align: center;\">Order <em>Under Jerusalem<\/em> at these booksellers, or visit your local bookstore!<\/h5>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"flex-container\" style=\"display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; gap: 10px; justify-content: center;\">\n<div class=\"flex-item\"><a href=\" https:\/\/a.co\/d\/imcT3YQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"no-border alignleft wp-image-3718 size-full\" title=\"Amazon.com\" src=\"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/amazon.png\" alt=\"Amazon logo\" width=\"96\" height=\"37\" \/><br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"flex-item\"><a href=\" https:\/\/www.booksamillion.com\/p\/Under-Jerusalem\/Andrew-Lawler\/9780385546850?id=8226621100583#\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"no-border alignleft wp-image-3719 size-full\" title=\"Books-A-Million\" src=\"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Bamm.png\" alt=\"Books-A-Million logo\" width=\"96\" height=\"37\" \/><br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"flex-item\"><a href=\" https:\/\/www.barnesandnoble.com\/w\/under-jerusalem-andrew-lawler\/1138741720?ean=9780385546850\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"no-border alignleft wp-image-3720 size-full\" title=\"Barnes &amp; Noble\" src=\"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/BN.png\" alt=\"Barnes &amp; Noble logo\" width=\"96\" height=\"37\" \/><br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"flex-item\"><a href=\" https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/audiobooks\/details\/Andrew_Lawler_Under_Jerusalem?id=AQAAAEDc1AaUyM&amp;hl=en_US&amp;gl=US\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"no-border alignleft wp-image-3721 size-full\" title=\"Google Play\" src=\"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/google-play.png\" alt=\"Google Play logo\" width=\"96\" height=\"37\" \/><br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"flex-item\"><a href=\" https:\/\/bookshop.org\/p\/books\/under-jerusalem-the-buried-history-of-the-world-s-most-contested-city-andrew-lawler\/16204578?ean=9780385546850&amp;ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.andrewlawler.com%2F&amp;source=IndieBound&amp;title=\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"no-border wp-image-17970 size-full alignleft\" title=\"IndieBound\" src=\"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/boookshop2.png\" alt=\"IndieBound logo\" width=\"98\" height=\"39\" \/><br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"flex-item\"><a href=\" https:\/\/www.kobo.com\/us\/en\/ebook\/under-jerusalem\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"no-border wp-image-3725 size-full alignleft\" title=\"Kobo\" src=\"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/kobo.png\" alt=\"Kobo logo\" width=\"96\" height=\"37\" \/><br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><div class=\"modal-footer\"><button class=\"fusion-button button-default button-medium button default medium\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\">Close<\/button><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-builder-row-3 fusion-flex-container has-pattern-background has-mask-background nonhundred-percent-fullwidth non-hundred-percent-height-scrolling fusion-no-small-visibility fusion-no-large-visibility\" style=\"--awb-border-radius-top-left:0px;--awb-border-radius-top-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-left:0px;--awb-flex-wrap:wrap;\" ><div class=\"fusion-builder-row fusion-row fusion-flex-align-items-flex-start fusion-flex-content-wrap\" style=\"max-width:1144px;margin-left: calc(-4% \/ 2 );margin-right: calc(-4% \/ 2 );\"><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-3 fusion_builder_column_1_3 1_3 fusion-flex-column\" style=\"--awb-bg-size:cover;--awb-width-large:33.333333333333%;--awb-margin-top-large:0px;--awb-spacing-right-large:0%;--awb-margin-bottom-large:34px;--awb-spacing-left-large:8.928%;--awb-width-medium:33.333333333333%;--awb-order-medium:0;--awb-spacing-right-medium:0%;--awb-spacing-left-medium:8.928%;--awb-width-small:100%;--awb-order-small:0;--awb-spacing-right-small:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-small:1.92%;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-column-has-shadow fusion-flex-justify-content-flex-start fusion-content-layout-column\"><div class=\"fusion-image-element\" style=\"--awb-caption-title-font-family:var(--h2_typography-font-family);--awb-caption-title-font-weight:var(--h2_typography-font-weight);--awb-caption-title-font-style:var(--h2_typography-font-style);--awb-caption-title-size:var(--h2_typography-font-size);--awb-caption-title-transform:var(--h2_typography-text-transform);--awb-caption-title-line-height:var(--h2_typography-line-height);--awb-caption-title-letter-spacing:var(--h2_typography-letter-spacing);\"><span class=\" fusion-imageframe imageframe-none imageframe-2 hover-type-none\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"456\" height=\"700\" title=\"under-cover\" src=\"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/under-cover.png\" alt class=\"img-responsive wp-image-14055\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/under-cover-200x307.png 200w, https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/under-cover-400x614.png 400w, https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/under-cover.png 456w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 950px) 100vw, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-4 fusion_builder_column_2_3 2_3 fusion-flex-column\" style=\"--awb-bg-size:cover;--awb-width-large:66.666666666667%;--awb-margin-top-large:0px;--awb-spacing-right-large:2.88%;--awb-margin-bottom-large:0px;--awb-spacing-left-large:0%;--awb-width-medium:66.666666666667%;--awb-order-medium:0;--awb-spacing-right-medium:2.88%;--awb-spacing-left-medium:0%;--awb-width-small:100%;--awb-order-small:0;--awb-spacing-right-small:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-small:1.92%;\" data-scroll-devices=\"small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-column-has-shadow fusion-flex-justify-content-flex-start fusion-content-layout-column\"><div class=\"fusion-testimonials classic awb-testimonials-layout-fade awb-testimonial-content-flex-start awb-speech-bubble-show awb-testimonial-author-inline fusion-testimonials-2\" style=\"--awb-flex-align-items:stretch;--awb-backgroundcolor:#fffcfc;--awb-testimonial-border-style:solid;--awb-testimonial-border-color:#fffcfc;--awb-testimonial-text-font-size:18px;--awb-testimonial-text-line-height:1.5;--awb-textcolor:#747474;--awb-content-valign:center;--awb-initials-bg-color:var(--primary_color);--awb-initials-text-color:#ffffff;--awb-testimonial-icon-size:2em;--awb-navigation-size:12px;--awb-margin-top:20px;--awb-border-top-left-radius:0px;--awb-border-top-right-radius:0px;--awb-border-bottom-left-radius:0px;--awb-border-bottom-right-radius:0px;--testimonial-border-width-top:0px;--testimonial-border-width-right:0px;--testimonial-border-width-bottom:0px;--testimonial-border-width-left:0px;\"><div class=\"reviews awb-carousel awb-swiper awb-swiper-dots-position-below\" data-touchscroll=\"touch\" data-loop=\"yes\" data-pagination=\"bullets\" data-autoplay=\"yes\" data-autoplayspeed=\"3000\" data-autoplaypause=\"no\" style=\"--awb-arrow-bgcolor:#999999;--awb-arrow-color:#fff;--awb-arrow-hover-bgcolor:#808080;--awb-arrow-hover-color:#fff;--awb-dots-align:center;--awb-arrow-position-vertical-transform:none;\" data-slide-effect=\"fade\" data-itemmargin=\"0\"><div class=\"swiper-wrapper\"><div class=\"swiper-slide review no-avatar\"><blockquote><div class=\"awb-quote\"><div class=\"awb-quote-content\">\n<h3>2024 recipient of the Felicia A. Holton Book Award.<\/h3>\n<p>&#8211;The Archaeological Institute of America<\/div><\/div><span class=\"awb-triangle\"><\/span><\/blockquote><div class=\"author\"><span class=\"company-name\"><\/span><\/div><\/div><div class=\"swiper-slide review alignment-left no-avatar\"><blockquote><div class=\"awb-quote\"><div class=\"awb-quote-content\">\n<h3>Told with a historian\u2019s penchant for detail and a journalist\u2019s flair for narration.<\/h3>\n<p>&#8211;Washington Post<\/div><\/div><span class=\"awb-triangle\"><\/span><\/blockquote><div class=\"author\"><span class=\"company-name\"><\/span><\/div><\/div><div class=\"swiper-slide review alignment-left no-avatar\"><blockquote><div class=\"awb-quote\"><div class=\"awb-quote-content\">\n<h3>In a city where the winner takes all, Mr. Lawler does an admirable job.<\/h3>\n<p>&#8211;Wall Street Journal<\/div><\/div><span class=\"awb-triangle\"><\/span><\/blockquote><div class=\"author\"><span class=\"company-name\"><\/span><\/div><\/div><div class=\"swiper-slide review alignment-left no-avatar\"><blockquote><div class=\"awb-quote\"><div class=\"awb-quote-content\">\n<h3>Richly detailed, sensitively argued, and entertainingly written.<\/h3>\n<p>&#8211;Publishers Weekly<\/div><\/div><span class=\"awb-triangle\"><\/span><\/blockquote><div class=\"author\"><span class=\"company-name\"><\/span><\/div><\/div><div class=\"swiper-slide review alignment-left no-avatar\"><blockquote><div class=\"awb-quote\"><div class=\"awb-quote-content\">\n<h3>Comprehensive, even-handed, clear-headed.<\/h3>\n<p>&#8211;New York Journal of Books<\/div><\/div><span class=\"awb-triangle\"><\/span><\/blockquote><div class=\"author\"><span class=\"company-name\"><\/span><\/div><\/div><div class=\"swiper-slide review alignment-left no-avatar\"><blockquote><div class=\"awb-quote\"><div class=\"awb-quote-content\">\n<h3>The book is nearly as fun to read as exploring the underground passages it describes.<\/h3>\n<p>&#8211;Jerusalem Post<\/div><\/div><span class=\"awb-triangle\"><\/span><\/blockquote><div class=\"author\"><span class=\"company-name\"><\/span><\/div><\/div><div class=\"swiper-slide review alignment-left no-avatar\"><blockquote><div class=\"awb-quote\"><div class=\"awb-quote-content\">\n<h3>His account read(s) like an excit\u00ading adven\u00adture sto\u00adry.<\/h3>\n<p>&#8211;Jewish Book Council<\/div><\/div><span class=\"awb-triangle\"><\/span><\/blockquote><div class=\"author\"><span class=\"company-name\"><\/span><\/div><\/div><div class=\"swiper-slide review alignment-left no-avatar\"><blockquote><div class=\"awb-quote\"><div class=\"awb-quote-content\">\n<h3>A terrific story, bursting at the seams with dubiously legal digs and eccentric personalities.<\/h3>\n<p>&#8211;Booklist<\/div><\/div><span class=\"awb-triangle\"><\/span><\/blockquote><div class=\"author\"><span class=\"company-name\"><\/span><\/div><\/div><div class=\"swiper-slide review alignment-left no-avatar\"><blockquote><div class=\"awb-quote\"><div class=\"awb-quote-content\">\n<h3>Clear and engaging.<\/h3>\n<p>&#8211;Library Journal<\/div><\/div><span class=\"awb-triangle\"><\/span><\/blockquote><div class=\"author\"><span class=\"company-name\"><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"swiper-pagination testimonial-pagination\" id=\"fusion-testimonials-2\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-3\" style=\"--awb-margin-top:30px;\"><h5 class=\"\" style=\"text-align: center; --fontsize: 18; line-height: 1.3; --minfontsize: 18;\" data-fontsize=\"18\" data-lineheight=\"23.4px\">Order <em>Under Jerusalem <\/em>at these booksellers, or visit your local bookstore!<\/h5>\n<\/div><div style=\"text-align:center;\"><a class=\"fusion-button button-flat fusion-button-default-size button-default fusion-button-default button-2 fusion-button-default-span fusion-button-default-type\" style=\"--awb-margin-top:20px;--awb-margin-bottom:20px;--button-border-radius-top-left:0;--button-border-radius-top-right:0;--button-border-radius-bottom-right:0;--button-border-radius-bottom-left:0;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"#\" data-toggle=\"modal\" data-target=\".fusion-modal.underjerulsambuyingoptions2\"><span class=\"fusion-button-text awb-button__text awb-button__text--default\">Buy Now<\/span><\/a><\/div><div class=\"fusion-modal modal fade modal-2 underjerulsambuyingoptions2\" tabindex=\"-1\" role=\"dialog\" aria-labelledby=\"modal-heading-2\" aria-hidden=\"true\" style=\"--awb-border-color:#ebebeb;--awb-background:#f6f6f6;\"><div class=\"modal-dialog modal-lg\" role=\"document\"><div class=\"modal-content fusion-modal-content\"><div class=\"modal-header\"><button class=\"close\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\" aria-label=\"Close\">&times;<\/button><h3 class=\"modal-title\" id=\"modal-heading-2\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\">Under Jerusalem<\/h3><\/div><div class=\"modal-body fusion-clearfix\">\n<h5 style=\"text-align: center;\">Order <em>Under Jerusalem<\/em> at these booksellers, or visit your local bookstore!<\/h5>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"flex-container\" style=\"display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; gap: 10px; justify-content: center;\">\n<div class=\"flex-item\"><a href=\" https:\/\/a.co\/d\/imcT3YQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"no-border alignleft wp-image-3718 size-full\" title=\"Amazon.com\" src=\"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/amazon.png\" alt=\"Amazon logo\" width=\"96\" height=\"37\" \/><br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"flex-item\"><a href=\" https:\/\/www.booksamillion.com\/p\/Under-Jerusalem\/Andrew-Lawler\/9780385546850?id=8226621100583#\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"no-border alignleft wp-image-3719 size-full\" title=\"Books-A-Million\" src=\"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Bamm.png\" alt=\"Books-A-Million logo\" width=\"96\" height=\"37\" \/><br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"flex-item\"><a href=\" https:\/\/www.barnesandnoble.com\/w\/under-jerusalem-andrew-lawler\/1138741720?ean=9780385546850\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"no-border alignleft wp-image-3720 size-full\" title=\"Barnes &amp; Noble\" src=\"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/BN.png\" alt=\"Barnes &amp; Noble logo\" width=\"96\" height=\"37\" \/><br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"flex-item\"><a href=\" https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/audiobooks\/details\/Andrew_Lawler_Under_Jerusalem?id=AQAAAEDc1AaUyM&amp;hl=en_US&amp;gl=US\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"no-border alignleft wp-image-3721 size-full\" title=\"Google Play\" src=\"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/google-play.png\" alt=\"Google Play logo\" width=\"96\" height=\"37\" \/><br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"flex-item\"><a href=\" https:\/\/bookshop.org\/p\/books\/under-jerusalem-the-buried-history-of-the-world-s-most-contested-city-andrew-lawler\/16204578?ean=9780385546850&amp;ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.andrewlawler.com%2F&amp;source=IndieBound&amp;title=\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"no-border wp-image-17970 size-full alignleft\" title=\"IndieBound\" src=\"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/boookshop2.png\" alt=\"IndieBound logo\" width=\"98\" height=\"39\" \/><br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"flex-item\"><a href=\" https:\/\/www.kobo.com\/us\/en\/ebook\/under-jerusalem\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"no-border wp-image-3725 size-full alignleft\" title=\"Kobo\" src=\"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/kobo.png\" alt=\"Kobo logo\" width=\"96\" height=\"37\" \/><br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><div class=\"modal-footer\"><button class=\"fusion-button button-default button-medium button default medium\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\">Close<\/button><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-builder-row-4 fusion-flex-container has-pattern-background has-mask-background nonhundred-percent-fullwidth non-hundred-percent-height-scrolling fusion-no-medium-visibility fusion-no-large-visibility\" style=\"--awb-border-radius-top-left:0px;--awb-border-radius-top-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-left:0px;--awb-padding-top:30px;--awb-padding-bottom:0px;--awb-margin-top:0px;--awb-margin-bottom:0px;--awb-flex-wrap:wrap;\" ><div class=\"fusion-builder-row fusion-row fusion-flex-align-items-flex-start fusion-flex-content-wrap\" style=\"max-width:1144px;margin-left: calc(-4% \/ 2 );margin-right: calc(-4% \/ 2 );\"><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-5 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-flex-column\" style=\"--awb-padding-bottom-small:0px;--awb-bg-size:cover;--awb-width-large:100%;--awb-margin-top-large:0px;--awb-spacing-right-large:1.92%;--awb-margin-bottom-large:20px;--awb-spacing-left-large:1.92%;--awb-width-medium:100%;--awb-order-medium:0;--awb-spacing-right-medium:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-medium:1.92%;--awb-width-small:100%;--awb-order-small:0;--awb-spacing-right-small:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-small:1.92%;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-column-has-shadow fusion-flex-justify-content-flex-start fusion-content-layout-column\"><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-4 fusion-text-no-margin\" style=\"--awb-content-alignment:center;--awb-font-size:12px;--awb-margin-top:30px;--awb-margin-bottom:0px;\"><p>BOOK AUTHOR | MAGAZINE WRITER | TRAVELER<\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"fusion-title title fusion-title-2 fusion-sep-none fusion-title-center fusion-title-text fusion-title-size-one\" style=\"--awb-margin-top-small:10px;--awb-margin-right-small:0px;--awb-margin-bottom-small:10px;--awb-margin-left-small:0px;--awb-font-size:25px;\"><h1 class=\"fusion-title-heading title-heading-center fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" style=\"font-family:&quot;Public Sans&quot;;font-style:normal;font-weight:900;margin:0;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:1em;--fontSize:25;line-height:1.1;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Public Sans'; font-weight: 900;\" data-fusion-font=\"true\" data-fusion-google-font=\"Public Sans\" data-fusion-google-variant=\"900\">ANDREW LAWLER<\/span><\/h1><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-builder-row-5 fusion-flex-container has-pattern-background has-mask-background nonhundred-percent-fullwidth non-hundred-percent-height-scrolling fusion-no-medium-visibility fusion-no-large-visibility\" style=\"--awb-border-radius-top-left:0px;--awb-border-radius-top-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-left:0px;--awb-flex-wrap:wrap;\" ><div class=\"fusion-builder-row fusion-row fusion-flex-align-items-flex-start fusion-flex-content-wrap\" style=\"max-width:1144px;margin-left: calc(-4% \/ 2 );margin-right: calc(-4% \/ 2 );\"><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-6 fusion_builder_column_1_3 1_3 fusion-flex-column\" style=\"--awb-bg-size:cover;--awb-width-large:33.333333333333%;--awb-margin-top-large:0px;--awb-spacing-right-large:0%;--awb-margin-bottom-large:34px;--awb-spacing-left-large:8.928%;--awb-width-medium:100%;--awb-order-medium:0;--awb-spacing-right-medium:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-medium:1.92%;--awb-width-small:100%;--awb-order-small:0;--awb-spacing-right-small:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-small:1.92%;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-column-has-shadow fusion-flex-justify-content-flex-start fusion-content-layout-column\"><div class=\"fusion-image-element sm-text-align-center\" style=\"--awb-max-width:300px;--awb-caption-title-font-family:var(--h2_typography-font-family);--awb-caption-title-font-weight:var(--h2_typography-font-weight);--awb-caption-title-font-style:var(--h2_typography-font-style);--awb-caption-title-size:var(--h2_typography-font-size);--awb-caption-title-transform:var(--h2_typography-text-transform);--awb-caption-title-line-height:var(--h2_typography-line-height);--awb-caption-title-letter-spacing:var(--h2_typography-letter-spacing);\"><span class=\" fusion-imageframe imageframe-none imageframe-3 hover-type-none\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"456\" height=\"700\" title=\"under-cover\" src=\"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/under-cover.png\" alt class=\"img-responsive wp-image-14055\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/under-cover-200x307.png 200w, https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/under-cover-400x614.png 400w, https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/under-cover.png 456w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 950px) 100vw, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-7 fusion_builder_column_2_3 2_3 fusion-flex-column\" style=\"--awb-padding-top:20px;--awb-padding-top-small:0px;--awb-bg-size:cover;--awb-width-large:66.666666666667%;--awb-margin-top-large:0px;--awb-spacing-right-large:2.88%;--awb-margin-bottom-large:0px;--awb-spacing-left-large:0%;--awb-width-medium:100%;--awb-order-medium:0;--awb-spacing-right-medium:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-medium:1.92%;--awb-width-small:100%;--awb-order-small:0;--awb-spacing-right-small:0%;--awb-spacing-left-small:0%;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-column-has-shadow fusion-flex-justify-content-flex-start fusion-content-layout-column\"><div class=\"fusion-testimonials classic awb-testimonials-layout-fade awb-testimonial-content-flex-start awb-speech-bubble-show awb-testimonial-author-inline fusion-testimonials-3\" style=\"--awb-flex-align-items:stretch;--awb-backgroundcolor:#fffcfc;--awb-testimonial-border-style:solid;--awb-testimonial-border-color:#fffcfc;--awb-testimonial-text-font-size:18px;--awb-testimonial-text-line-height:1.5;--awb-textcolor:#747474;--awb-content-valign:center;--awb-initials-bg-color:var(--primary_color);--awb-initials-text-color:#ffffff;--awb-testimonial-icon-size:2em;--awb-navigation-size:12px;--awb-border-top-left-radius:0px;--awb-border-top-right-radius:0px;--awb-border-bottom-left-radius:0px;--awb-border-bottom-right-radius:0px;--testimonial-border-width-top:0px;--testimonial-border-width-right:0px;--testimonial-border-width-bottom:0px;--testimonial-border-width-left:0px;\"><div class=\"reviews awb-carousel awb-swiper awb-swiper-dots-position-below\" data-touchscroll=\"touch\" data-loop=\"yes\" data-pagination=\"bullets\" data-autoplay=\"yes\" data-autoplayspeed=\"3000\" data-autoplaypause=\"no\" style=\"--awb-arrow-bgcolor:#999999;--awb-arrow-color:#fff;--awb-arrow-hover-bgcolor:#808080;--awb-arrow-hover-color:#fff;--awb-dots-align:center;--awb-arrow-position-vertical-transform:none;\" data-slide-effect=\"fade\" data-itemmargin=\"0\"><div class=\"swiper-wrapper\"><div class=\"swiper-slide review no-avatar\"><blockquote><div class=\"awb-quote\"><div class=\"awb-quote-content\">\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">2024 recipient of the Felicia A. Holton Book Award.<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&#8211;The Archaeological Institute of America<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><span class=\"awb-triangle\"><\/span><\/blockquote><div class=\"author\"><span class=\"company-name\"><\/span><\/div><\/div><div class=\"swiper-slide review alignment-left no-avatar\"><blockquote><div class=\"awb-quote\"><div class=\"awb-quote-content\">\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">Told with a historian\u2019s penchant for detail and a journalist\u2019s flair for narration.<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&#8211;Washington Post<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><span class=\"awb-triangle\"><\/span><\/blockquote><div class=\"author\"><span class=\"company-name\"><\/span><\/div><\/div><div class=\"swiper-slide review alignment-left no-avatar\"><blockquote><div class=\"awb-quote\"><div class=\"awb-quote-content\">\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">In a city where the winner takes all, Mr. Lawler does an admirable job.<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&#8211;Wall Street Journal<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><span class=\"awb-triangle\"><\/span><\/blockquote><div class=\"author\"><span class=\"company-name\"><\/span><\/div><\/div><div class=\"swiper-slide review alignment-left no-avatar\"><blockquote><div class=\"awb-quote\"><div class=\"awb-quote-content\">\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">Richly detailed, sensitively argued, and entertainingly written.<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&#8211;Publishers Weekly<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><span class=\"awb-triangle\"><\/span><\/blockquote><div class=\"author\"><span class=\"company-name\"><\/span><\/div><\/div><div class=\"swiper-slide review alignment-left no-avatar\"><blockquote><div class=\"awb-quote\"><div class=\"awb-quote-content\">\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">Comprehensive, even-handed, clear-headed.<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&#8211;New York Journal of Books<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><span class=\"awb-triangle\"><\/span><\/blockquote><div class=\"author\"><span class=\"company-name\"><\/span><\/div><\/div><div class=\"swiper-slide review alignment-left no-avatar\"><blockquote><div class=\"awb-quote\"><div class=\"awb-quote-content\">\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">The book is nearly as fun to read as exploring the underground passages it describes.<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&#8211;Jerusalem Post<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><span class=\"awb-triangle\"><\/span><\/blockquote><div class=\"author\"><span class=\"company-name\"><\/span><\/div><\/div><div class=\"swiper-slide review alignment-left no-avatar\"><blockquote><div class=\"awb-quote\"><div class=\"awb-quote-content\">\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">His account read(s) like an excit\u00ading adven\u00adture sto\u00adry.<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&#8211;Jewish Book Council<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><span class=\"awb-triangle\"><\/span><\/blockquote><div class=\"author\"><span class=\"company-name\"><\/span><\/div><\/div><div class=\"swiper-slide review alignment-left no-avatar\"><blockquote><div class=\"awb-quote\"><div class=\"awb-quote-content\">\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">A terrific story, bursting at the seams with dubiously legal digs and eccentric personalities.<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&#8211;Booklist<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><span class=\"awb-triangle\"><\/span><\/blockquote><div class=\"author\"><span class=\"company-name\"><\/span><\/div><\/div><div class=\"swiper-slide review alignment-left no-avatar\"><blockquote><div class=\"awb-quote\"><div class=\"awb-quote-content\">\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">Clear and engaging.<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&#8211;Library Journal<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><span class=\"awb-triangle\"><\/span><\/blockquote><div class=\"author\"><span class=\"company-name\"><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"swiper-pagination testimonial-pagination\" id=\"fusion-testimonials-3\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-5\" style=\"--awb-margin-top:30px;\"><h5 class=\"\" style=\"text-align: center; --fontsize: 18; line-height: 1.3; --minfontsize: 18;\" data-fontsize=\"18\" data-lineheight=\"23.4px\">Order <em>Under Jerusalem <\/em>at these booksellers, or visit your local bookstore!<\/h5>\n<\/div><div style=\"text-align:center;\"><a class=\"fusion-button button-flat fusion-button-default-size button-default fusion-button-default button-3 fusion-button-default-span fusion-button-default-type\" style=\"--awb-margin-top:20px;--awb-margin-bottom:20px;--button-border-radius-top-left:0;--button-border-radius-top-right:0;--button-border-radius-bottom-right:0;--button-border-radius-bottom-left:0;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"#\" data-toggle=\"modal\" data-target=\".fusion-modal.underjerulsambuyingoptions2\"><span class=\"fusion-button-text awb-button__text awb-button__text--default\">Buy Now<\/span><\/a><\/div><div class=\"fusion-modal modal fade modal-3 underjerulsambuyingoptions2\" tabindex=\"-1\" role=\"dialog\" aria-labelledby=\"modal-heading-3\" aria-hidden=\"true\" style=\"--awb-border-color:#ebebeb;--awb-background:#f6f6f6;\"><div class=\"modal-dialog modal-lg\" role=\"document\"><div class=\"modal-content fusion-modal-content\"><div class=\"modal-header\"><button class=\"close\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\" aria-label=\"Close\">&times;<\/button><h3 class=\"modal-title\" id=\"modal-heading-3\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\">Under Jerusalem<\/h3><\/div><div class=\"modal-body fusion-clearfix\">\n<h5 style=\"text-align: center;\">Order <em>Under Jerusalem<\/em> at these booksellers, or visit your local bookstore!<\/h5>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"flex-container\" style=\"display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; gap: 10px; justify-content: center;\">\n<div class=\"flex-item\"><a href=\" https:\/\/a.co\/d\/imcT3YQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"no-border alignleft wp-image-3718 size-full\" title=\"Amazon.com\" src=\"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/amazon.png\" alt=\"Amazon logo\" width=\"96\" height=\"37\" \/><br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"flex-item\"><a href=\" https:\/\/www.booksamillion.com\/p\/Under-Jerusalem\/Andrew-Lawler\/9780385546850?id=8226621100583#\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"no-border alignleft wp-image-3719 size-full\" title=\"Books-A-Million\" src=\"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Bamm.png\" alt=\"Books-A-Million logo\" width=\"96\" height=\"37\" \/><br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"flex-item\"><a href=\" https:\/\/www.barnesandnoble.com\/w\/under-jerusalem-andrew-lawler\/1138741720?ean=9780385546850\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"no-border alignleft wp-image-3720 size-full\" title=\"Barnes &amp; Noble\" src=\"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/BN.png\" alt=\"Barnes &amp; Noble logo\" width=\"96\" height=\"37\" \/><br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"flex-item\"><a href=\" https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/audiobooks\/details\/Andrew_Lawler_Under_Jerusalem?id=AQAAAEDc1AaUyM&amp;hl=en_US&amp;gl=US\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"no-border alignleft wp-image-3721 size-full\" title=\"Google Play\" src=\"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/google-play.png\" alt=\"Google Play logo\" width=\"96\" height=\"37\" \/><br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"flex-item\"><a href=\" https:\/\/bookshop.org\/p\/books\/under-jerusalem-the-buried-history-of-the-world-s-most-contested-city-andrew-lawler\/16204578?ean=9780385546850&amp;ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.andrewlawler.com%2F&amp;source=IndieBound&amp;title=\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"no-border wp-image-17970 size-full alignleft\" title=\"IndieBound\" src=\"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/boookshop2.png\" alt=\"IndieBound logo\" width=\"98\" height=\"39\" \/><br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"flex-item\"><a href=\" https:\/\/www.kobo.com\/us\/en\/ebook\/under-jerusalem\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"no-border wp-image-3725 size-full alignleft\" title=\"Kobo\" src=\"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/kobo.png\" alt=\"Kobo logo\" width=\"96\" height=\"37\" \/><br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><div class=\"modal-footer\"><button class=\"fusion-button button-default button-medium button default medium\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\">Close<\/button><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-builder-row-6 fusion-flex-container has-pattern-background has-mask-background nonhundred-percent-fullwidth non-hundred-percent-height-scrolling\" style=\"--awb-border-radius-top-left:0px;--awb-border-radius-top-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-left:0px;--awb-padding-top:0px;--awb-padding-bottom:0px;--awb-margin-bottom:0px;--awb-background-image:linear-gradient(180deg, #efefef 0%,#ffffff 100%);--awb-flex-wrap:wrap;\" ><div class=\"fusion-builder-row fusion-row fusion-flex-align-items-center fusion-flex-content-wrap\" style=\"max-width:1144px;margin-left: calc(-4% \/ 2 );margin-right: calc(-4% \/ 2 );\"><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-8 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-flex-column\" style=\"--awb-padding-top:19px;--awb-bg-size:cover;--awb-width-large:100%;--awb-margin-top-large:0px;--awb-spacing-right-large:1.92%;--awb-margin-bottom-large:20px;--awb-spacing-left-large:1.92%;--awb-width-medium:100%;--awb-order-medium:0;--awb-spacing-right-medium:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-medium:1.92%;--awb-width-small:100%;--awb-order-small:0;--awb-spacing-right-small:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-small:9.6%;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-column-has-shadow fusion-flex-justify-content-flex-start fusion-content-layout-column\"><div class=\"fusion-title title fusion-title-3 fusion-sep-none fusion-title-text fusion-title-size-one\" style=\"--awb-text-color:#000000;--awb-margin-left:40px;--awb-margin-top-small:10px;--awb-margin-right-small:0px;--awb-margin-bottom-small:10px;--awb-margin-left-small:0px;--awb-font-size:1.5em;\"><h1 class=\"fusion-title-heading title-heading-left fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" style=\"font-family:&quot;Public Sans&quot;;font-style:normal;font-weight:900;margin:0;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:1em;--fontSize:22.5;line-height:1.1;\">REVIEWS<\/h1><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-builder-row-7 fusion-flex-container has-pattern-background has-mask-background nonhundred-percent-fullwidth non-hundred-percent-height-scrolling\" style=\"--awb-border-radius-top-left:0px;--awb-border-radius-top-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-left:0px;--awb-padding-right:40px;--awb-padding-left:40px;--awb-flex-wrap:wrap;\" ><div class=\"fusion-builder-row fusion-row fusion-flex-align-items-flex-start fusion-flex-content-wrap\" style=\"max-width:1144px;margin-left: calc(-4% \/ 2 );margin-right: calc(-4% \/ 2 );\"><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-9 fusion_builder_column_1_3 1_3 fusion-flex-column\" style=\"--awb-bg-size:cover;--awb-width-large:33.333333333333%;--awb-margin-top-large:0px;--awb-spacing-right-large:5.76%;--awb-margin-bottom-large:20px;--awb-spacing-left-large:8.352%;--awb-width-medium:100%;--awb-order-medium:0;--awb-spacing-right-medium:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-medium:1.92%;--awb-width-small:100%;--awb-order-small:0;--awb-spacing-right-small:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-small:1.92%;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-column-has-shadow fusion-flex-justify-content-flex-start fusion-content-layout-column\"><a class=\"fusion-modal-text-link\" data-toggle=\"modal\" data-target=\".fusion-modal.advancepraise2\" href=\"#\">\n<h3>Advance Praise for Under Jerusalem<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><div class=\"fusion-modal modal fade modal-4 advancepraise2\" tabindex=\"-1\" role=\"dialog\" aria-labelledby=\"modal-heading-4\" aria-hidden=\"true\" style=\"--awb-border-color:#ebebeb;--awb-background:#f6f6f6;\"><div class=\"modal-dialog modal-lg\" role=\"document\"><div class=\"modal-content fusion-modal-content\"><div class=\"modal-header\"><button class=\"close\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\" aria-label=\"Close\">&times;<\/button><h3 class=\"modal-title\" id=\"modal-heading-4\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\">Advance Praise for Under Jerusalem<\/h3><\/div><div class=\"modal-body fusion-clearfix\">\n<p>\u201c<em>Under Jerusalem<\/em>\u00a0is a brilliant, highly innovative history of the most contested city on the planet. Andrew Lawler\u00a0uses these untold stories\u00a0of archeological digs near and under Jerusalem\u2019s sacred sites to convey all the colorful and violent and contentious history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is an astounding achievement\u2014and a compulsive read.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2014<strong>Kai Bird<\/strong>, Pulitzer Prize\u2013winning historian and author of\u00a0<em>The Outlier<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<em>The Good Spy<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat lies beneath? Lawler knows. Evoking the sights, sounds, and smells of ancient and modern Jerusalem, he introduces the reader to a myriad of archaeologists and other colorful characters, all concerned with unearthing the ancient remains of the city, frequently while grappling with thorny modern political, ideological, and theological issues. A must read for anyone interested in either the history or archaeology of Jerusalem.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2014<strong>Eric H. Cline<\/strong>, bestselling author of\u00a0<em>1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery review of Andrew Lawler\u2019s book about the wild archaeological history of Jerusalem will mention Indiana Jones. This is not because the characters he describes are much like Jones\u2014they\u2019re much more obsessed, more bonkers, or more mendacious\u2014but because the Indiana Jones stories are among the few examples we have of stories about archaeology that are pure fun. Well, now there is another one, just as swashbuckling as the Spielberg movies, but with the added advantage of being all true.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2014<strong>Charles C. Mann<\/strong>,\u00a0<em>New York Times<\/em>\u00a0bestselling author of\u00a0<em>1491<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<em>The Wizard and the Prophet<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"modal-footer\"><button class=\"fusion-button button-default button-medium button default medium\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\">Close<\/button><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><a class=\"fusion-modal-text-link\" data-toggle=\"modal\" data-target=\".fusion-modal.washingtonpost2\" href=\"#\">\n<h3>The Washington Post<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><div class=\"fusion-modal modal fade modal-5 washingtonpost2\" tabindex=\"-1\" role=\"dialog\" aria-labelledby=\"modal-heading-5\" aria-hidden=\"true\" style=\"--awb-border-color:#ebebeb;--awb-background:#f6f6f6;\"><div class=\"modal-dialog modal-lg\" role=\"document\"><div class=\"modal-content fusion-modal-content\"><div class=\"modal-header\"><button class=\"close\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\" aria-label=\"Close\">&times;<\/button><h3 class=\"modal-title\" id=\"modal-heading-5\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\">The Washington Post<\/h3><\/div><div class=\"modal-body fusion-clearfix\">\n<div class=\"mt-md mt-lg-ns\">\n<div class=\"font--subhead hide-for-print kicker mb-xs\" data-qa=\"kicker\">\n<p><a class=\"font-bold link gray-darkest\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/outlook\/\">Outlook<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"relative dib\">\n<div><span class=\" dot-xxs-gray-dark\"><span class=\"\">Review <span class=\"gray-darkest\" data-qa=\"attribution-text\" data-sc-v=\"5.1.0\" data-sc-c=\"namewithoptionallink\">By\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"gray-darkest b bb bc-gray bt-hover b-none\" data-qa=\"author-name\">Jane Eisner<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"w-100\">\n<h1 id=\"main-content\" class=\"font--headline gray-darkest pb-sm fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" data-qa=\"headline\" data-fontsize=\"38\" data-lineheight=\"41.799999px\"><span data-qa=\"headline-text\">Jerusalem\u2019s subterranean discoveries and disputes<\/span><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<p>Yehuda Amichai, Israel\u2019s most celebrated poet, wrote often about Jerusalem with language and imagery that ricochets off the ancient stone walls and into a reader\u2019s heart. Jerusalem was where Amichai lived after escaping Nazi Germany; it is where he died in 2000; it is where his accessible, imaginative, descriptive style transformed him into a sort of poetic prophet.<\/p>\n<p>His long, gorgeous poem \u201cJerusalem, Jerusalem, Why Jerusalem?\u201d has a haunting refrain. \u201cWhy, of all places, Jerusalem?\u201d he asks repeatedly. Why not New York, Athens, Egypt, Mexico, India, Burma? Why not Babylon, Petersburg, Mecca, Rome?<\/p>\n<p>What is it about this city, where ordinary life rubs up against parading pilgrims, where bombs and crucifixions commingle with church bells and the muezzin\u2019s call, where the ground is heavy with history \u2014 in Amichai\u2019s words, \u201csubmerged and sunken\u201d \u2014 that draws adventurers, scholars and ideologues like a magnet?<\/p>\n<p>That question propels the narrative of Andrew Lawler\u2019s new book, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0385546858?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=thewaspos09-20&amp;camp=1789&amp;linkCode=xm2&amp;creativeASIN=0385546858\">Under Jerusalem: The Buried History of the World\u2019s Most Contested City<\/a>,\u201d a sweeping tale of archaeological exploits and their cultural and political consequences told with a historian\u2019s penchant for detail and a journalist\u2019s flair for narration.<\/p>\n<p>Beginning when Abraham Lincoln was in the White House, and going up until the raucous headlines of today, Lawler introduces us to an array of men and women drawn to explore the hidden tunnels, broken cisterns, collapsing walls and sewage pits that lie under a small plot of land sacred to the world\u2019s Jews, Muslims and Christians.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnder Jerusalem\u201d is one of several\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/31\/books\/review\/montagu-parker-ark-of-the-covenant-jerusalem.html\">new books chasing this Indiana Jones of a tale<\/a>. And it\u2019s easy to sense the allure. The archaeologists and adventurers who came to excavate the past and claim its treasures were seeking scientific knowledge, professional glory and tangible proof of their connection to the ancient biblical text. At times, their eagerness led them to burrow and bulldoze through sacred space, even if, in so doing, they disrupted centuries of civilization and rocked the foundation \u2014 physically and spiritually \u2014 of Western faith traditions.<\/p>\n<p>Today, controversy over excavations in the Old City is too often framed as simply a conflict between Jews seeking to legitimize their connection to Jerusalem and Muslims resistant to those claims. But in this \u201ccity of political hypervigilance,\u201d as Lawler calls it, the real story is far more complicated.<\/p>\n<p>From the beginning, and for many decades following, it was in fact Christians \u2014 first from France, then from Britain, mostly Protestants \u2014 who swooped into the Holy Land and made a holy mess. In 1863, Louis-F\u00e9licien Joseph Caignart de Saulcy of France was the first to conduct an archaeological dig in the city, fueled by the conviction that \u201cJerusalem\u2019s ancient heritage belonged not to those who lived in and ruled there, but to foreigners like himself,\u201d Lawler writes.<\/p>\n<p>Despite angering local Jews and Muslims and infuriating Ottoman authorities, de Saulcy managed to extract a sarcophagus from the Tomb of Kings that he believed was a consort of a Judean ruler from the 7th century B.C., take it to France and eventually display it in the Louvre. Never mind that experts questioned its true identification and significance. The discovery, Lawler writes, \u201copened the possibility that archaeology could yield concrete proof of scripture\u2019s accuracy at a moment when advances in geology and biology had put Christianity on the defensive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This theme \u2014 that science can be used to verify religious beliefs and national claims \u2014 courses through this narrative like the streams flowing beneath the Old City. So does the political tumult that de Saulcy\u2019s discovery ignited. Fearful of France\u2019s influence, Britain very quickly launched its own archaeological strike force. Russia also sponsored digs, while Western philanthropists poured money underground \u2014 and still do.<\/p>\n<p>One can see how Jerusalem natives, particularly the Muslims who retain authority over sections of the Old City, became so hostile to outside interference in the name of science. Their homes were damaged; their businesses disrupted; their autonomy questioned; their sacred space violated.<\/p>\n<p>There is another, deeper reason for this antipathy, writes Lawler: \u201cExcavating a cistern or searching for treasure might make sense to Jerusalem\u2019s Arabs, but excavating to find your heritage did not. You\u00a0were\u00a0your heritage, and there was no need to find that which you had not lost. This profound cultural divide between Westerners and Arabs \u2014 and, later, between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs \u2014 would grow wider in generations to come, with devastating consequences for all those involved.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Would that Lawler had delved more deeply into this fascinating cultural divide and the questions raised. What lies behind the compulsion to locate Jesus\u2019s tomb or King David\u2019s palace or Solomon\u2019s temple? How do we balance the drive to uncover the past with reverence for the present? There is endless detail in this book about each excavation, contextualized with discussion of the ethical dimensions and methodological advances in the expanding field of archaeology. But there were times when I wished Lawler had stepped back to explore those larger, motivational questions more fully.<\/p>\n<p>That said, he displays remarkable evenhandedness in cataloguing the politicization of archaeology today, especially considering that so many characters in this book believed that God \u2014 or Adonai, or Allah, or Jesus \u2014 was on their side. Lawler also carefully narrates the dramatic and consequential rifts between the increasingly powerful Orthodox Jewish rabbinate in Jerusalem and its largely secular, scholarly counterparts.<\/p>\n<p>Tragically, we see positions harden and compromise made more difficult, whether it is in Yasser Arafat\u2019s refusal to acknowledge the Jewish historical claim to the Old City or in the growing influence exerted by the fundamentalist City of David Foundation, widely known by its Hebrew acronym Elad. Sadly, too, we hear in this story echoes of broader troubling trends, as the neutral pursuit of science slams into ideology, greed, nationalism and faith.<\/p>\n<p>Why, of all places, Jerusalem? Amichai offers a partial, poetic answer: \u201cIn Jerusalem,\u201d he writes, \u201ceverything is a symbol.\u201d Lawler\u2019s timely book builds on that insight, showing how and why ordinary men and women, and great empires alike, continue to seek meaning in the dirt and debris beneath this magnetic, confounding city.<\/div><div class=\"modal-footer\"><button class=\"fusion-button button-default button-medium button default medium\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\">Close<\/button><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><a class=\"fusion-modal-text-link\" data-toggle=\"modal\" data-target=\".fusion-modal.thenewyorker2\" href=\"#\">\n<h3>The New Yorker<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><div class=\"fusion-modal modal fade modal-6 thenewyorker2\" tabindex=\"-1\" role=\"dialog\" aria-labelledby=\"modal-heading-6\" aria-hidden=\"true\" style=\"--awb-border-color:#ebebeb;--awb-background:#f6f6f6;\"><div class=\"modal-dialog modal-lg\" role=\"document\"><div class=\"modal-content fusion-modal-content\"><div class=\"modal-header\"><button class=\"close\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\" aria-label=\"Close\">&times;<\/button><h3 class=\"modal-title\" id=\"modal-heading-6\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\">The New Yorker<\/h3><\/div><div class=\"modal-body fusion-clearfix\">\n<div class=\"mt-md mt-lg-ns\">\n<div class=\"font--subhead hide-for-print kicker mb-xs\" data-qa=\"kicker\">\n<div class=\"BaseWrap-sc-TURhJ ContentHeaderRubricDateBlock-eerpLH eTiIvU jgMsiV\" data-testid=\"ContentHeaderRubricDateBlock\">\n<div class=\"RubricWrapper-cSFBEL llbSZh rubric ContentHeaderRubricContainer-eXoFpZ floLYB\"><a class=\"RubricLink-CPHAg hShSfG rubric__link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/books\"><span class=\"RubricName-eZaHyj FsKDn\">Books<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"RubricWrapper-cSFBEL llbSZh rubric ContentHeaderRubricIssueDate-gefHxP bSsRy\"><a class=\"RubricLink-CPHAg hShSfG rubric__link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2021\/12\/13\"><span class=\"RubricName-eZaHyj FsKDn\">December 13, 2021 Issue<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<h1 class=\"BaseWrap-sc-TURhJ BaseText-fFzBQt ContentHeaderHed-kpvpFG eTiIvU gyqQhq klOfMA fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" data-testid=\"ContentHeaderHed\" data-fontsize=\"38\" data-lineheight=\"41.799999px\">Briefly Noted<\/h1>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"reviewer\">\n<p><strong>Under Jerusalem<\/strong><em>, by Andrew Lawler (Doubleday)<\/em>. Chronicling more than a century and a half of contentious digs around Jerusalem\u2019s sacred sites, this history profiles the various \u201ctreasure hunters, scholarly clerics, religious extremists, and secular archaeologists\u201d who hoped to uncover the Biblical city. Lawler\u2019s history tracks both the marvels found underground and the events unfolding above them, including the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the birth of Zionism, the creation of the Israeli state, and the shattered peace talks of the nineties. Probing excavators\u2019 often partisan motivations, Lawler highlights archeology\u2019s power to shape narratives and its development from a discipline \u201cnot far removed from its far older cousin, tomb robbing,\u201d into a modern tool of nationalist mythmaking.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><div class=\"modal-footer\"><button class=\"fusion-button button-default button-medium button default medium\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\">Close<\/button><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><a class=\"fusion-modal-text-link\" data-toggle=\"modal\" data-target=\".fusion-modal.wallstreetjournal2\" href=\"#\">\n<h3>The Wall Street Journal<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><div class=\"fusion-modal modal fade modal-7 wallstreetjournal2\" tabindex=\"-1\" role=\"dialog\" aria-labelledby=\"modal-heading-7\" aria-hidden=\"true\" style=\"--awb-border-color:#ebebeb;--awb-background:#f6f6f6;\"><div class=\"modal-dialog modal-lg\" role=\"document\"><div class=\"modal-content fusion-modal-content\"><div class=\"modal-header\"><button class=\"close\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\" aria-label=\"Close\">&times;<\/button><h3 class=\"modal-title\" id=\"modal-heading-7\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\">The Wall Street Journal<\/h3><\/div><div class=\"modal-body fusion-clearfix\">\n<div class=\"BaseWrap-sc-TURhJ ContentHeaderRubricDateBlock-eerpLH eTiIvU jgMsiV\" data-testid=\"ContentHeaderRubricDateBlock\">\n<div class=\"RubricWrapper-cSFBEL llbSZh rubric ContentHeaderRubricContainer-eXoFpZ floLYB\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/?mod=wsjheader_logo\">Story Link<\/a><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"RubricWrapper-cSFBEL llbSZh rubric ContentHeaderRubricIssueDate-gefHxP bSsRy\"><em>By\u00a0<\/em><em>Dominic Green<\/em><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"reviewer\">\n<h1 class=\"fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" data-fontsize=\"38\" data-lineheight=\"41.799999px\"><strong>\u2018Under Jerusalem\u2019 Review: Layers of History and Faith<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p><em>Victorian archaeologists dug to test a Christian idea of the heavenly city. Modern Israelis have a different idea.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em>In \u201cCivilization and Its Discontents,\u201d Freud compared memory and its recovery to the archaeology of Rome. The visitor cannot see the earlier layers of civilization, but the guidebook says where they once were. This allows us to look at the Colosseum and imagine the Golden House of Nero below. But, Freud wrote, a single physical space cannot hold \u201ctwo different contents.\u201d If it did, then the Palazzo Caffarelli would occupy the same spot as the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, and we would see the temple in both its early, Etruscan form and its later, imperial form.<\/p>\n<p>Freud never saw Jerusalem. Not only is its visitor\u2019s imagination incited by the Bible, the guidebook of guidebooks, but Jerusalem\u2019s archaeology also presents the simultaneity that Freud thought impossible. The sacred core of Jerusalem is so great that, like New York, they named it twice: Raise your head as you emerge from the warren of the Old City, and you see the Temple Mount of the Jews and the Noble Sanctuary of the Muslims. Two different contents, two different contexts\u2014not forgetting the Christians, who cannot agree among themselves where their sacred sites should be.<\/p>\n<p>In \u201cUnder Jerusalem,\u201d journalist Andrew Lawler directs our contemplation away from the heavenly city, and down into the roots of history and faith. Modern archaeology in Jerusalem began as an effort to substantiate Christian faith through modern science. The history of its practice in Jerusalem presents a parade of eccentrics and fanatics, enlivened by obscurantism and riot. Mr. Lawler, unlike so many of his characters, navigates the terrain without offending the political or religious sensibilities of his subjects.<\/p>\n<p>In the 19th century, tourists like Twain and Melville were disappointed by the rundown and rather modest architecture of Ottoman Jerusalem. When Baedeker issued a guidebook in 1876, he apologized for the \u201cmodern crust of rubbish and rottenness\u201d that obscured the \u201cJerusalem of antiquity.\u201d Exceptional in being sacred to all three monotheisms, Jerusalem is unusual as ancient cities go. The tel, a man-made hill in which civilizations are stacked layer upon layer like stony pancakes, is common in the Middle East; the Israeli site at Har Megiddo, the \u201cArmageddon\u201d of the Christians, has 26 layers. But Jerusalem is rocky and hilly. Its layers are compressed as though by tectonic forces and honeycombed with cisterns and tunnels.<\/p>\n<p>Archaeology was a European invention introduced to Jerusalem by French and British Christians. The European soldiers and churchmen viewed sacred archaeology in the spirit of Thomas Jefferson: \u201cthe earth belongs in usufruct to the living,\u201d and the dead have \u201cneither rights nor powers over it.\u201d Mr. Lawler\u2019s tale begins in 1863, when the French senator Louis-F\u00e9licien de Saulcy launched the first modern dig, just outside the Old City walls. Breaking into an ancient tomb, de Saulcy abducted an attractive sarcophagus and, while Jerusalem\u2019s rabbis launched an international protest against this foreign graverobber, took it to Paris and declared its occupant to be \u201cthe consort of a Judean ruler from the seventh century BCE.\u201d He was only 700 years off.<\/p>\n<p>De Saulcy set the tone of most subsequent efforts: wild ambition, wild exaggeration, wild protests\u2014and hardheaded chauvinism. In the 1850s, rivalry over foreign control of the Christian sites helped spark the Crimean War. In the 1860s, the digging of the Suez Canal turned the \u201cscramble for Jerusalem\u201d into a strategic rivalry. When the British public funded the creation of the Palestine Exploration Fund, and the Fund secured permission to dig by promising the Ottomans that it would fix Jerusalem\u2019s sewage problem, the British government discreetly used the program as a front for intelligence-gathering.<\/p>\n<p>The living, however, still had earthly powers. The local Jews and Muslims had a veto, rioting when a dig turned up human bones or got too close to the Temple Mount. The Ottoman authorities correctly saw foreign archaeologists as the advance parties of European imperialism, and withheld digging permits. The only locals who seemed to appreciate the archaeologists were the Arabs of the village of Silwan, who turned into a multigenerational workforce.<\/p>\n<p>The Victorian diggers concentrated on a thousand-year slice of Jerusalem\u2019s history: from King David\u2019s conquest of a Jebusite hill fortress about a millennium before Jesus\u2019 birth, to the sites of Jesus\u2019 crucifixion and burial. This being the British Empire, the work was entrusted to military eccentrics. A succession of Royal Engineers mapped Jerusalem, most driven equally by a surveyor\u2019s training and an oddball\u2019s conviction.<\/p>\n<p>Charles Wilson, an \u201cintroverted bachelor,\u201d discovered the monumental Herodian arch that now bears his name and created a topographical survey which remains the foundation of modern archaeology. Charles Warren went looking for the secrets of freemasonry and instead found the city\u2019s ancient water network, a more successful enquiry than his subsequent pursuit of Jack the Ripper. Charles Gordon, later martyred at Khartoum, identified the site of the Crucifixion not in the precincts of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, but on a skull-like knoll to the north of Damascus Gate; less persuasively, he created a pilgrimage site for Protestants by locating the site of Jesus\u2019 burial and resurrection in a nearby rock tomb.<\/p>\n<p>The subterranean disturbance became visible on the surface. The Ottomans called Warren \u201cthe mole,\u201d for his habit of popping up in private wells and cisterns. The Abu Saud family, who lived next to the Western Wall, were complaining about subsidence. The Russians, the Germans and the British were all building their national churches and setting foot on the sacred rock. Landscapers improved the surrounds of Gordon\u2019s \u201cGarden Tomb\u201d to assist the contemplations of British and American pilgrims. But no one could find the City of David, or the Ark of the Covenant for that matter.<\/p>\n<p>One of the many surprising threads in Mr. Lawler\u2019s tale is that Jerusalem\u2019s Jewish archaeology began as Christian Zionist archaeology, and turned only slowly into Jewish nationalist archaeology. Muslim or Palestinian Arab archaeology began only recently, and by then the winners were writing the history of Jerusalem. In a city where the winner takes all, Mr. Lawler does an admirable job of striving for the diplomats\u2019 ideal of \u201cevenhandedness.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In 1917, the British conquered Jerusalem, declared their support for the \u201cestablishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people,\u201d and then, in 1920, set up the Mandate for Palestine under the auspices of the League of Nations. The British created institutions, the Hebrew University among them, and fostered a generation of Jewish archaeologists. Again, no one found the Ark of the Covenant, but they did produce a mass of evidence that confirmed the Jewish claims in the historical record. After the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, recovering the Jewish roots of Jerusalem became a priority for nation-building.<\/p>\n<p>When Israel conquered the Old City, in 1967, bulldozers erased the Mughrabi Quarter overnight to create the Western Wall Plaza. Shortly afterward, they demolished the Abu Saud family compound. According to Mr. Lawler, Yasser Arafat, then engaged on his own program of demolition, was the son of the Abu Sauds on his mother\u2019s side. The period\u2019s Israeli archaeologists viewed their work as Edmund Burke viewed society, a \u201cpartnership not only between those who are living, but between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born.\u201d Their job was to reconnect the spirit of the revived Jewish nation to the material evidence of ancient statehood. In Jerusalem, that meant removing the intervening layers, the better to recover the national memory, regardless of violent protests from Orthodox Jews, Islamists and Palestinian nationalists.<\/p>\n<p>In 2005, the Israeli archaeologist Eilat Mazar returned to the ridge above Wadi Hilweh, on the southern side of the Old City. Charles Warren and the pioneering female archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon had suspected that King David\u2019s Jerusalem lay there, but neither had found anything. Unlike them, Mazar read the guidebook correctly. Interpreting the account of King David\u2019s response to a Philistine attack in 2 Samuel 5, and securing funding from the American Jewish philanthropist Roger Hertog, she spent two years exposing monumental walls that she dated to David\u2019s era. She claimed them to be his palace, and excavations are ongoing at the City of David, as the site is now known. While Israeli and Palestinian archaeologists fight one another over her claims, and while the Ark of the Covenant eludes all, the ground continues to shift beneath Jerusalemites\u2019 feet.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><div class=\"modal-footer\"><button class=\"fusion-button button-default button-medium button default medium\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\">Close<\/button><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><a class=\"fusion-modal-text-link\" data-toggle=\"modal\" data-target=\".fusion-modal.thenewyorktimes2\" href=\"#\">\n<h3>The New York Times<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><div class=\"fusion-modal modal fade modal-8 thenewyorktimes2\" tabindex=\"-1\" role=\"dialog\" aria-labelledby=\"modal-heading-8\" aria-hidden=\"true\" style=\"--awb-border-color:#ebebeb;--awb-background:#f6f6f6;\"><div class=\"modal-dialog modal-lg\" role=\"document\"><div class=\"modal-content fusion-modal-content\"><div class=\"modal-header\"><button class=\"close\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\" aria-label=\"Close\">&times;<\/button><h3 class=\"modal-title\" id=\"modal-heading-8\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\">The New York Times<\/h3><\/div><div class=\"modal-body fusion-clearfix\">\n<h2 class=\"fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" data-fontsize=\"24\" data-lineheight=\"26.4px\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/31\/books\/review\/montagu-parker-ark-of-the-covenant-jerusalem.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Story Link<\/a><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" data-fontsize=\"24\" data-lineheight=\"26.4px\">What Happens When Everyone Is Writing the Same Book You Are?<\/h2>\n<p><strong>By\u00a0Olivia Parker<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Oct. 31, 2021,\u00a05:00 a.m. ET<\/p>\n<p>It was as if the story were floating in the air, waiting to be rediscovered. And by coincidence, a handful of writers came across it at the same time.<\/p>\n<p>The story was true: In the waning days of the Ottoman Empire, a British expedition set out for Jerusalem to find the ark of the covenant, only to fail, spectacularly, in 1911, in an eruption of political turmoil and religious animosity.<\/p>\n<p>The leader of this failed treasure hunt was a tall, slim British man named Montagu Brownlow Parker. Known as \u201cMonty,\u201d he was my great-great-uncle.<\/p>\n<p>Monty died in 1962, years before I was born. He was a bachelor who lived well, traveled far, spent freely and left the contents of his will to a married woman: That was nearly everything I knew of him. All my family had left of his adventure in Jerusalem was a black box of papers telling a captivating tale.<\/p>\n<p>The expedition grew out of an encounter between Monty and an eccentric Finnish scholar, Valter Juvelius, who claimed he had identified ciphers in the Old Testament that showed where the ark was hidden in Jerusalem. He wanted to go and find it; Monty, a veteran of the Boer War and a son of a wealthy politician, had the connections and credibility to make it happen.<\/p>\n<p>It was late 1908, and that summer\u2019s Young Turk Revolution had injected a new spirit of liberalization across the Ottoman Empire, which controlled much of what was then Palestine. Monty gathered investors, permissions and a team, and in 1909 the \u201cParker expedition\u201d started digging in Jerusalem for the ark, a holy relic whose value \u2014 immeasurable \u2014 Monty promised to split with the Ottoman government.After two years, finding little, the team grew impatient. Monty bribed officials for access to a more promising location: the Haram al-Sharif, or Temple Mount, a site sacred in Islam, Judaism and Christianity. There, the team started to excavate secretly at night, opening up a tunnel that led right underneath the Dome of the Rock.<\/p>\n<p>A mosque attendant, appalled, caught the diggers in action and rumors began to fly, scandalizing members of the city\u2019s various faiths. Monty\u2019s group raced from Jerusalem amid riots and headlines screaming that the explorers had stolen the Temple Mount\u2019s treasures, narrowly escaping on their yacht.<\/p>\n<p>That a relative of mine was part of this was mind-blowing. In 2019, I started to research the story, not knowing that my explorations made me a member of a curious, modern-day venture that paralleled its historical counterpart: the Parker expedition writers.<\/p>\n<p>Scraps of the tale \u2014 a short account in Simon Sebag Montefiore\u2019s 2011 book \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/10\/30\/books\/review\/jerusalem-by-simon-sebag-montefiore-book-review.html?searchResultPosition=1\">Jerusalem<\/a>\u201d; a mention of an \u201carchaeological dig\u201d in the Ottoman archives \u2014 had turned at least six others like me onto it. We were all tracking down sources and shaping our notes into book proposals at around the same time.<\/p>\n<p>When we learned of one another\u2019s existence, it felt a little awkward.<\/p>\n<p>The person to tell us was Nirit Shalev-Khalifa, a curator at the Yad Ben Zvi Institute in Jerusalem, who had recognized the story\u2019s power years before any of us had. In 1995, Nirit, then early in her career but with characteristic resolve, tracked down a box of glass negatives from the expedition, enlisted a student to locate the great-grandson of Valter Juvelius in Finland and reached out to my grandfather in England. My grandfather gave her a few photos and documents, and in 1996 she staged an exhibition on the Parker expedition, her paper on it making her a key contact for everyone who came to the story later, looking for sources.<\/p>\n<p>This could have been an annoying position for Nirit to find herself in, but she occupied it with relish. She welcomed each of us who wrote to her as though she were our party host, passing on news of our fellow expedition explorers and enjoying the coincidence that these books were all happening at once.<\/p>\n<p>It seemed less thrilling to me. I felt my loose connection to Great-Great-Uncle Monty shift into possessiveness: Who were these people writing about what I felt, unjustly, to be my story?<\/p>\n<p>They were a diverse group, Nirit explained, and erudite: Louis Fishman, a professor of history at Brooklyn College, who found a dossier on the dig in the Ottoman archives; Timo Stewart, a Finnish researcher whose book focuses on Juvelius; Graham Addison, a retired British businessman turned history writer; and Andrew Lawler, an American journalist studying underground Jerusalem.<\/p>\n<p>Eleven days after telling me about these men, Nirit emailed with a smiling emoji about \u201cthe new guy in town\u201d: Brad Ricca, an author in Cleveland who writes books that blend fact and fiction. And four months after that, my dad was sitting down for dinner one evening when Nirit rang to introduce him to Lior Hanani, a young Israeli software developer who chose the expedition as the basis for his debut novel.<\/p>\n<p>Nirit envisaged a conference that would explore our collective research, and decided to introduce us to one another on Zoom. Some of us admitted to feeling nervous, even competitive. But Nirit\u2019s enthusiasm was a diffusing force. There was enough room in the world for each of our approaches \u2014 journalistic, novelistic and academic \u2014 she insisted.<\/p>\n<p>Afterward, we kept in touch, from homes as far apart as New York, Helsinki and Hong Kong, swapping notes on the pandemic, on Monty, on writing. The friendly tone set by Nirit prevailed.<\/p>\n<p>Brad offered me an early version of his book to read, along with his agent\u2019s contact information. Graham shared a scoop he\u2019d found in the British archives: Monty had a diagnosis of neurasthenia, what we\u2019d now call PTSD.<\/p>\n<p>The present intruded into our reflections on the past, a reminder of the expedition\u2019s lasting relevance. Before Lior and I discussed his novel, we talked about the Hamas rockets that had crashed in front of his house in Israel, during a recent outbreak of fighting that had been inflamed by a raid on the Aqsa Mosque, inside the Haram al-Sharif. \u201cEverything is related,\u201d Lior said, smiling.<\/p>\n<p>It was as though we had formed a Parker expedition think tank and, together, were uncovering the event\u2019s significance.<\/p>\n<p>As Louis writes in a chapter in his book, the events of the expedition\u2019s aftermath \u2014 including the revelation, shocking to Jerusalem\u2019s Muslim residents, that corrupt Ottoman officials were aiding the British explorers \u2014 add depth to our understanding of the factors influencing the emergence of Palestinian nationalism. The expedition may have had an impact on British foreign policy in the region, Andrew said when we talked, and it helped spawn the world\u2019s ongoing fascination with the ark of the covenant (and Indiana Jones). It illustrates how people at the time viewed the Bible, science and chronology, Timo explained over Zoom, and why secret ciphers might have made sense to them.<\/p>\n<p>Five books about the expedition have now been published; one more\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/665396\/under-jerusalem-by-andrew-lawler\/\">comes out in November<\/a>. I hope a bookshop will display them all together \u2014 one story told six different ways.<\/p>\n<p>That leaves my own version, which remains theoretical, at least for now. I\u2019m still turning over my thoughts on my maverick great-great-uncle. I believe there are still parts of his story left to crack.<\/p>\n<p>Olivia Parker is an editor on the international edition of The Times, based in Hong Kong.<\/div><div class=\"modal-footer\"><button class=\"fusion-button button-default button-medium button default medium\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\">Close<\/button><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><a class=\"fusion-modal-text-link\" data-toggle=\"modal\" data-target=\".fusion-modal.publishersweekly2\" href=\"#\">\n<h3>Publishers Weekly : Starred Review<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><div class=\"fusion-modal modal fade modal-9 publishersweekly2\" tabindex=\"-1\" role=\"dialog\" aria-labelledby=\"modal-heading-9\" aria-hidden=\"true\" style=\"--awb-border-color:#ebebeb;--awb-background:#f6f6f6;\"><div class=\"modal-dialog modal-lg\" role=\"document\"><div class=\"modal-content fusion-modal-content\"><div class=\"modal-header\"><button class=\"close\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\" aria-label=\"Close\">&times;<\/button><h3 class=\"modal-title\" id=\"modal-heading-9\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\">Publishers Weekly : Starred Review<\/h3><\/div><div class=\"modal-body fusion-clearfix\">\n<h2 class=\"fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" data-fontsize=\"24\" data-lineheight=\"26.4px\">Starred Review: Under Jerusalem<\/h2>\n<p>Journalist Lawler (<em>The Secret Token<\/em>) explores in this sweeping account the complicated history of archaeological digs in Jerusalem. Ranging from imperialistic expeditions in the 19th century, when explorers competed in a \u201crace to stake a claim to Jerusalem\u2019s past,\u201d to allegations that prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s government used archaeology \u201cas a legitimizer for the state,\u201d Lawler\u2019s colorful narrative includes aristocrats, scientists, charlatans, and clerics who searched for the \u201cauthentic place of Jesus\u2019s death and resurrection,\u201d sought to uncover the remnants of the ancient City of David, and tried to find the Ark of the Covenant, among other archaeological treasures. He vividly describes early explorers navigating mud- and sewage-laden tunnels to \u201crecover the biblical secrets locked beneath the Holy City,\u201d and incisively untangles the contentious geopolitical dimensions of ancient history as modern-day Israelis and Palestinians use archaeological analysis to bolster their political viewpoints and territorial claims. Richly detailed, sensitively argued, and entertainingly written, this immersive history casts Jerusalem in a new light and reveals the tensions that meet at the intersection of science, politics, religion, and history. This fascinating, evenhanded chronicle is a treasure.\u00a0<em>Agent: Ethan Bassoff, Ross Yoon Agency. (Nov.)<\/em><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" data-fontsize=\"24\" data-lineheight=\"26.4px\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.publishersweekly.com\/pw\/by-topic\/authors\/interviews\/article\/87452-city-of-peace-pw-talks-with-andrew-lawler.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Interview: Publisher\u2019s Weekly Talks with Andrew Lawler<\/a><\/h2>\n<p>Journalist Lawler\u2019s\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.publishersweekly.com\/9780385546850\">Under Jerusalem<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>(Doubleday, Nov.) examines the history and politics of archaeology in the Holy City.<\/p>\n<p>This was the big surprise for me. To discover that archaeology, which began in the 1860s, was actually part of the colonial race to control Jerusalem, because it was part of the Ottoman Empire, which was coming apart at the seams. Christian Europe had always looked at Jerusalem as its own\u2014during the Crusades, it had actually captured Jerusalem\u2014and the people who went there were generally deeply religious, and were seeking to corroborate the Bible in the face of the onslaught of doubt and new science that was coming to the fore, particularly in Europe, during the early and mid-19th century. To do that, they had to look beyond the old, medieval, largely Arab-speaking city for the mythical Jerusalem, which they\u2019d heard about from the pulpit for so many years.<\/p>\n<p>Who was the most memorable explorer you came across in your research?<\/p>\n<p>It would have to be Capt. Montagu Brownlow Parker, an English aristocrat who came to Jerusalem right before WWI to seek the Ark of the Covenant. He raised the equivalent of $2.4 million from English aristocrats and American industrialists, who believed they would get several billion dollars on the art market if they found it. Of course, they didn\u2019t find the treasure, and instead they began to dig on the Temple Mount, which Muslims call the Noble Sanctuary, and caused riots, nearly caused the fall of the Ottoman government, and nearly sparked a revolt by Muslim subjects of the British empire, who were outraged by this English aristocrat attacking Islam\u2019s third-holiest shrine. Now it\u2019s considered a comic opera, but I discovered that Parker, in inflaming Muslim opinion against the English and against archaeology, and against treasure hunters, turned the Noble Sanctuary into a center of what became Palestinian nationalism.<\/p>\n<p>How is archaeology politicized in modern-day Jerusalem?<\/p>\n<p>Archaeology is used by politicians on all sides to prove that Jerusalem belongs to them\u2014whether it\u2019s the Christians, the Jews, or the Muslims. It\u2019s become a weapon in the war to control the city. But I have what may be a naive belief that science can actually show that Jerusalem belongs to neither the Christians nor the Jews nor the Muslims. In fact, it is an accretion of all of these traditions, which over the centuries have created something quite unique. If there can be a recognition that the science shows this complexity, and the beauty of the diversity of cultures that have come together in Jerusalem, it might someday, perhaps, form some basis for Jerusalem to become the city of peace that it has been heralded as for so many centuries.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" data-fontsize=\"24\" data-lineheight=\"26.4px\">Publishers Weekly Names <em>Under Jerusalem<\/em> in Top Ten of Fall 2021 releases<\/h2>\n<p>\u2013<i>David Adams<\/i><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.publishersweekly.com\/pw\/by-topic\/new-titles\/adult-announcements\/article\/86693-fall-2021-announcements-history.html\">Read on publishersweekly.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Top 10<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Cause: The American Revolution and Its Discontents, 1773\u20131783<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Joseph J. Ellis. Liveright, Sept. 21 ($30, ISBN 978-1-63149-898-5)<br \/>\nEllis\u2019s latest focuses on the brutality of the Revolutionary War and how the founders dealt with the issue of slavery.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conquering the Pacific: An Unknown Mariner and the Final Great Voyage of the Age of Discovery<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Andr\u00e9s Res\u00e9ndez. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Sept. 14 ($28, ISBN 978-1-328-51597-1)<br \/>\nNational Book Award\u2013finalist Res\u00e9ndez recovers the lost history of the 16th-century Black mariner who navigated an easterly course across the Pacific Ocean from the Orient to the New World.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>David Graeber and David Wengrow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Oct. 19 ($35, ISBN 978-0-374-15735-7)<br \/>\nAnthropologist Graeber, who died in 2020, and archaeologist Wengrow cast doubt on the assumption that civilization could only be achieved by taming humanity\u2019s baser instincts.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Girly Drinks: A Women\u2019s History of Drinking<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Mallory O\u2019Meara. Hanover Square, Oct. 19 ($27.99, ISBN 978-1-335-28240-8)<br \/>\nThis feminist history features a Sumerian beer goddess and Savoy Hotel bartender Ada Coleman.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Zo\u00eb Playdon. Scribner, Nov. 2 ($27, ISBN 978-1-9821-3946-9)<br \/>\nMedical historian Playdon recounts the life of an aristocratic Scottish trans man whose victory in a 1968 civil case could have protected trans rights\u2014if it hadn\u2019t been kept secret.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Caroline Elkins. Knopf, Jan. 25 ($30, ISBN 978-0-307-27242-3)<br \/>\nPulitzer-winner Elkins returns 17 years after\u00a0<em>Imperial Reckoning<\/em>\u00a0to examine how the use of systematic, racialized violence both enabled the British Empire and brought about its downfall.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Sinner and the Saint: Dostoevsky and the Gentleman Murderer Who Inspired a Masterpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Kevin Birmingham. Penguin Press, Nov. 9 ($30, ISBN 978-1-59420-630-6)<br \/>\nBirmingham examines a famous French killer\u2019s influence on\u00a0<em>Crime and Punishment<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Taking of Jemima Boone: Colonial Settlers, Tribal Nations, and the Kidnap That Shaped a Nation<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Matthew Pearl. Harper, Oct. 5 ($27.99, ISBN 978-0-06-293778-0)<br \/>\nIn his first work of nonfiction, novelist Pearl (<em>The Dante Club<\/em>) recounts the 1776 kidnapping of Daniel Boone\u2019s daughter by a Cherokee-Shawnee raiding party.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Under Jerusalem: The Buried History of the World\u2019s Most Contested City<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Andrew Lawler. Doubleday, Nov. 2 ($32.50, ISBN 978-0-385-54685-0)<br \/>\nJournalist Lawler details how archaeological digs in Jerusalem have fueled religious conflicts, shed light on the ancient world, and helped shape the modern city.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Watching Darkness Fall: FDR, His Ambassadors, and the Rise of Adolf Hitler<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>David McKean. St. Martin\u2019s, Nov. 2 ($29.99, ISBN 978-1-250-20696-1)<br \/>\nThe former U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg examines how FDR\u2019s ambassadors in Europe responded to the Nazi threat and shaped the president\u2019s view of it.<\/div><div class=\"modal-footer\"><button class=\"fusion-button button-default button-medium button default medium\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\">Close<\/button><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><a class=\"fusion-modal-text-link\" data-toggle=\"modal\" data-target=\".fusion-modal.boingboing2\" href=\"#\">\n<h3>Boing Boing<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><div class=\"fusion-modal modal fade modal-10 boingboing2\" tabindex=\"-1\" role=\"dialog\" aria-labelledby=\"modal-heading-10\" aria-hidden=\"true\" style=\"--awb-border-color:#ebebeb;--awb-background:#f6f6f6;\"><div class=\"modal-dialog modal-lg\" role=\"document\"><div class=\"modal-content fusion-modal-content\"><div class=\"modal-header\"><button class=\"close\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\" aria-label=\"Close\">&times;<\/button><h3 class=\"modal-title\" id=\"modal-heading-10\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\">Boing Boing<\/h3><\/div><div class=\"modal-body fusion-clearfix\">\n<h2 class=\"fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" data-fontsize=\"24\" data-lineheight=\"26.4px\">Review: Uncovering the layers of history and politics in Andrew Lawler\u2019s \u201cUnder Jerusalem\u201d<\/h2>\n<p>Science and archeology journalist, Andrew Lawler, has made a name for himself writing unique and compelling books on somewhat unconventional subjects. His first book,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/geni.us\/gq2LI\">Why Did the Chicken Cross the World?<\/a>, explored the cultural history of the domesticated chicken and how it spread across the globe. His second title,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/geni.us\/ULQMAd\">The Secret Token: Myth, Obsession, and the Search for the Lost Colony of Roanoke<\/a>, examined the known history and many theories of what happened to the residents of that early English colony in the New World.<\/p>\n<p>Lawler\u2019s latest,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/geni.us\/LeXCB\">Under Jerusalem: The Buried History of the World\u2019s Most Contested City<\/a>, is an impressively absorbing, admirably executed exploration of the labyrinthine layers of history, politics, religion, and science buried beneath one of the most religiously significant and politically volatile cities on Earth. Painterly descriptions, engaging storytelling, and meticulous research turn what could be a yawning tale of endless bureaucratic permit wrangling and religious and political machinations into a surprisingly exciting page-turner.<\/p>\n<p>Lawler takes readers on a journey through the archaeological discoveries, political tensions, and cultural conflicts that have shaped Jerusalem\u2019s dense and layered underground landscape. Our story begins in the 1860s as French and English explorers\/proto-archeologists, motivated by Biblical accounts of King David, Solomon\u2019s Temple, and holy treasures like the Ark of the Covenant, set their sights on the Holy City. It continues up to the present day, where that golden age remains largely unverified and ever-alluring to the world\u2019s archeologists, treasure seekers, and the world\u2019s Judaeo-Christians.<\/p>\n<p>Through ancient tunnels, cisterns, and sewers of the city\u2019s layered past, carved in soft limestone, Lawler shows how Jerusalem\u2019s subterranean realm has been both a source of mystery and wonder and the site of seismic scientific, historical, and religious contention. Along the way, he introduces readers to a colorful cast of characters, including archaeologists, Biblical zealots, treasure-hunters, politicians, and religious leaders, each with their own motivations and perspectives in dealing with the city\u2019s buried past.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the stories of discovery in\u00a0Under Jerusalem\u00a0detail events that are almost too jaw-dropping to believe:<\/p>\n<p>A Muslim business owner of a leather menswear company hears early morning sounds in what he knows to be the crawlspace beneath his factory. He lifts the hatch to the space to find a \u201cdozen drunken black-bearded Egyptian Coptic priests in robes\u201d and the formerly shallow and dank crawlspace now transformed into \u201ca forest of stone columns and arches extending into the shadowy distance.\u201d It turns out the priests had discovered another entrance into this Crusader-era space\u2013long filled to the ceiling with centuries of muck and garbage\u2013and had been secretly digging it out during the day, their sounds masked by the factory machines clanking away overhead. Their work completed, the priests had celebrated their efforts, gotten drunk, and were subsequently discovered in the morning hours by the owner. This incident would lead to a 20-year legal battle over ownership of the space below and to the discovery of an even larger Crusader-era space beside it. (As Lawler points out in the interview below, that factory space is now a convenience store and the hatch to that ancient underworld is in the middle of the potato chip aisle.)<\/p>\n<p>Then there was the shocking and brazen 1999 bulldozing on the Temple Mount when Muslim authorities approved a cover-of-darkness hauling away of thirty dump trucks worth of dirt. This was done in an effort to open up archways along \u201cSolomon\u2019s Stables,\u201d another Crusader-era structure they wanted to turn into a prayer space for upcoming Ramadan worshipers. They insisted there were no items of archeological significance in the dirt they trucked to the dump. A later sifting project of this dirt, organized by a young Jewish archeologist, would reveal over half a million artifacts, items from every period of Jerusalem\u2019s history.<\/p>\n<p>Or, how about the shop opener in the Muslim Quarter who began digging behind a curtain in his 5\u2032 deep convenience store and 30 years later(!) his efforts would reveal an elegant, arched room held up by stone pillars. He would turn this space into \u201can atmospheric caf\u00e9 popular with foreigners.\u201d He would also find another large space beneath that one and a cistern below that, along with a series of tunnels that lead to various important sites around Jerusalem.<\/p>\n<p>While Lawler focuses primarily on the physical and historical aspects of Jerusalem\u2019s underground, he deftly handles the spiritual and symbolic resonances that these spaces hold for Jews, Christians, and Muslims. By exploring the complex interplay of religion, politics, and culture that defines this city,\u00a0Under Jerusalem\u00a0offers an illuminating and thought-provoking picture of one of the world\u2019s most fascinating and complicated places.<\/p>\n<p>Under Jerusalem\u00a0is an engrossing, eye-opening read that should appeal to history buffs, armchair archaeologists, and anyone interested in the complex web of religion and culture that\u2019s shaped this ancient and enigmatic city. Weeks after finishing it, I keep thinking back to it, wishing that it wasn\u2019t over. You really can\u2019t ask for more from a book.<\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"modal-footer\"><button class=\"fusion-button button-default button-medium button default medium\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\">Close<\/button><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><a class=\"fusion-modal-text-link\" data-toggle=\"modal\" data-target=\".fusion-modal.sciencemag2\" href=\"#\">\n<h3>Science Magazine<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><div class=\"fusion-modal modal fade modal-11 sciencemag2\" tabindex=\"-1\" role=\"dialog\" aria-labelledby=\"modal-heading-11\" aria-hidden=\"true\" style=\"--awb-border-color:#ebebeb;--awb-background:#f6f6f6;\"><div class=\"modal-dialog modal-lg\" role=\"document\"><div class=\"modal-content fusion-modal-content\"><div class=\"modal-header\"><button class=\"close\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\" aria-label=\"Close\">&times;<\/button><h3 class=\"modal-title\" id=\"modal-heading-11\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\">Science Magazine<\/h3><\/div><div class=\"modal-body fusion-clearfix\">\n<p>Science Magazine, Volume 374, No. 6573<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" data-fontsize=\"24\" data-lineheight=\"26.4px\"><strong>Interpreting Jerusalem<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/doi\/10.1126\/science.abn0362#pill-con\">Thomas E. Levy<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Science \u2022 9 Dec 2021 \u2022 Vol 374, Issue 6573 \u2022 p. 1330 \u2022 <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1126\/science.abn0362\">DOI: 10.1126\/science.abn0362<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Shortly after the 1967 Six-Day War between Israel and a coalition of its Arab neighbors, the Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai visited the newly unified city of Jerusalem, later describing it as \u201ca port city on the shore of eternity\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/doi\/10.1126\/science.abn0362#pill-R1\"><em>1<\/em><\/a>). The poem pays tribute to the metaphorical role played by the landlocked city, referencing its deep-time history and its intersectionality with the God of the three monotheistic faiths\u2014Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.<\/p>\n<p>Jerusalem and its history are closely linked to how people\u2014ranging from scientists to religious practitioners to atheists\u2014have imagined this mountain settlement over time. In his new book, <em>Under Jerusalem<\/em>, journalist Andrew Lawler seeks to unpack how the story of the city of Jerusalem, with its amazing underground world of ancient tunnels, roads, buildings, sewage works, and buried artifacts, is told in relation to the people who have populated it for longer than 5000 years. This ambitious book traces more than 150 years of continuous archaeological investigation of the world\u2019s most excavated city.<\/p>\n<p>In Lawler\u2019s view, the social identity of Jerusalem\u2019s storytellers\u2014that is, whether they see themselves primarily as archaeologists, historians, theologians, university professors, activists, or politicians\u2014largely determines how they confront the city\u2019s buried past. He therefore pays careful attention to the nationality, ethnicity, political leanings, and socioeconomic standing of the individuals who appear in his account.<\/p>\n<p>Lawler begins his story in 1863 with the earliest systematic investigation of the city, conducted by French senator Louis-F\u00e9licien Joseph Caignart de Saulcy. While excavating a large burial complex known as the Tomb of the Kings, the amateur archaeologist mistakenly concluded that he had found the final burial site of the Israelite King David and his son Solomon, setting the stage for a series of competing digs conducted by researchers from France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. These endeavors, often firmly rooted in Christian perspectives of the Holy Land, brought renewed interest to Palestine, a forgotten corner of the dying Ottoman Empire.<\/p>\n<p>Contemporary standard practices for exploring archaeological sites focus on careful surface-down excavations. However, in the 1860s, in an effort to locate the remains of King David\u2019s palace, two young British military men, Charles Wilson and Charles Warren, used tunneling methods to explore Jerusalem\u2019s labyrinth of underground passages, channels, and buildings. A number of subsequent excavators, most of them Israeli, eventually followed suit.<\/p>\n<p>Lawler interrogates the complex ideological motivations that compel the region\u2019s two Indigenous peoples, Jews and Arabs, to explore and alter the city. Jewish investigators are often motivated by a desire to explore clues to their heritage that lurk underground. Their efforts are frequently deeply interwoven with ideas about Jewish sovereignty in Jerusalem today. For Arab interpreters, it is the aboveground Islamic monuments that most often resonate with their identity and spur their investigations.<\/p>\n<p><em>Under Jerusalem<\/em> highlights the numerous archaeological atrocities that have been carried out in this contested city. These include the Jordanian destruction of the Jewish Quarter and its 27 synagogues in the 1948 war, the Israeli bulldozing of the Mugrabi Quarter adjacent to the Western Wall of the Temple Mount shortly after the 1967 war, and the currently occupied houses that have been undermined by archaeological tunneling. Some of these incidents reflect the evolution of archaeological practice, others the religion and politics of the actors\u2014but all reflect a desire to use Jerusalem for the perceived good of the groups to which the investigators belong.<\/p>\n<p>Lawler hints that a commitment to science-based archaeology by a new generation of Israeli researchers, coupled with innovative underground excavation techniques, may herald a more objective telling of the history of the world\u2019s most contested city. This offers a distinctive opportunity for archaeologists to write a new narrative of the \u201ccity of peace\u201d from the ground up.<\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"modal-footer\"><button class=\"fusion-button button-default button-medium button default medium\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\">Close<\/button><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><a class=\"fusion-modal-text-link\" data-toggle=\"modal\" data-target=\".fusion-modal.Jewishbookcouncil2\" href=\"#\">\n<h3>Jewish Book Council<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><div class=\"fusion-modal modal fade modal-12 Jewishbookcouncil2\" tabindex=\"-1\" role=\"dialog\" aria-labelledby=\"modal-heading-12\" aria-hidden=\"true\" style=\"--awb-border-color:#ebebeb;--awb-background:#f6f6f6;\"><div class=\"modal-dialog modal-lg\" role=\"document\"><div class=\"modal-content fusion-modal-content\"><div class=\"modal-header\"><button class=\"close\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\" aria-label=\"Close\">&times;<\/button><h3 class=\"modal-title\" id=\"modal-heading-12\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\">Jewish Book Council<\/h3><\/div><div class=\"modal-body fusion-clearfix\">\n<p><em>By\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.jewishbookcouncil.org\/michal-hoschander-malen\">Michal Hoschan\u00adder\u00a0Malen<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0\u2013 November 8, 2021<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Jerusalem is a\u00a0city of end\u00adless beau\u00adty and fas\u00adci\u00adna\u00adtion for res\u00adi\u00addents, vis\u00adi\u00adtors, and his\u00adto\u00adri\u00adans. It is also a\u00a0polit\u00adi\u00adcal tin\u00adder\u00adbox with con\u00adflict\u00ading eth\u00adnic, reli\u00adgious, and soci\u00adetal claims to its many glo\u00adries. Archae\u00adol\u00ado\u00adgy has been a\u00a0focal point of Jerusalem study as lay\u00ader after lay\u00ader of its his\u00adto\u00adry is revealed, adding fact, nuance, detail, and dra\u00adma to its sto\u00adry. Those who study Jerusalem and its unique his\u00adto\u00adry, which ranges from pre-Bib\u00adli\u00adcal times until the present day, are at the heart of a\u00a0tem\u00adpest of claims, coun\u00adter\u00adclaims, and con\u00adtentious polit\u00adi\u00adcal the\u00adater that seems nev\u00ader to\u00a0wane.<\/p>\n<p><em>Under Jerusalem<\/em>\u00a0by Andrew Lawler is an intrigu\u00ading resource for those inter\u00adest\u00aded in learn\u00ading what lies beneath the mod\u00adern city and how those find\u00adings affect today\u2019s polit\u00adi\u00adcal and social land\u00adscape. Its sto\u00adries lie in lay\u00aders, many of which have been undis\u00adturbed for cen\u00adturies. Lawler presents a\u00a0cast of char\u00adac\u00adters and a\u00a0pro\u00adgres\u00adsion of events that build one on anoth\u00ader, much like the archae\u00ado\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal lay\u00aders them\u00adselves, and the dis\u00adcov\u00ader\u00adies he shows us beguile and amaze. Each archae\u00adol\u00ado\u00adgist who arrived, tools in hand and team at the ready, hoped to tease out Jerusalem\u2019s under\u00adground secrets. Each was a\u00a0prod\u00aduct of his or her time. Some had an agen\u00adda. Each oper\u00adat\u00aded against a\u00a0par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlar social and polit\u00adi\u00adcal land\u00adscape. Each unearthed dis\u00adcov\u00adery was eval\u00adu\u00adat\u00aded in light of the ethos of its time but each gains deep\u00ader con\u00adtext as time goes\u00a0on.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the per\u00adson\u00adae who came to explore and left their sto\u00adries behind them are: French\u00adman Louis-Feli\u00adcien Joseph Caig\u00adnart de Saulcy, con\u00adfi\u00addant of Napoleon; British car\u00adtog\u00adra\u00adph\u00ader Charles Wil\u00adson and his suc\u00adces\u00adsor, mil\u00adi\u00adtary offi\u00adcer Charles War\u00adren; Ger\u00adman Protes\u00adtant Con\u00adrad Schick; not\u00aded archae\u00adol\u00ado\u00adgist Kath\u00adleen Keny\u00adon who was\u00a0\u200b\u201ccon\u00adsid\u00adered the most influ\u00aden\u00adtial woman archae\u00adol\u00ado\u00adgist of the twen\u00adti\u00adeth cen\u00adtu\u00adry\u2009\u2014\u2009and by some, the century\u2019s great\u00adest field exca\u00adva\u00adtor\u201d; Israeli archae\u00adol\u00ado\u00adgists Ben\u00adjamin Mazar and his grand\u00addaugh\u00adter, a\u00a0promi\u00adnent archae\u00adol\u00ado\u00adgist in her own right, Eilat Mazar; Israeli archae\u00adol\u00ado\u00adgists Yigael Yadin and Yigal Shiloh; and many oth\u00aders. Some of the issues faced by many of them as they searched Jerusalem\u2019s lay\u00aders includ\u00aded Israeli and Pales\u00adtin\u00adian claims to sig\u00adnif\u00adi\u00adcant reli\u00adgious sites and the fre\u00adquent attempts of some groups of rab\u00adbis to block exca\u00adva\u00adtions for fear of dis\u00adturb\u00ading ancient Jew\u00adish\u00a0bones.<\/p>\n<p>As Lawler\u2019s account pro\u00adgress\u00ades, today\u2019s ter\u00adri\u00adto\u00adr\u00adi\u00adal con\u00adflicts play an increas\u00ading\u00adly dis\u00adturb\u00ading role in the explo\u00adrations of the past. Who has the right to exca\u00advate where? Will dis\u00adcov\u00ader\u00adies sup\u00adport one polit\u00adi\u00adcal side and dis\u00adcred\u00adit anoth\u00ader? What roles do the three major reli\u00adgions in the area play and how can archae\u00ado\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal finds square with reli\u00adgious doc\u00adtrines? Can the lessons of the far-off past pro\u00advide a\u00a0guide to co-exis\u00adtence in mod\u00adern\u00a0times?<\/p>\n<p>Lawler\u2019s prose and the spot\u00adlight he shines on the his\u00adto\u00adry of each era make his account read like an excit\u00ading adven\u00adture sto\u00adry, some parts resem\u00adbling unfold\u00ading mys\u00adter\u00adies, keep\u00ading the read\u00ader alert and eager\u00adly turn\u00ading pages to find out how each inci\u00addent resolves itself. As long-buried secrets emerge into day\u00adlight, events and head\u00adlines of our time acquire new mean\u00ading, pro\u00advid\u00ading a\u00a0use\u00adful sense of per\u00adspec\u00adtive. Archae\u00adol\u00ado\u00adgy feels like a\u00a0vital, rel\u00ade\u00advant, far-reach\u00ading endeav\u00ador shed\u00adding light on today\u2019s head\u00adlines and tomorrow\u2019s world.<\/p>\n<p>Exten\u00adsive front-and-back mat\u00adter adds con\u00adtext. Includ\u00aded are numer\u00adous maps, a\u00a0long list of sug\u00adgest\u00aded fur\u00adther read\u00ading, detailed notes, an intro\u00adduc\u00adtion, an author\u2019s note, and an epi\u00adlogue that sums up Lawler\u2019s find\u00adings. Those inter\u00adest\u00aded in Jerusalem both above and below ground will find\u00a0<em>Under Jerusalem<\/em>\u00a0both fas\u00adci\u00adnat\u00ading and useful.<\/p>\n<p><em>Michal Hoschan\u00adder Malen is the edi\u00adtor of Jew\u00adish Book Coun\u00adcil\u2019s young adult and children\u2019s book reviews. A for\u00admer librar\u00adi\u00adan, she has lec\u00adtured on top\u00adics relat\u00ading to lit\u00ader\u00ada\u00adcy, run book clubs, and loves to read aloud to her grandchildren.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"modal-footer\"><button class=\"fusion-button button-default button-medium button default medium\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\">Close<\/button><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><a class=\"fusion-modal-text-link\" data-toggle=\"modal\" data-target=\".fusion-modal.nyjournalofbooks2\" href=\"#\">\n<h3>New York Journal of Books<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><div class=\"fusion-modal modal fade modal-13 thenorthcarolinahistoricalreview\" tabindex=\"-1\" role=\"dialog\" aria-labelledby=\"modal-heading-13\" aria-hidden=\"true\" style=\"--awb-border-color:#ebebeb;--awb-background:#f6f6f6;\"><div class=\"modal-dialog modal-lg\" role=\"document\"><div class=\"modal-content fusion-modal-content\"><div class=\"modal-header\"><button class=\"close\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\" aria-label=\"Close\">&times;<\/button><h3 class=\"modal-title\" id=\"modal-heading-13\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\">The North Carolina Historical Review<\/h3><\/div><div class=\"modal-body fusion-clearfix\">\n<p>Reviewed by:\u00a0 Marissa Moss<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cA comprehensive, even-handed, clear-headed story about one of the most argued over pieces of land on earth.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Andrew Lawler has tackled big subjects before\u2014the lost colony of Roanoke most recently. But he takes on a particularly complicated one in\u00a0<em>Under Jerusalem<\/em>. Fortunately, he\u2019s up to the task, delivering a story of not one excavation but several, not one culture or historical event but many. Just as Jerusalem is itself layered, so is this book:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLike the marine organisms that created the limestone, succeeding generations created new strata. But Jerusalem is not like the abandoned towns, such as nearby ancient Jericho, dotting the Middle East that left behind high mounds resembling layer cakes, with the old neatly stacked beneath the more recent. Constant human activities jumbled the past; a Roman column might be repurposed for a Byzantine church, and stones cut by Jewish masons two thousand years ago could adorn a medieval mosque. Jerusalem is an old puzzle that reassembles itself in fresh ways, like the faiths that grew from it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s exceptional about this book, besides delivering fascinating characters and vivid excavation stories, is the way Lawler is acutely aware of the effect the past has on the present. The cultural, religious, and political tug-of-war between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam informs how he describes events. He is careful to show the motivations behind the different powers (from the Ottoman Turks to the French to the British), each with their own reasons to want to claim the holy city. He is equally careful to make clear the claims each religion has on the city, stressing the long-ago peaceful coexistence between Jews and Muslim Arabs, a balance that was changed by the influx of European or Ashkenazi Jews fleeing pogroms and the Holocaust in the late 19th and mid 20th century.<\/p>\n<p>Though the book isn\u2019t one story but several, each excavation serves to illuminate some aspect of archeology, history, or essential character of the city. The scope, however, is broad, allowing the reader to understand the different motivations behind the archeology. Science and historical understanding were rarely in the forefront. Treasure hunting and building reputations took a more prominent role. And politics was never far behind:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe British empire in the early 1890s was nearing its global zenith, covering a quarter of the globe and dominating a quarter of the world\u2019s population. The threat posed by Russia had faded as Czar Alexander III sought to avoid major international conflicts while grappling with growing domestic challenges. Britain\u2019s purchase of the Suez Canal, meanwhile, had undermined French influence in the Middle East. Egypt was now out of the Ottoman orbit and under British sway.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This kind of broad view and depth of knowledge undergirds every chapter in the book. Lawler has clearly done his research, and he pulls together all the elements into a fascinating story that presents the city of Jerusalem in all of its facets, much like a kaleidoscope offering us many different views of the same object. It\u2019s hard to imagine a definitive book being written about such a complicated subject, but this one is as close as it gets. Lawler gives a comprehensive, even-handed, clear-headed story about one of the most argued over pieces of land on the earth. But this is no dry treatise. It\u2019s more of an adventure story with the main characters being archeologists and treasure seekers. Lovers of Indiana Jones and the\u00a0<em>Raiders of the Lost Ark<\/em>\u00a0won\u2019t be disappointed.<\/p>\n<p>Marissa Moss is a staff reviewer at New York Journal of Books.<\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"modal-footer\"><button class=\"fusion-button button-default button-medium button default medium\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\">Close<\/button><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><a class=\"fusion-modal-text-link\" data-toggle=\"modal\" data-target=\".fusion-modal.booklist2\" href=\"#\">\n<h3>Booklist<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><div class=\"fusion-modal modal fade modal-14 booklist2\" tabindex=\"-1\" role=\"dialog\" aria-labelledby=\"modal-heading-14\" aria-hidden=\"true\" style=\"--awb-border-color:#ebebeb;--awb-background:#f6f6f6;\"><div class=\"modal-dialog modal-lg\" role=\"document\"><div class=\"modal-content fusion-modal-content\"><div class=\"modal-header\"><button class=\"close\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\" aria-label=\"Close\">&times;<\/button><h3 class=\"modal-title\" id=\"modal-heading-14\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\">Booklist<\/h3><\/div><div class=\"modal-body fusion-clearfix\">\n<p>\u2014 Jenny Hamilton<\/p>\n<p>The first official excavations in Jerusalem\u2014a city sacred to three of the world\u2019s major religions\u2014began in the mid-1800s, when a French senator received an official permit from the sultan of the Ottoman Empire. In the century-and-a-half that followed, Jerusalem and its honeycomb of underground structures developed into a hotbed of political and scholarly controversy. Generations of Jerusalem archaeologists have insisted that their work is purely scientific and not political. But this entertaining and carefully argued book shows that the archaeology of this ancient city cannot be divorced from the complex knot of its politics. Journalist Lawler is evenhanded in his treatment of the thorny issues of religion, jurisdiction, and cultural heritage in Jerusalem; his care to credit the Arab workers from Silwan who long performed much of the archaeological grunt work is particularly notable in a book that necessarily focuses on the overwhelmingly Christian and Jewish archaeologists. At its heart, Under Jerusalem is a terrific story, bursting at the seams with dubiously legal digs and eccentric personalities.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"modal-footer\"><button class=\"fusion-button button-default button-medium button default medium\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\">Close<\/button><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><a class=\"fusion-modal-text-link\" data-toggle=\"modal\" data-target=\".fusion-modal.momentmag2\" href=\"#\">\n<h3>Moment Magazine<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><div class=\"fusion-modal modal fade modal-15 momentmag2\" tabindex=\"-1\" role=\"dialog\" aria-labelledby=\"modal-heading-15\" aria-hidden=\"true\" style=\"--awb-border-color:#ebebeb;--awb-background:#f6f6f6;\"><div class=\"modal-dialog modal-lg\" role=\"document\"><div class=\"modal-content fusion-modal-content\"><div class=\"modal-header\"><button class=\"close\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\" aria-label=\"Close\">&times;<\/button><h3 class=\"modal-title\" id=\"modal-heading-15\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\">Moment Magazine<\/h3><\/div><div class=\"modal-body fusion-clearfix\">\n<div class=\"BaseWrap-sc-TURhJ ContentHeaderRubricDateBlock-eerpLH eTiIvU jgMsiV\" data-testid=\"ContentHeaderRubricDateBlock\">\n<div class=\"RubricWrapper-cSFBEL llbSZh rubric ContentHeaderRubricContainer-eXoFpZ floLYB\">\n<div class=\"entry-meta woodmart-entry-meta\">\n<p>BY <a href=\"https:\/\/momentmag.com\/author\/ori-z\/\" rel=\"author\"><span class=\"vcard author author_name\"><span class=\"fn\">ORI Z. SOLTES<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"meta-post-categories\"><a href=\"https:\/\/momentmag.com\/category\/2021-november-december\/\" rel=\"category tag\">2021 November\/December<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/momentmag.com\/category\/arts-culture\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Arts &amp; Culture<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/momentmag.com\/category\/topics\/book-review-topics\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Book Review<\/a><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h1 class=\"entry-title fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" data-fontsize=\"38\" data-lineheight=\"41.799999px\">Book Review | Beneath the City of God<\/h1>\n<div class=\"reviewer\">\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/318TDDN\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Under Jerusalem: The Buried History of the World\u2019s Most Controversial City<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The rabbinic tradition speaks of a Jerusalem above and a Jerusalem below. It imagines the earthbound city as a reflection of a heavenly one\u2014the latter perfect and the former aspiring to perfection. The earthbound metropolis itself also has a dual personality: It is a sacred city, but one in which the profane, often ugly realities of everyday life play out. It is a city focused on a universal God of love that consistently yields expressions of schism and violence. Religion and politics have for two millennia found a particularly intense interplay in this city of contradictions, in which the shifting of a brick in an obscure neighborhood can yield cataclysmic consequences.<\/p>\n<p>Andrew Lawler\u2019s magisterial\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/318TDDN\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Under Jerusalem<\/a>\u00a0contributes a unique addition to the copious literature focused on the eternal city. He introduces another split in Jerusalem\u2019s personality: the city above ground, which drags the past into the present and sometimes glimpses the future; and its buried history, the Jerusalem below the ground, honeycombed with tunnels and chambers that attract spiritual and material archaeologists.<\/p>\n<p>Lawler has plunged beneath the surface to the hidden under-city, searching for hints of Jerusalem above within Jerusalem below. In so doing, he has also translated its incessant politics into poetry. He weaves his narrative threads into a tight tapestry of historical and contemporary events, at once comic and tragic, viewed through the lens of the archaeological enterprise that began in the middle of the 19th century. That story features a series of Christian European personalities who arrived with varied agendas, both religious and secular.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>Lawler introduces a split in Jerusalem\u2019s personality: the city above ground, which drags the past into the present and sometimes the future; and its buried history.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Some of those digging were determined to prove or disprove passages from the Bible or to locate the key paraphernalia from the destroyed Temple, whether they meant Solomon\u2019s Temple, torched by the Babylonians in 586 BCE, or the Second Temple amplified by Herod and burned to the ground by the Romans in 70 CE. Sought-after objects included the \u201cshew tables\u201d that held Temple offerings, the menorah, the curtain hanging before the Holy of Holies, and the Ark of the Covenant with or without its stone tablets. Some sought the sepulcher of Christ; others engaged in a new crusade to wrest the Temple Mount\u2014Noble Sanctuary, in Arabic\u2014from the minds of the Muslims; others simply hoped to establish a definitive material chronology of civilizations that had held hegemony over Jerusalem.<\/p>\n<p>Part I of Lawler\u2019s narrative follows the vertical digging and horizontal tunneling, boldly by day or stealthily by night, of the intrepid explorers who burrowed within Jerusalem\u2019s belly for a century, ranging from the French Louis-Felicien Joseph de Saulcy (1807-1880) to the British Kathleen Kenyon (1906-1978). From the 1860s to the 1960s, these and many other individuals pushed their Sisyphean ambitions uphill as humanity expanded and imploded\u2014experiencing industrial and scientific greatness,\u00a0<em>fin de si\u00e8cle<\/em>\u00a0malaise and a horrifying taste for increasingly brutal wars. Meanwhile, the old walled city of Jerusalem itself moved from Ottoman to British to Jordanian to Israeli political control.<\/p>\n<p>Lawler\u2019s fast-paced adventure-story account of what they did, what they found\u2014and, more often, what they failed to find\u2014yields to more recent stories of equally colorful characters. Israeli archaeologists, right-wing Israeli politicians and American entrepreneurs are among those who have broadened and<br \/>\ndeepened\u2014pun intended\u2014the topographical parameters of this enterprise.<\/p>\n<p>Complications included the more-than-occasional crises that arose from interaction with the local Muslim-Arab population, fearful and suspicious since 1863 as to what exactly these outsiders are really up to down there, digging around, potentially tunneling under the vast platform of the Noble Sanctuary. Part II, accordingly, takes up the politics of religion and the religion of politics, the topography of history and the history of topography, and another, even longer list of professional and amateur archaeologists.<\/p>\n<p>After the Six-Day War in 1967, the former Temple platform and what lies beneath its surface became central to the larger discussion of Israel\u2019s relations with its Arab neighbors, in particular the Palestinians. Lawler recounts how at one point\u2014as negotiators after the 1993 Oslo Accords struggled to push past the assassination of Yitzchak Rabin and to birth a positive conclusion before the Clinton presidency ended\u2014Dennis Ross, the lead U.S. negotiator, floated a proposal to offer the PLO authority for the surface structures on the Temple Mount\/Noble Sanctuary (most notably, the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque) while granting Israelis authority beneath its surface, so that further archaeological exploration might proceed. (Alas, this suggestion yielded no result.)<\/p>\n<p>The life-and-death struggle for a lasting peace for earthbound Jerusalem (and its extended environs) transpires against the backdrop of persistent underground transformation. The Israelis extend the tunnel along the Western Wall of the Temple platform to exit along the Via Dolorosa; the Palestinians semi-clandestinely reshape \u201cSolomon\u2019s Stables\u201d near the southeast corner of the platform as a mosque. Most notably, the murkily funded Elad organization sponsors the digging of a complex south of the platform\u2014deep into areas thought to include the site of David\u2019s small capital city and of the Siloam Pool, where Jesus supposedly healed a blind<br \/>\nman\u2014transforming it into an underground biblical Disneyland.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout the book, public dramas intertwine with the private ones for which Jerusalem is renowned. An owner casually excavates the basement in his house or the back wall of his shop, which then yields some unpredictable archaeological, religious, legal or political complication\u2014most often, all four. Lawler sees a deeper layer of meaning in another feature for which aboveground Jerusalem is renowned: \u201cJerusalem syndrome,\u201d the local form of madness, in which an individual, usually a tourist, imagines himself a biblical prophet. The syndrome increased in frequency as the millennium approached; Lawler puts the surge into context, locating it within the larger madness of 160 years of lusting to possess and redirect the rivers of history flowing through this small hill town. Whatever their aim, seekers must wrestle with gravel and sludge, finding the occasional gold coins and the inevitable sewage.<\/p>\n<p>I do have two minor complaints. One: In an otherwise nuanced and even-handed narrative, I think that the appropriately painful account of the destruction by the Israelis of the Mughrabi Quarter after 1967 should be preceded by a more than merely passing reference to the wholesale destruction of synagogues in the Jewish quarter by the Jordanians in 1949-67. Two: Given an Author\u2019s Note in which Lawler demonstrates his awareness of language and its importance, it is distressing that he is not more careful to distinguish \u201cIsraelite\u201d from \u201cJudaean\u201d from \u201cJew(ish)\u201d and \u201cArab\u201d from \u201cMuslim\u201d\u2014both of which failures help perpetuate misconceptions regarding history and religion. But these complaints are minor compared to the overall power of his narrative. This is a spellbinding book\u2014and a reminder that, just when one might have imagined that nothing new could be written about Jerusalem, there is still more to be found beneath its surface.<\/p>\n<p><em>Ori Z. Soltes teaches across disciplines in the Center for Jewish Civilization at Georgetown University. He is the author of\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3o0oM5o\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Untangling the Middle East: A Guide to the Past, Present and Future of the World\u2019s Most Chaotic Region<\/a><em>\u00a0and teaches a course on \u201cJerusalem: City and Symbol.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"modal-footer\"><button class=\"fusion-button button-default button-medium button default medium\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\">Close<\/button><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><a class=\"fusion-modal-text-link\" data-toggle=\"modal\" data-target=\".fusion-modal.Kirku2\" href=\"#\">\n<h3>Kirkus<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><div class=\"fusion-modal modal fade modal-16 Kirku2\" tabindex=\"-1\" role=\"dialog\" aria-labelledby=\"modal-heading-16\" aria-hidden=\"true\" style=\"--awb-border-color:#ebebeb;--awb-background:#f6f6f6;\"><div class=\"modal-dialog modal-lg\" role=\"document\"><div class=\"modal-content fusion-modal-content\"><div class=\"modal-header\"><button class=\"close\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\" aria-label=\"Close\">&times;<\/button><h3 class=\"modal-title\" id=\"modal-heading-16\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\">Kirkus<\/h3><\/div><div class=\"modal-body fusion-clearfix\">\n<h3 class=\"fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" data-fontsize=\"22\" data-lineheight=\"24.200001px\"><em>A leisurely, entertaining walk through the ages with a pleasant, knowledgeable guide.<\/em><\/h3>\n<p class=\"selectionShareable\">An archaeological journey through the millennia in the Holy Land underscores the tensions between the biblical narrative and the historical record.<\/p>\n<p class=\"selectionShareable\">Lawler, a contributing writer for\u00a0<i>Science<\/i>\u00a0and contributing editor for\u00a0<i>Archaeology<\/i>, delves into the stubborn attempts to square religion and science through layers of excavation under the ancient \u201cgateway to heaven\u201d for Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Jerusalem, contested by the three major monotheist religions, does not give up its secrets easily, especially as each successive invasion and conquest has tended to bury\u2014or appropriate the construction material of\u2014the one before. In the mid-19th century, the first European treasure hunter (archaeology was not yet a scientific discipline), Louis-F\u00e9licien Joseph Caignart de Saulcy, with the Ottoman pasha\u2019s approval, began digging for artifacts under the once-great city, which had since fallen into decrepitude. He sought traces of King David\u2019s legendary conquest of the Jebusites circa 950 B.C.E., the Ark of the Covenant he brought and installed in a beautifully appointed temple, and the temple\u2019s destruction by the Babylonians and reconstruction in 516 B.C.E. under the Persians. The Frenchman unearthed the so-called Tomb of the Kings\u2014but which kings (or queens)? After David\u2019s son Solomon\u2019s glorious rule and Roman conquest, the Byzantine conversion to Christianity, and invasions by Muslims, Crusaders, Mamluks, Ottomans, and the British, there have been countless rulers of Jerusalem. On this note, Lawler quotes an Israeli archaeologist: \u201cEveryone who ruled Jerusalem did the same thing: built his tower and hoisted his flag.\u201d Subsequent mapping and discoveries\u2014from Charles Warren to Montagu Brownlow Parker to Eilat Mazar\u2014have not actually found the City of David, but intriguing artifacts and tunnels continue to feed public curiosity as well as rage by the various Jewish and Arab factions over what is deemed desecration. Lawler\u2019s narrative is easy to follow, the timeline is helpful, and the maps are excellent.<\/p>\n<p>A leisurely, entertaining walk through the ages with a pleasant, knowledgeable guide.<\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"modal-footer\"><button class=\"fusion-button button-default button-medium button default medium\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\">Close<\/button><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><a class=\"fusion-modal-text-link\" data-toggle=\"modal\" data-target=\".fusion-modal.jewishinsider2\" href=\"#\">\n<h3>Jewish Insider<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><div class=\"fusion-modal modal fade modal-17 jewishinsider2\" tabindex=\"-1\" role=\"dialog\" aria-labelledby=\"modal-heading-17\" aria-hidden=\"true\" style=\"--awb-border-color:#ebebeb;--awb-background:#f6f6f6;\"><div class=\"modal-dialog modal-lg\" role=\"document\"><div class=\"modal-content fusion-modal-content\"><div class=\"modal-header\"><button class=\"close\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\" aria-label=\"Close\">&times;<\/button><h3 class=\"modal-title\" id=\"modal-heading-17\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\">Jewish Insider<\/h3><\/div><div class=\"modal-body fusion-clearfix\">\n<div class=\"tagline\">\n<div class=\"title headline\">\n<h1 class=\"x-large-title fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" data-fontsize=\"38\" data-lineheight=\"41.799999px\">Eleven new books to read in November<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"dek\">\n<p><em>The books on JI\u2019s shelf this month<\/em><\/p>\n<section class=\"header\">\n<div class=\"header-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"byline\">\n<div class=\"authors\">\n<p><span class=\"by\">By <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/jewishinsider.com\/authors\/melissa-weiss\/\">Melissa Weiss<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"date\">November 1, 2021<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"body p1\">In the third installment of a new series exploring new and upcoming books, the team at\u00a0<em>Jewish Insider\u00a0<\/em>previews 11 new titles coming out in November:<\/section>\n<section><\/section>\n<section class=\"body p1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3nKflpt\"><strong><em>Both\/And: A Life in Many Words<\/em><\/strong><\/a><strong>, by Huma Abedin (Nov. 2):\u00a0<\/strong>The memoir from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton\u2019s senior aide explores her early life in Saudi Arabia, turbulent marriage to former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) and travels to Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.<\/section>\n<section><\/section>\n<section class=\"body p1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3btSrge\"><strong><em>Our Country Friends<\/em><\/strong><\/a><strong>, by Gary Shteyngart (Nov. 2):\u00a0<\/strong>When COVID-19 hit, Shteyngart turned attention away from the book he had been working on to write a pandemic novel about a group of friends who retreat to a country home in upstate New York at the start of the pandemic.<\/section>\n<section><\/section>\n<section class=\"body p1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3mwu8Vl\"><strong><em>Misfire: Inside the Downfall of the NRA<\/em><\/strong><\/a><strong>, by Tim Mak (Nov. 2):\u00a0<\/strong>The expos\u00e9 of the NRA looks at the waning influence the special interest group carried in Washington under the leadership of CEO Wayne LaPierre.<\/section>\n<section><\/section>\n<section class=\"body p1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3brWKse\"><strong><em>Under Jerusalem: The Buried History of the World\u2019s Most Contested City<\/em><\/strong><\/a><strong>, by Andrew Lawler (Nov. 2):\u00a0<\/strong>Lawler\u2019s third book takes a look at the 150-year history of the complicated and sometimes controversial archeological digs \u2014 oftentimes conducted by amateurs with a taste of adventure and finding treasure \u2014 under the city of Jerusalem.<\/section>\n<section><\/section>\n<section class=\"body p1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3EvIQlx\"><strong><em>Lightning Down: A World War II Story of Survival<\/em><\/strong><\/a><strong>, by Tom Clavin (Nov. 2):\u00a0<\/strong>In his 10th book, Clavin tells the harrowing but true story of 22-year-old Joe Moser, a WWII fighter pilot shot down over France and taken to Buchenwald, instead of a POW camp.<strong>\u200b\u200b<\/strong><\/section>\n<section><\/section>\n<section class=\"body p1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3BumqPD\"><strong><em>Gaza Conflict 2021<\/em><\/strong><\/a><strong>, by Jonathan Schanzer (Nov. 10):\u00a0<\/strong>Schanzer, the vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, takes on Hamas 13 years after his\u00a0<em>Hamas vs. Fatah<\/em>\u00a0shone a light on the power dynamics at play among warring Palestinian factions.<\/section>\n<section><\/section>\n<section class=\"body p1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3wg0siB\"><strong><em>The New Zionists: Young American Jews, Jewish National Identity, and Israel<\/em><\/strong><\/a><strong>, by David Graizbord (Nov. 15):<\/strong>\u00a0Through interviews with millennials and Gen-Zers, Graizbord analyzes the connections between young Jewish Americans, their religious identities and Zionism.<\/section>\n<section><\/section>\n<section class=\"body p1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2ZKI3hS\"><strong><em>Twelve Tribes: Promise and Peril in the New Israel<\/em><\/strong><\/a><strong><em>, by Ethan Michaeli<\/em><\/strong><strong>\u00a0(Nov. 16):\u00a0<\/strong>While traveling across Israel, Michaeli takes an in-depth look at the patchwork of identities that make up contemporary Israeli society, from kibbutzniks to Ethiopian olim to Israeli Arabs.<\/section>\n<section><\/section>\n<section class=\"body p1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3EBghTB\"><strong><em>Paths of the Righteous. Stories of Heroism, Humanity and Hope<\/em><\/strong><\/a><strong>, by Ari Mittleman:\u00a0<\/strong>Mittleman highlights the stories of eight non-Jewish individuals, including former British Labour Party MP Joan Ryan and Holocaust restitution attorney Markus Stoetzel, who have acted as allies to Israel and the Jewish community.<em>\u00a0(Released in Israel; U.S. release is next month.)\u00a0<\/em><\/section>\n<section><\/section>\n<section class=\"body p1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3nFp7ZQ\"><strong><em>Why Do Jewish? A Manifesto for 21st Century Jewish Peoplehood<\/em><\/strong><\/a><strong>, by Zach Bodner (Nov. 25):\u00a0<\/strong>Bodner, a longtime Jewish community leader, spearheads a broader conversation about Jewish peoplehood while looking at how Jewish history and wisdom can set the community on course for a meaningful future.<\/section>\n<section><\/section>\n<section class=\"body p1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3EBr28O\"><strong><em>All About Me!: My Remarkable Life in Show Business<\/em><\/strong><\/a><strong>, by Mel Brooks (Nov. 30):\u00a0<\/strong>In his first\u00a0memoir, the 95-year-old Brooks looks back at his rise to the top echelon of American comedy, spanning the Great Depression to the new millennium, and gives a window into his personal life and friendships with Hollywood\u2019s top names.<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><div class=\"modal-footer\"><button class=\"fusion-button button-default button-medium button default medium\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\">Close<\/button><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><a class=\"fusion-modal-text-link\" data-toggle=\"modal\" data-target=\".fusion-modal.PalestineExquarterly2\" href=\"#\">\n<h3>Palestine Exploration Quarterly<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><div class=\"fusion-modal modal fade modal-18 PalestineExquarterly2\" tabindex=\"-1\" role=\"dialog\" aria-labelledby=\"modal-heading-18\" aria-hidden=\"true\" style=\"--awb-border-color:#ebebeb;--awb-background:#f6f6f6;\"><div class=\"modal-dialog modal-lg\" role=\"document\"><div class=\"modal-content fusion-modal-content\"><div class=\"modal-header\"><button class=\"close\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\" aria-label=\"Close\">&times;<\/button><h3 class=\"modal-title\" id=\"modal-heading-18\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\">Palestine Exploration Quaterly<\/h3><\/div><div class=\"modal-body fusion-clearfix\"><a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/00310328.2022.2070247\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Link to Review\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>This book deals with the thorny issue of how archaeology has been and is conducted in Jerusalem, home to the religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam and the monuments sacred to them, and the city at the heart of the Palestinian\u2013Israeli conflict. It explores the motivations of those doing the excavating, the effects their actions have had, both intentional and unintentional, and the effects on our understanding of Jerusalem\u2019s past. It also explores how cultural heritage has been hijacked and manipulated by various political and ideological factions, each wanting to control Jerusalem\u2019s narrative, and how the inhabitants of the city have been excluded from participating in the discovery of the history and heritage of their home. It is an extremely important book, and I am very glad it was written by someone who knows how to write and who has a wide readership.<\/p>\n<p>The book begins with a schematic map of the Middle East, with an insert close-up of the southern Levant. After a brief Author\u2019s Note comes the Introduction, which is announced with a map of the Old City of Jerusalem, the platform of the Haram ash-Sharif \/ Temple Mount \/ Har HaBayit and its environs, with the main sites of interest marked. This is a very necessary and detailed introduction in which Lawler sets out his stall, and describes the conventions he has settled on for place and site names. He also explains that for the greater part of the book, because of an enduring historical imbalance in representation, the vast majority of voices are those of outsiders\u2014British, French, Ottoman, as well as European and American immigrants to the region, rather than the voices of the Jewish, Armenian, or Arab residents of Jerusalem and its environs.<\/p>\n<p>The book is then divided into three parts, covering the last 160 or so years of exploration in Jerusalem. The first part deals with the largest time span, beginning in the Ottoman period in 1850 and ending with the Six Day War in 1967. It opens with the French senator Louis-F\u00e9licien Joseph Caignart de Saulcy\u2019s exploration of the Tombs of the Kings outside the Old City, before exploring in some detail Charles Warren\u2019s work for the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF) around the Haram ash-Sharif and the Ophel Ridge, Bliss and Dickie\u2019s continuation of that exploration in the 1890s, and the notorious Parker expedition of 1909\u20131911, which trespassed within the walls of the Haram itself and nearly caused a war. Lawler then looks at archaeology during the British Mandate period from 1919 to 1948 and examines in particular the professional structures and organisations that emerged to control archaeological exploration and to encourage scholarship in the region. These include the establishment of the Department of Antiquities, the Rockefeller Museum, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and the British School of Archaeology at Jerusalem. Kathleen Kenyon and P\u00e8re de Vaux\u2019s excavations in and around the Old City are a particular focus.<\/p>\n<p>Parts 2 and 3 investigate archaeology in the city under Israeli control, starting with the destruction of the historic Maghrebi Quarter to open up the Western Wall Plaza, and Benjamin Mazar\u2019s excavations around the Temple Mount, and continuing to include the Tunnel Project along the Western Wall, the City of David and Givati Parking Lot excavations run by ELAD in Silwan south of the Old City, the Waqf\u2019s controversial rehabilitation of the Marwani prayer space within Solomon\u2019s Stables on the Haram ash-Sharif, and the subsequent controversial Sifting Project that arose out of it. As the story progresses, the entanglement<\/p>\n<p>PALESTINE EXPLORATION QUARTERLY with politics and ideologies grows ever greater. The three parts are further subdivided into several chapters, each of which explores a particular project, or sites of investigation, and is furnished with a map of the Old City, showing the location of the sites in question. These recurring maps are one of my favourite features of the book. They help to orientate the reader and keep them focused on the particular story the chapter concerns itself with.<\/p>\n<p>Familiar names to the student of the history of Jerusalem\u2019s exploration appear throughout: de Saulcy, Charles Warren, Conrad Schick, the Palestine Exploration Fund, the \u00c9cole Biblique, P\u00e8re Vincent, Kathleen Kenyon, and Israeli archaeologists such as Benjamin and Eilat Mazar, Gabriel Barkay, Dan Bahat, Israel Finkelstein, Ronnie Reich, and Rafi Greenberg.<\/p>\n<p>Then there are religious leaders like Rabbis Getz, Yosef, and Goren, and the members of the Waqf, the custodians of the Haram ash-Sharif and the Islamic holy places contained within. And of course, there are political figures such as Yitzak Rabin, Yasser Arafat, Bill Clinton, Ariel Sharon and Binyamin Netanyahu. What is significant is the way that Lawler tells these stories together, demonstrating how the actions, beliefs and opinions of the early explorers have influenced later practitioners, to create an enduring narrative which, never mind what really lies beneath, has been manipulated and exploited for various goals.<\/p>\n<p>Palestinian and Arab voices are rare, not by design but because of the imbalance the author describes in the introduction. As time progresses, they play an increasingly important role, and we hear not just from the Waqf and the PLO, but from Palestinian archaeologists Namzi Jubeh, Ehab Jallab, and Hani Nur el-Din, as well as residents including Abdek Salam Hirbawi, (whose cellar near the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City was the cause of a major argument between his family and the monks of the Church in the 1980s), and Miriam Bashir, whose house in Silwan is, like so many others, slowly becoming uninhabitable due to subsidence.<\/p>\n<p>Jerusalem\u2019s story is immensely complex, but Lawler deftly weaves the numerous threads together to present us with a very comprehensive tapestry. What he reveals is that despite the momentous changes which have taken place over the last 160 or so years covered here, there is a surprising continuity of several themes which reveal themselves as the book progresses. Altogether, these themes present an unflattering portrait of archaeological practice in Jerusalem from the early work of former colonial powers, the French, Ottomans, and the British up to 1914, through the new era of colonial rule of the British Mandate (1918\u2013 1948), and finally into the modern era of Israeli control and the Israel-Palestine conflict.<\/p>\n<p>Tunnelling is a method of revealing Jerusalem\u2019s past out of sight of its residents. Introduced by Warren in the 19th century, it has been continued by successive excavators ever since. It is not regarded today as good archaeological practice, and would not be countenanced elsewhere. But in Jerusalem, the desire to reveal its biblical past at any cost and by any means overrides other concerns. The same could be said of the use of bulldozers\u2014not the most delicate item in the archaeologist\u2019s toolbox, but apparently fine in Jerusalem, if used with care (pp. 142\u201346).<\/p>\n<p>Religious belief has been a huge feature of most activities from the outset. All of the various agencies have, to varying degrees, favoured biblical eras over those earlier and, especially, later, an imbalance which exists even now. It has undoubtedly resulted in the destruction of a huge amount of Late Antiquity and Medieval archaeology. These religious beliefs have also been harnessed by political agendas, whether Christian colonialist, or Jewish Zionist.<\/p>\n<p>Both are linked, and both have resulted in the local population having been side-lined from the exploration and explanation of Jerusalem\u2019s past, in favour of producing a particular narrative that supports a political or ideological interpretation.<\/p>\n<p>This is perhaps the saddest theme that Lawler draws out. In all periods, the local population has been systematically ignored and cut out of the archaeological conversation happening on its doorstep. This has resulted in and enduring mistrust of archaeology and archaeologists, and a flourishing illicit antiquities trade, which today the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), through its lax antiquities laws, cannot hope to effectively control. This exclusive approach began as a feature of a colonial world view, where local residents were seen as a source of labour, and as facilitators, but as little else. Here, de Saulcy, Warren, and others are guilty as charged. Despite the political changes of the 20th century this approach has been sustained, and continues today, with Arab labour supplying much of the muscle for the excavations taking place around and beneath Jerusalem. Whilst this model offers employment and involvement, it is not agency, and these workers and residents have little say in the interpretation, or the narrative produced, or indeed in the economic benefits of the tourism resulting from the archaeology. Hopefully, with the emergence of professional Palestinian archaeologists in recent years, and archaeological courses gaining traction at universities such as Al Quds and Birzeit, this will change to some extent at least.<\/p>\n<p>Lawler investigates the fissures in the various Christian and Jewish communities that have a bearing on the archaeology of Jerusalem, which the outsider may be less aware of. He skilfully brings out some of the profound differences of opinion that have existed within different sectors of Jewish and Israeli communities: fears that archaeology might \u2018uncover the truth\u2019 and demolish religion-based claims to Jerusalem, fears that archaeologists might, through their work, desecrate Jewish graves, as well as a secular Zionist desire to use archaeology to uncover proof of the city\u2019s \u2018Jewish past\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>As the book approaches the near past and present, Lawler plots the growing power of extreme right-wing Zionism characterised by Ariel Sharon and Binyamin Netanyahu\u2019s Likud party, which began to \u2018flex its muscles\u2019 in the 1990s, just as an attempt at bringing about peace was made with the Oslo Accords. With the right-wing taking charge in Israel, settler organisations such as ELAD, with funding support from outside Israel, also began to take a far more active\u2014and controversial\u2014role in the politics and the archaeology of Jerusalem whereby archaeology is used to change the city\u2019s demographic and to control the narrative of its past. This can be seen particularly clearly in ELAD\u2019s City of David project, which presents the visitor with a clear and compelling, but ultimately fictitious, vision of a Jerusalem where Judaism is the primary cultural influence of significance, and dominates, unfettered with the complex realities of a multi-religious and multi-ethnic past and present.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, Arab leaders have sought to counteract a \u2018Jewish identity\u2019 in Jerusalem by claiming that\u2014despite very compelling evidence to the contrary\u2014the Temple was not where the Haram ash-Sharif now stands, but was located elsewhere, perhaps even outside Jerusalem altogether. Whilst this idea has not attracted as much traction in the wider world as the agenda of the settler movement, it is important to realise that propaganda is not the exclusive tool of one side or the other.<\/p>\n<p>Under numerous international laws and rules (the Hague Convention and its two protocols; 1970 UNESCO; 1995 UNIDROIT), it is considered illegal to excavate in any territory that is in dispute. Archaeological projects did not, however, stop in 1967: if anything, they have increased in frequency and ambition. Because of the hectic pace of activity, and the increasing involvement of the Israel Antiquities Authority, even in areas it would have previously steered clear of, it is easy to forget that all this work, where it takes place in areas under occupation, remains illegal under International Law. These are laws and conventions that the State of Israel does not recognise, and instead it sees the jurisdiction of the IAA as sovereign throughout, except on the Haram ash-Sharif itself where the Waqf is in control. It is important to understand that this does not mean that these laws do not exist; they are just continually broken in Jerusalem and elsewhere in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.<\/p>\n<p>This issue of International Law as applied to excavation in occupied territories is brought up only once in the book. Perhaps the author felt it should be handled with a light touch, but personally, I feel it could have been given more weight, as it is so pertinent, if not critical to the subject.<\/p>\n<p>The power of Lawler\u2019s account increases as we get closer to the present day. He is a journalist, and his talent for journalism is on display, especially in the latter part of the book. His text is full of first-hand accounts from those involved\u2014the archaeologists, sometimes those connected with the political power-players in Jerusalem and in Washington, and occasionally those who are directly affected by the archaeology and the politics being carried out both above and below them. These first-hand accounts give the book an immediacy and honesty which is quite gripping. Lawler has spent a great deal of time cultivating relationships with those people who are central to the story, and the book is all the better for it.<\/p>\n<p>The book is not without its flaws: there is very little mention of the American, French and German interests in Jerusalem in the Ottoman period, beyond occasional references to the wider political jostling of the so-called \u2018Great Game\u2019, and whilst we occasionally hear of the involvement of the \u00c9cole Biblique, there is hardly mention beyond acknowledgement of the American Schools of Oriental Research which exist today as the Albright Institute in Sheikh Jarrah, north of the Old City. Granted, their involvement in the archaeology of Jerusalem has not been so direct, but they were, and remain, a part of the archaeological community resident in the city.<\/p>\n<p>There are also errors in the characterisation of some organisations, such as the American Colony of the Spafford family, which Lawler describes as a group of missionaries, whereas, in reality, the family had not come to Jerusalem to proselytise, but rather to heal through work in the aftermath of terrible tragedies. The PEF is almost a character in its own right in Lawler\u2019s book and is portrayed as an organisation, the committee and membership of which were entirely motivated and driven by an exclusive interest in the Bible, through which it might serve colonial interests. It is true that biblical concerns featured heavily in the PEF\u2019s early days; yet, it seems this was much more to do with how the founders understood the means by which they could attract funding and support than anything else. The PEF\u2019s interests were far broader, as a look at the pages of the PEF Quarterly Statement (today\u2019s PEQ) will show, and it always walked something of a tightrope between balancing its own, broad, scholarship-driven agenda with the expectations of its membership, which, by and large, was more biblically orientated than its core committee. At the PEF\u2019s inaugural meeting in June 1865, the Rev. H. B. Tristram (very much a Darwinian) was at pains to promote the study of the region\u2019s natural history for its own sake, because it was interesting (Proceedings and Notes of the Palestine Exploration Fund 1865, p. 15), and G. Gilbert Scott Esq., R.A., included the architecture of Classical, Byzantine and Islamic periods in his discussion, and called for excavators to take account of the debris in which the architecture was embedded (Proceedings and Notes, p. 22). The PEF also employed William Flinders Petrie to excavate on its behalf Tell el-Hesi in the 1890s which Lawler refers to, and at which Palestine\u2019s pre-classical past was first given some structure. Indeed, it was the scientific methodology employed by Petrie at Hesi that laid the stratigraphic foundations for all subsequent, competent excavation work in Palestine and beyond.<\/p>\n<p>When, later, the British School of Archaeology (BSAJ) was founded at the beginning of the British Mandate in 1919, Lawler describes it thus: \u2018Unlike the Palestinian [sic] Exploration Fund, the organisation [the BSAJ] would seek more than biblical remains\u2019 (p. 120\u201321). Then, he goes on to list its interest in \u2018Canaanite, Graeco-Roman, Byzantine, Arab, and Medieval periods\u2019 and its characteristic as a non-religious and non-political body. However, he could almost be quoting, in slightly modernised language, from the 1865 prospectus of the PEF! This of course makes perfect sense, as the PEF was very much behind the establishment of the BSAJ in Jerusalem. Both organisations seem to have been unrealistically na\u00efve about steering clear of controversy and politics and their academic motivations were very similar. At the time of its establishment, the only difference was that the BSAJ had no covert colonial role because, at this point, Britain had colonised Palestine. The BSAJ did not need to keep its supporters interested with biblical material because it was funded directly by the British government. Lawler\u2019s representation of the PEF through this narrow, \u2018biblically infected\u2019 viewfinder is irritating, but does it matter? Well, yes, because the PEF plays such a large part in the narrative of the book particularly in the first part, but throughout as its influence endures.<\/p>\n<p>The challenge to the biblical interpretation of Jerusalem\u2019s past, and in particular the period relating to the \u2018United Monarchy\u2019 of David and Solomon is discussed. In Lawler\u2019s account, the main challenge is laid down by Israel Finkelstein. It is inaccurate to suggest that it was Finkelstein alone who made others question the chronology based on the biblical narratives. There have been many who have, more generally, questioned the relationship between biblical history and archaeological reality. To mention just two: Kenyon\u2019s excavations at Jericho in the 1950s made a new scepticism possible, as did the publication of Thomas Thompson\u2019s Historicity of the Patriarchal Narratives in the 1970s. I think the significant point is that Finkelstein was the first Israeli archaeologist to openly question biblical chronology, and by so doing made it harder for the inconsistencies to be ignored by Israeli archaeology.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, right at the beginning of the book, in the introduction, Lawler makes a distinction between the archaeology of an inhabited city like Jerusalem and abandoned tells like that of Jericho. He is right, of course. Excavating any currently inhabited site comes with added complexity, and Jerusalem is as complex as it gets, but to describe Middle Eastern tells as \u2018high mounds resembling layer cakes, with the old neatly stacked beneath the more recent\u2019 (p. xxvi) is over-simplifying to say the least. I can almost hear a collective sharp intake of breath from the excavators of such sites.<\/p>\n<p>These criticisms aside, Andrew Lawler has written an extremely powerful, honest, and important book. With great clarity and skill, he takes the reader on a tour through Jerusalem\u2019s labyrinthine subterranean world, and amazingly, despite the almost unbelievable complexities of the story, he never loses his way. This book should be read by every person interested in the cultural heritage of Jerusalem and the region, its past, present, and future.<\/p>\n<p>References<\/p>\n<p>Kenyon, K., &amp; Holland, T. A., 1960\u20131983. Excavations at Jericho 1952\u201358, Vols. 1\u20135. BSAJ.<\/p>\n<p>Palestine Exploration Fund, 1865. Proceedings and Notes of the Palestine Exploration Fund, Vol. 1. Thompson, T. L., 1975. The Historicity of the Patriarchal Narratives. De Gruyter.<\/p>\n<p>Felicity Cobbing<\/div><div class=\"modal-footer\"><button class=\"fusion-button button-default button-medium button default medium\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\">Close<\/button><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><a class=\"fusion-modal-text-link\" data-toggle=\"modal\" data-target=\".fusion-modal.jewishcommvoice2\" href=\"#\">\n<h3>Jewish Community Voice<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><div class=\"fusion-modal modal fade modal-19 jewishcommvoice2\" tabindex=\"-1\" role=\"dialog\" aria-labelledby=\"modal-heading-19\" aria-hidden=\"true\" style=\"--awb-border-color:#ebebeb;--awb-background:#f6f6f6;\"><div class=\"modal-dialog modal-lg\" role=\"document\"><div class=\"modal-content fusion-modal-content\"><div class=\"modal-header\"><button class=\"close\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\" aria-label=\"Close\">&times;<\/button><h3 class=\"modal-title\" id=\"modal-heading-19\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\">Jewish Community Voice<\/h3><\/div><div class=\"modal-body fusion-clearfix\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.jewishvoicesnj.org\/articles\/new-books-from-israel-for-this-month-of-yom-haatzmaut\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Link to review<\/a><\/p>\n<h1 class=\"article__heading fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" data-fontsize=\"38\" data-lineheight=\"41.799999px\">New books from Israel for this month of Yom Ha\u2019atzmaut<\/h1>\n<p>Our roundtable is a bit less well-rounded as we say farewell to our colleague and friend, Irene Afek, who has co-written this column with us, sharing her insights and knowledge. We wish Irene all the best, and we know that she will continue to be held in high regard by everyone who has the good fortune to know her!<\/p>\n<p>This month brings us the important Israeli holidays of Yom Ha\u2019atzmaut (Israel Independence Day) and Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day). Several new books, both fiction and non-fiction, are especially appropriate as we celebrate Israel.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AMY:<\/strong>\u00a0We\u2019ll begin with Israeli non-fiction. The first archaeological dig in Jerusalem was conducted in 1863, and since then, archaeologists and adventurers of many religions and nationalities have searched beneath the holy city seeking treasure, fame, and proof of the events chronicled in religious texts. \u201cUnder Jerusalem\u201d by Andrew Lawler tells the history of efforts to dig up secrets buried beneath the city. The author delves into thorny political and religious controversies created when people dig into the many layers under Jerusalem. Extensive notes, maps, and other materials underscore the scholarly nature of Lawler\u2019s work, yet the book reads like an exciting adventure story.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AMY:<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cThe Israeli Century: How the Zionist Revolution Changed History and Reinvented Judaism\u201d by Yossi Shain is sure to spark discussion. Shain\u2019s premise is that the Diaspora is shrinking in size and influence, and in the future, Israel will define Jewish identity and life. The author explains the historical developments, as far back as ancient times, that have led to this conclusion, focusing on the development of Reform Judaism in Europe and America, and the tension between Reform and Zionism.<\/p>\n<p><strong>MINNA:<\/strong>\u00a0Matti Friedman\u2019s newest book, \u201cWho By Fire,\u201d subtitled \u201cLeonard Cohen in the Sinai,\u201d brings together the traumatic events of the Yom Kippur War in October 1973 with the musician suffering a career crisis. Partly based on a 45-page manuscript Leonard Cohen wrote shortly after the war that the author used with the permission of Cohen\u2019s estate, Friedman expands upon that with his own investigative journalism to describe the weeks Cohen spent giving concerts in the Sinai to small groups of soldiers and to analyze what that meant for both Leonard Cohen\u2019s subsequent life and career and the country of Israel.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AMY:<\/strong>\u00a0Let\u2019s turn now to Israeli fiction. Fans of mysteries may well be familiar with Jonathan Dunsky\u2019s Adam Lapid series. This series is set in the early days of the State of Israel, and Adam is a Holocaust survivor as well as a private detective. The newest series entry is \u201cA Death in Jerusalem,\u201d set at a time when the Israeli government was considering negotiating with Germany for Holocaust reparations and many viewed such negotiations as an abomination. On January 7, 1952, protestors stormed the Knesset after an anti-reparations demonstration, and Dunsky uses consequences of this actual historic moment to bring a wealthy industrialist into the novel; this man wants Adam to solve the mystery surrounding his daughter\u2019s suicide. Plot turns and twists keep readers turning the pages.<\/p>\n<p><strong>MINNA:<\/strong>\u00a0A debut collection of 11 short stories by a young Israeli author now living in New York, \u201cThe Man Who Sold Air in the Holy Land\u201d by Omer Friedlander is whimsical and imaginative, with most stories set in Israel both past and present. The various stories take place in diverse locations from Jerusalem to the Negev to Tsfat. The title story, for example, is about a father and daughter who sell bottles of \u201choly air\u201d to tourists on Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv. The author himself grew up in Tel Aviv, although he spent two childhood years living in Princeton,<\/p>\n<p>New Jersey, and holds degrees from Cambridge and Boston University. Friedlander is currently at work on his first full-length novel.<\/p>\n<p><strong>MINNA:<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cJerusalem Beach\u201d by Iddo Gefen is another debut collection of 13 short stories, this one written in Hebrew and translated into English by Daniella Zamir. These stories, set in contemporary Israel, combine humor with an interest in technology and the brain, relating to the author\u2019s background in neurocognitive research. The title story concerns a woman with Alzheimer\u2019s who has a \u201cmemory\u201d of snow on the beach in Jerusalem. Rights to several of the stories have already been sold to TV and film production companies in Hollywood. Gefen\u2019s debut novel will be published next year.<\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"modal-footer\"><button class=\"fusion-button button-default button-medium button default medium\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\">Close<\/button><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-10 fusion_builder_column_1_3 1_3 fusion-flex-column\" style=\"--awb-bg-size:cover;--awb-width-large:33.333333333333%;--awb-margin-top-large:0px;--awb-spacing-right-large:5.76%;--awb-margin-bottom-large:20px;--awb-spacing-left-large:5.76%;--awb-width-medium:100%;--awb-order-medium:0;--awb-spacing-right-medium:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-medium:1.92%;--awb-width-small:100%;--awb-order-small:0;--awb-spacing-right-small:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-small:1.92%;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-column-has-shadow fusion-flex-justify-content-flex-start fusion-content-layout-column\"><a class=\"fusion-modal-text-link\" data-toggle=\"modal\" data-target=\".fusion-modal.haaretz\" href=\"#\">\n<h3>Haaretz<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><div class=\"fusion-modal modal fade modal-20 haaretz\" tabindex=\"-1\" role=\"dialog\" aria-labelledby=\"modal-heading-20\" aria-hidden=\"true\" style=\"--awb-border-color:#ebebeb;--awb-background:#f6f6f6;\"><div class=\"modal-dialog modal-lg\" role=\"document\"><div class=\"modal-content fusion-modal-content\"><div class=\"modal-header\"><button class=\"close\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\" aria-label=\"Close\">&times;<\/button><h3 class=\"modal-title\" id=\"modal-heading-20\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\">Haaretz<\/h3><\/div><div class=\"modal-body fusion-clearfix\">\n<div class=\"gmail-at gmail-au gmail-av gmail-aw gmail-ae gmail-ax gmail-ay gmail-az gmail-ai gmail-aj gmail-ba gmail-bb gmail-bc gmail-ak gmail-an gmail-ao gmail-bd gmail-be\">\n<h1 class=\"gmail-bi gmail-bj gmail-bk gmail-bl gmail-bm gmail-bn gmail-bo gmail-bp gmail-bq fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" data-fontsize=\"38\" data-lineheight=\"41.799999px\">How 19th Century Western Archaeologists Made Jerusalem a Zionist Dream<\/h1>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"gmail-kw gmail-kx gmail-ky gmail-kz gmail-la gmail-lb gmail-lc gmail-ld gmail-le gmail-lf\">The search for biblical treasures starting in the 19th century fundamentally changed the way Westerners, including Jews, saw Jerusalem. The consequences were enormous<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"gmail-bu gmail-a gmail-b gmail-lg gmail-lh gmail-li gmail-lj gmail-lk gmail-ll gmail-lm gmail-ln gmail-lo gmail-lp gmail-lq gmail-lr gmail-ls gmail-lt gmail-lu gmail-lv gmail-d gmail-e\">\n<div class=\"gmail-a ew gmail-lw gmail-lx gmail-ly gmail-lz gmail-ma gmail-mb gmail-mc gmail-md gmail-me gmail-mf gmail-mg gmail-mh gmail-mi gmail-mj gmail-mk gmail-ml gmail-mm gmail-mn gmail-mo gmail-mp gmail-mq gmail-mr gmail-ms gmail-fj\">\n<div class=\"gmail-a ew gmail-mt gmail-ld gmail-mu gmail-mv gmail-al gmail-am gmail-mm gmail-mn gmail-mp gmail-mq gmail-mr gmail-fj\">\n<div class=\"gmail-mw gmail-mx\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"gmail-rc gmail-rd\">\n<div class=\"gmail-rr gmail-rs gmail-di ex gmail-av gmail-rt gmail-ru gmail-rv gmail-io gmail-aq gmail-nh gmail-ni gmail-rw gmail-rx gmail-ry gmail-ar gmail-as gmail-rz gmail-sa\"><span class=\"gmail-my\">The so-called \u201cTomb of the Kings\u201d where de Saulcy found and misidentified a sarcophagus: Late 19th century<\/span><span class=\"gmail-bi gmail-cn gmail-sb gmail-io gmail-aq gmail-nh gmail-ni\">Credit: Library of Congress<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"gmail-bu gmail-bv gmail-bw gmail-bx gmail-by gmail-bz gmail-ca\">\n<div class=\"gmail-ae gmail-aw gmail-ai gmail-aj gmail-ay gmail-az gmail-cg gmail-ba gmail-ch gmail-ci gmail-bb gmail-bc gmail-cj gmail-ck gmail-cl\">\n<div class=\"gmail-j gmail-k\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"gmail-trinity-player-iframe-wrapper\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"gmail-ri gmail-sr gmail-ky gmail-ss gmail-st gmail-su\">The Bible may admonish Jews not to forget Jerusalem, but it doesn\u2019t insist they should visit, much less settle there. So how did it become home to more than half a million Jews as well as Israel\u2019s capital? That story begins not with early Zionists but with the Western Christian explorers who arrived decades earlier.In their hunt for biblical treasure, they transformed what had long been a yearned-for ideal into an actual physical place that became a desirable destination.<\/p>\n<div class=\"gmail-\">\n<div class=\"gmail-FI_PH\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"gmail-ri gmail-sr gmail-ky gmail-ss gmail-st gmail-su\">That transformation began in 1863, when the Ottoman sultan granted French senator Felicien de Saulcy the first license to dig in Jerusalem. An ardent Catholic and advisor to French Emperor Napoleon III, de Saulcy excavated a sarcophagus from the \u201c<a class=\"gmail-sd gmail-se gmail-sf gmail-sg gmail-ix gmail-ks gmail-sh gmail-si gmail-sj gmail-sk gmail-sl gmail-sm gmail-rl gmail-fi gmail-jk gmail-jl\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ejournals.eu\/pliki\/art\/15017\/\">Tomb of the Kings<\/a>\u201d just north of the Old City. He declared an inscription on its side to be ancient Hebrew and the remains inside that of <a class=\"gmail-sd gmail-se gmail-sf gmail-sg gmail-ix gmail-ks gmail-sh gmail-si gmail-sj gmail-sk gmail-sl gmail-sm gmail-rl gmail-fi gmail-jk gmail-jl\" href=\"https:\/\/www.haaretz.com\/2008-08-03\/ty-article\/archaeologists-unearth-proof-of-plot-to-kill-prophet-jeremiah\/0000017f-ea09-d4a6-af7f-fecfac240000\">Zedekiah<\/a>\u2019s queen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"modal-footer\"><button class=\"fusion-button button-default button-medium button default medium\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\">Close<\/button><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><a class=\"fusion-modal-text-link\" data-toggle=\"modal\" data-target=\".fusion-modal.chatham2\" href=\"#\">\n<h3>Chatham News and Record<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><div class=\"fusion-modal modal fade modal-21 chatham2\" tabindex=\"-1\" role=\"dialog\" aria-labelledby=\"modal-heading-21\" aria-hidden=\"true\" style=\"--awb-border-color:#ebebeb;--awb-background:#f6f6f6;\"><div class=\"modal-dialog modal-lg\" role=\"document\"><div class=\"modal-content fusion-modal-content\"><div class=\"modal-header\"><button class=\"close\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\" aria-label=\"Close\">&times;<\/button><h3 class=\"modal-title\" id=\"modal-heading-21\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\">Chatham News and Record<\/h3><\/div><div class=\"modal-body fusion-clearfix\">\n<div class=\"BaseWrap-sc-TURhJ ContentHeaderRubricDateBlock-eerpLH eTiIvU jgMsiV\" data-testid=\"ContentHeaderRubricDateBlock\">\n<div class=\"RubricWrapper-cSFBEL llbSZh rubric ContentHeaderRubricContainer-eXoFpZ floLYB\">\n<div class=\"entry-meta woodmart-entry-meta\">\n<p>By Amber Brown<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"meta-post-categories\">Posted October 27, 2021 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/ChathamRecord-Under-Jerusalem.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">PDF<\/a><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h1 id=\"headline\" class=\"fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" data-fontsize=\"38\" data-lineheight=\"41.799999px\">CH@T: Author\u2019s book digs into what\u2019s below new book, \u2018Under Jerusalem\u2019<\/h1>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"reviewer\">\n<p class=\"Body-copy\">Sacred to three faiths and revered by more than half the people on the planet, the city of Jerusalem conjures up powerful images of the celestial. Beneath its narrow alleys and holy places, however, the ancient city conceals a labyrinthine, three-dimensional time capsule recording five millennia of bustling prosperity and brutal war \u2014 not to mention repeated religious innovation that altered the course of human history.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-copy\">That\u2019s what Andrew Lawler wanted to explore.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-copy\">He did \u2014 for his just-released book, \u201cUnder Jerusalem: The Buried History of the World\u2019s Most Contested City\u201d \u2014 and he\u2019ll discuss the work, at an event at McIntyre\u2019s Books in Fearrington Village in Pittsboro on Nov. 6. It\u2019ll be held at 11 a.m.; for more information, visit\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.mcintyresbooks.com\/event\/andrew-lawler-discusses-under-jerusalem\">McIntyre\u2019s web page<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-copy\">Lawler, a contributing writer for Science magazine and a contributing editor for Archaeology, is also the author of the bestselling \u201cThe Secret Token: Myth, Obsession, and the Search for the Lost Colony of Roanoke,\u201d as well as the acclaimed \u201cWhy Did the Chicken Cross the World?: The Epic Saga of the Bird that Powers Civilization.\u201d His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, National Geographic, and Smithsonian.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-copy\">Kai Bird, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and author, has called Under Jerusalem \u201ca brilliant, highly innovative history of the most contested city on the planet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-copy\">\u201cAndrew Lawler,\u201d he wrote, \u201cuses these untold stories of archaeological digs near and under Jerusalem\u2019s sacred sites to convey all the colorful and violent and contentious history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is an astounding achievement \u2014 and a compulsive read.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body-copy\">The News + Record spoke with Lawler about \u201cUnder Jerusalem,\u201d which was ranked on Publisher Weekly\u2019s list of Top 10 history books for 2021, and details how archaeological digs in Jerusalem have fueled religious conflicts, shed light on the ancient world, and helped shape the modern city.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"ELEMENT-STYLES_QA-1-question fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" data-fontsize=\"22\" data-lineheight=\"24.200001px\">Let\u2019s start with a basic question: Is \u201cUnder Jerusalem\u201d a history book or an archeology book?<\/h3>\n<p class=\"ELEMENT-STYLES_QA-2-answer\">Both \u2014 and a bit more! This is the story about how Jerusalem went from being a sleepy pilgrimage town to the world\u2019s most hotly contested city. And that is a tale that involves politics and religion as well as archaeology and history.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"ELEMENT-STYLES_QA-1-question fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" data-fontsize=\"22\" data-lineheight=\"24.200001px\">What would students of each enjoy most about the book? (And what would history lovers enjoy about the archaeological elements, and vice versa?)<\/h3>\n<p class=\"ELEMENT-STYLES_QA-2-answer\">What I think all readers will find most compelling are the characters I came across \u2014 both living and dead. They make the word \u201ccolorful\u201d seem pale. You have British aristocrats, Australian millionaires, mystical rabbis, French senators, and atheist Zionists, all trying to find both spiritual as well as material and scientific treasure.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"ELEMENT-STYLES_QA-1-question fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" data-fontsize=\"22\" data-lineheight=\"24.200001px\">What led you there, to Jerusalem, and to write this book?<\/h3>\n<p class=\"ELEMENT-STYLES_QA-2-answer\">Naivete. I\u2019ve covered archaeological digs in many Middle Eastern countries, but was also wary of Jerusalem given its political and religious turmoil. But when an Israeli archaeologist gave me a tour of the underground city, I couldn\u2019t resist learning more. National Geographic assigned me to do a story on this subterranean landscape, but even after that was published, I was eager to know more. Little did I know that the topic would hold me captive for three or so years.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"ELEMENT-STYLES_QA-1-question fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" data-fontsize=\"22\" data-lineheight=\"24.200001px\">Is there a more historical city on Earth than Jerusalem? Why or why not?<\/h3>\n<p class=\"ELEMENT-STYLES_QA-2-answer\">There are plenty of ancient cities with impressive histories \u2014 think Rome, Xian, or Mexico City. But none of these can match Jerusalem with its 5,000 years of religious innovation and a long and bloody list of sieges, battles, and utter destruction \u2014 along with some of the world\u2019s most sacred shrines. And unlike most old cities, the past here is always very present.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"ELEMENT-STYLES_QA-1-question fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" data-fontsize=\"22\" data-lineheight=\"24.200001px\">What do you think is most misunderstood about Jerusalem \u2014 and what from your work here would help shed light on clarifying those misunderstandings?<\/h3>\n<p class=\"ELEMENT-STYLES_QA-2-answer\">I was stunned to learn that it was Western Christians, mainly Protestants, who started the scramble for Jerusalem. They arrived to dig up biblical remains in Jerusalem as part of a wider effort by colonial powers to dominate the city. This idea of recovering evidence of the Old Testament past was later passed on to Jews who emigrated to the Holy Land, and became central to Zionist identity. This set the stage for today\u2019s conflict with Palestinians, who, like Israeli Jews, claim Jerusalem as the capital of their nation.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"ELEMENT-STYLES_QA-1-question fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" data-fontsize=\"22\" data-lineheight=\"24.200001px\">How was your personal story, and your faith, impacted by researching and writing the book?<\/h3>\n<p class=\"ELEMENT-STYLES_QA-2-answer\">Everyone who comes to Jerusalem, whether raised Christian, Jewish, or Muslim, arrives with images and beliefs of this holy place instilled since childhood, and I was no exception. My job as a writer was to step into the fray, aware of my own personal beliefs but determined not to advocate for any one group or faith.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ELEMENT-STYLES_QA-2-answer\">After seeing what archaeologists are finding beneath its streets, I came away convinced that each faith is today a result of its interactions with the other two, much as Jerusalem\u2019s architecture is a mix of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim styles. And I can envision a day when scientific results can provide the basis for believers to share a place that billions hold sacred.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"ELEMENT-STYLES_QA-1-question fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" data-fontsize=\"22\" data-lineheight=\"24.200001px\">Jerusalem\u2019s history is as old as time itself. How did you decide to structure the book to capture that history, that story, and the revelations about the city\u2019s tombs, tunnels and trenches?<\/h3>\n<p class=\"ELEMENT-STYLES_QA-2-answer\">There are plenty of books detailing the complicated history of Jerusalem. I took a different approach. What interested me was the people who searched beneath its surface, beginning with a French politician in the 1860s until the Israeli archaeologists digging today. Along the way, of course, we get to discover the city\u2019s history as the excavators exposed it.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"ELEMENT-STYLES_QA-1-question fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" data-fontsize=\"22\" data-lineheight=\"24.200001px\">How was the research experience into a city with that much history?<\/h3>\n<p class=\"ELEMENT-STYLES_QA-2-answer\">Overwhelming. You could spend your life reading what has been written about Jerusalem. Fortunately, I had plenty of help from scholars and access to some extraordinary archives. They helped keep me from going down too many rabbit holes.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"ELEMENT-STYLES_QA-1-question fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" data-fontsize=\"22\" data-lineheight=\"24.200001px\">Do you have a favorite story from your experience in writing the book?<\/h3>\n<p class=\"ELEMENT-STYLES_QA-2-answer\">I spent most of my time living in the Christian Quarter of the Old City. One day, while shopping in the local grocery store off the Via Dolorosa, the Muslim owner asked me who I was, since I was hanging around longer than the average tourist. When I told him, he walked to the potato-chip aisle, raised a metal hatch, and vanished. I followed down a rickety ladder and found myself in a vast Crusader hall next to the Holy Sepulchre \u2014 and learned about a fierce fight and a 20-year-long legal battle between the shopkeeper and Christian monks over who owned the enormous space. This became a whole chapter in my book. That\u2019s Jerusalem \u2014 just when you think you know what\u2019s beneath your feet, you encounter something surprising.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"ELEMENT-STYLES_QA-1-question fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" data-fontsize=\"22\" data-lineheight=\"24.200001px\">What will you share during your visit to McIntyre\u2019s?<\/h3>\n<p class=\"ELEMENT-STYLES_QA-2-answer\">I will share lots of images from beneath the city that provide people with a sense of the enormity of subterranean Jerusalem, as well as some insights into the big questions scholars have tried to answer, from the actual burial site of Jesus to the lost city of Solomon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><div class=\"modal-footer\"><button class=\"fusion-button button-default button-medium button default medium\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\">Close<\/button><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><a class=\"fusion-modal-text-link\" data-toggle=\"modal\" data-target=\".fusion-modal.Jewishnews2\" href=\"#\">\n<h3>The Jewish News of Northern California<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><div class=\"fusion-modal modal fade modal-22 Jewishnews2\" tabindex=\"-1\" role=\"dialog\" aria-labelledby=\"modal-heading-22\" aria-hidden=\"true\" style=\"--awb-border-color:#ebebeb;--awb-background:#f6f6f6;\"><div class=\"modal-dialog modal-lg\" role=\"document\"><div class=\"modal-content fusion-modal-content\"><div class=\"modal-header\"><button class=\"close\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\" aria-label=\"Close\">&times;<\/button><h3 class=\"modal-title\" id=\"modal-heading-22\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\">The Jewish News of Northern California<\/h3><\/div><div class=\"modal-body fusion-clearfix\">\n<h2 class=\"reviewer fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" data-fontsize=\"24\" data-lineheight=\"26.4px\"><strong>Dig into Jerusalem\u2019s subterranean history with new nonfiction and graphic novel<\/strong><\/h2>\n<div class=\"reviewer\">\n<p>BY\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.jweekly.com\/author\/howard-freedman\/\">HOWARD FREEDMAN<\/a><\/strong> | NOVEMBER 18, 2021 |\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/|https:\/\/www.jweekly.com\/2021\/11\/18\/dig-into-jerusalems-subterranean-history-with-new-nonfiction-and-graphic-novel\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Link<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Jerusalem has a particularly fraught archaeological heritage, with the battle over the city\u2019s present and future reflected in disagreements surrounding its past. In <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.harvard.com\/book\/under_jerusalem\/\">\u201cUnder Jerusalem: The Buried History of the World\u2019s Most Contested City,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0Andrew Lawler<\/strong>\u00a0shows how, just as the city reveals layers of history, so does the story of its excavation, with generations of archaeologists breaking earth in pursuit of radically different agendas.<\/p>\n<p>Lawler begins with the fledgling archaeological efforts of the mid-19th\u00a0century, which expressed the colonial aspirations of Great Britain and France in Ottoman-governed Palestine. The earliest explorers were motivated both by expectations of treasures to loot and by the enduring Christian connection to the city.<\/p>\n<p>At the 1865 meeting that saw the creation of the\u00a0Palestine Exploration Fund<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pef.org.uk\/about\/history\/\">,<\/a>\u00a0the Archbishop of York summoned memories of the Crusades in declaring that \u201cPalestine belongs to you and to me, it is essentially ours\u201d and calling for a \u201cnew crusade to rescue from darkness and oblivion much of the history of that country in which we all take so dear an interest.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The excavations that followed often provoked the suspicion and opposition of local Muslims and their leaders, with particular concern about violating the sanctity of the\u00a0Noble Sanctuary\u00a0(or, to Jews, the Temple Mount).<\/p>\n<p>Although they already constituted a majority of the city\u2019s population, Jews were uninvolved in these efforts. It was not until 1912 that Raymond Weill, a Frenchman, would become the first Jew to break ground, in an effort funded by\u00a0Baron Edmond de Rothschild.\u00a0While the competition between France and England continued, there was now the division between Jew and non-Jew that would become more pronounced.<\/p>\n<p>The subterranean ventures assumed a different tone following the establishment of the State of Israel, as the agendas of competing colonial powers were replaced by those of residents of the contested region, with archaeology assuming a politicized nature. With Jews and Arabs each minimizing each others\u2019 historical connection to the land, the uncovering of material evidence offered significant implications for claims of belonging.<\/p>\n<p>However, tensions were not limited to those between Jews and Arabs. Among Jews, there developed persistent rifts between the largely secular academics and the rabbis. With political leaders needing the support of religious parties, one of the concessions frequently made was to uphold the opinions of the religious establishment concerning what could and could not be dug up. As a result, academic archaeologists sometimes worked clandestinely.<\/p>\n<p>Lawler goes into fascinating detail about numerous digs. He notes that, as a consequence of most Israeli archaeologists\u2019 singular interest in uncovering remnants of Jewish existence in ancient Jerusalem, remains from the Roman, Byzantine, Crusader and Ottoman periods were sometimes sacrificed in order to reach what lay beneath. As archaeologist\u00a0Meir Ben-Dov\u00a0stated bluntly, \u201cThe brutal fact is that if you want to know what lies under a certain stratum, you have no choice but to destroy it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lawler also chronicles the increasing tendency of excavations to trigger political tensions between Arabs and Jews. In particular, the extensive tunneling along the entire western perimeter of the Temple Mount led to destabilizing buildings in the Muslim Quarter and to accusations about trespassing into holy territory. And in 1999, Muslims dug beneath the Temple Mount in order to create the vast al-Marwani Mosque, offending archaeologists and religious Jews alike.<\/p>\n<p>Lawler effectively conveys how digging up Jerusalem, while continuing to provide stunning new insights, has often provided more kindling to a frequently flammable environment.<\/p>\n<p>Remarkably, many themes prominent in \u201cUnder Jerusalem\u201d find expression in\u00a0<strong>Rutu Modan\u2019s \u201cTunnels.\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0Modan is Israel\u2019s\u00a0preeminent graphic novelist,\u00a0and her newest work follows a fictional archaeological dig that sheds more light on family squabbles, academic gamesmanship and competing nationalisms than on the ancient past.<\/p>\n<p>In the story, Nili is a single mother whose father had been a prominent archaeologist before developing early onset dementia. He was bumped from his position at the Hebrew University through the intervention of a colleague, Rafi Sarid, who then took credit for some of his discoveries. Wishing to restore her father\u2019s name and keep Sarid from achieving further recognition, Nili decides to try to start her own search for the lost Ark of the Covenant in an area her father had long ago begun excavating. Meanwhile, Nili\u2019s brother is working as a sort of double agent, sharing Nili\u2019s plans with Sarid in hopes of receiving a secure academic position as a reward.<\/p>\n<p>With the financial support of a shady collector of antiquities and the labor of eager Jewish zealots, Nili begins work adjacent to the former excavation site, now inaccessible due to Israel\u2019s security barrier. After digging and eventually connecting with her father\u2019s tunnel, she encounters Mahdi and Zuzu, Arabs from a West Bank village whose family had worked on the dig years ago, and are now using the tunnel to circumvent the wall.<\/p>\n<p>It is a tale full of duplicity, recriminations and shifting loyalties, as each figure is animated by a different agenda \u2014 be it self-advancement, greed, the pursuit of justice, glory for Israel, glory for Palestine or the hastening of the messianic era. Just as in Lawler\u2019s book, each dig reflects a set of values and aspirations that are generally far removed from simple scientific inquiry.<\/p>\n<p>With a visual style here that occasionally echoes Herg\u00e9\u2019s Tintin books, Modan has a tremendous gift for storytelling. And in a particularly thoughtful afterword, she meditates on the possibilities of new narrative framing for an enduring conflict. \u201cTunnels\u201d provides both a rewarding reading experience and a compelling metaphorical lens to bring to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.\u2002n<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cUnder Jerusalem: The Buried History of the World\u2019s Most Contested City\u201d by Andrew Lawler (Doubleday, 464 pages)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cTunnels\u201d by Rutu Modan (Drawn and Quarterly, 284 pages)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.jweekly.com\/author\/howard-freedman\/\">Howard Freedman<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Howard Freedman is the director of the\u00a0Jewish Community Library, a program of Jewish LearningWorks, in San Francisco.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><div class=\"modal-footer\"><button class=\"fusion-button button-default button-medium button default medium\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\">Close<\/button><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><a class=\"fusion-modal-text-link\" data-toggle=\"modal\" data-target=\".fusion-modal.laurel2\" href=\"#\">\n<h3>The Laurel Of Asheville<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><div class=\"fusion-modal modal fade modal-23 laurel2\" tabindex=\"-1\" role=\"dialog\" aria-labelledby=\"modal-heading-23\" aria-hidden=\"true\" style=\"--awb-border-color:#ebebeb;--awb-background:#f6f6f6;\"><div class=\"modal-dialog modal-lg\" role=\"document\"><div class=\"modal-content fusion-modal-content\"><div class=\"modal-header\"><button class=\"close\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\" aria-label=\"Close\">&times;<\/button><h3 class=\"modal-title\" id=\"modal-heading-23\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\">The Laurel of Asheville<\/h3><\/div><div class=\"modal-body fusion-clearfix\">\n<p>Journalist and Asheville resident Andrew Lawler visited Jerusalem several times before he learned how vast was the subterranean world of tunnels, caves, cisterns and other spaces beneath the ancient city. \u201cIn one case, the little grocery store I visited in the Old City\u2019s Christian Quarter\u2014where I usually stayed\u2014turned out to have a massive Crusader hall accessible through a hatch in the potato chip aisle,\u201d Lawler says. In his latest book, Under Jerusalem, Lawler delves into the last 150 years of archaeological history in the city, interviewing archaeologists, residents and scholars.<\/p>\n<p>The storied city attracts its share of eccentric characters. \u201cMy favorite was the British aristocrat who arrived a century ago with a big team of psychics and poets that lacked only an archaeologist,\u201d Lawler says. \u201cHe sought the Ark of the Covenant, and bribed a guard to dig at the holiest Muslim site in the city\u2014and nearly did not make it out of Jerusalem alive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Besides the explorers and artifacts, however, are the difficulties reflected in the superlative of the book\u2019s title, and, Lawler says, exploration is not likely to soften, any time soon, animosities among the Jews, Muslims and Christians who each claim Jerusalem as their own. \u201cBut science does provide an alternative story that allows for an appreciation of Jerusalem\u2019s incredible richness,\u201d he says. \u201cThat could, someday, serve as the basis for a new and more peaceful way of viewing the world\u2019s most contested city.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Under Jerusalem: The Buried History of the World\u2019s Most Contested City, November, 2021, history, hardcover, $32.50, by Andrew Lawler, and published by Doubleday, NY, NY. Find the book at regional bookstores including City Lights Bookstore in Sylva.<\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"modal-footer\"><button class=\"fusion-button button-default button-medium button default medium\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\">Close<\/button><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><a class=\"fusion-modal-text-link\" data-toggle=\"modal\" data-target=\".fusion-modal.Lincoln2\" href=\"#\">\n<h3>Lincoln Journal Star<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><div class=\"fusion-modal modal fade modal-24 Lincoln2\" tabindex=\"-1\" role=\"dialog\" aria-labelledby=\"modal-heading-24\" aria-hidden=\"true\" style=\"--awb-border-color:#ebebeb;--awb-background:#f6f6f6;\"><div class=\"modal-dialog modal-lg\" role=\"document\"><div class=\"modal-content fusion-modal-content\"><div class=\"modal-header\"><button class=\"close\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\" aria-label=\"Close\">&times;<\/button><h3 class=\"modal-title\" id=\"modal-heading-24\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\">Lincoln Journal Star<\/h3><\/div><div class=\"modal-body fusion-clearfix\">\n<h1 class=\"fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" data-fontsize=\"38\" data-lineheight=\"41.799999px\">Review: A journey beneath Jerusalem<\/h1>\n<p>By J. KEMPER CAMPBELL<\/p>\n<p>Jerusalem is considered a holy city by Christians, Jews and Muslims. Millions of pilgrims visit the city each year to view the areas described in the Bible, the Torah, and the Qur\u2019an and celebrated on the Holy Days of each religion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnder Jerusalem\u201d by Andrew Lawler provides a meticulously researched record of the archeological activity, attempting to document the historic events which have occurred in the ancient city. Lawler, who has written for National Geographic, Smithsonian and Archeology magazines, has managed to coherently summarize the complicated history of the venerable city while detailing the myriad attempts of archeologists to provide physical evidence supporting the holy texts of Christianity, Judaism and Islam. His book provides a framework for Jerusalem\u2019s chaotic and violent three millennia of existence.<\/p>\n<p>Jerusalem was originally built by the Judean King David. His son, King Solomon, erected a mighty temple on the site which was destroyed by a Babylonian army six centuries before the birth of Christ. The city was subsequently conquered by Persians, Greeks and Romans before another Judean king, Herod, rebuilt the magnificent temple, which was again destroyed by a Roman army in 70 A.D.<\/p>\n<p>Muslims erected the present-day Dome of the Rock on the spot from which the prophet Muhammed ascended to heaven. Empress Helen, the mother of Emperor Constantine, had already identified and marked the sites of Jesus\u2019 crucifixion and burial cave in 327 A.D. All of these venerated structures are found on the area known as the Noble Sanctuary in the \u201cOld City\u201d section of Jerusalem.<\/p>\n<p>Jerusalem was ruled by the Knights Templar of the medieval Crusades and the Ottoman Turks before falling to the British forces during World War I. Following the Allied victory in World War II, in response to the Zionist movement the country of Israel was created as a permanent homeland for Jews. Originally partitioned between Jewish settlers and Palestinian Muslims, twentieth century wars have resulted in the return of the entire city of Jerusalem to the state of modern Israel.<\/p>\n<p>Archeological exploration of the porous limestone beneath the city began during the American Civil War. Mark Twain and Abraham Lincoln both desired to visit the historic sites within the city but only Twain got the opportunity.<\/p>\n<p>The book details the exploits of a colorful m\u00e9lange of French, British and Israeli explorers of the nether regions beneath the surface for relics of the City of David, the hidden riches of King Solomon and the missing Ark of the Covenant sought by Indiana Jones.<\/p>\n<p>Since wooden building materials are nonexistent in the region, each century\u2019s new construction was built upon the previous century\u2019s debris. Thus, the ground underneath present-day Jerusalem is a blueprint of the past. Unfortunately, any excavation risks disturbing the structures and people living above, so much of the exploration was completed surreptitiously.<\/p>\n<p>Strife between orthodox and more secular Jews and Muslims over the vast domed spaces, stairways and edifices beneath the city has resulted in bloody confrontations and nearly resulted in derailing the peace accords overseen by President Clinton in 2000.<\/p>\n<p>Author Lawler has sifted through the muddle of religious dogma, nationalistic fervor and commercial interests to uncover the nuggets of truth surrounding today\u2019s Jerusalem. Readers electing to accompany him on his search will be rewarded for their persistence.<\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"modal-footer\"><button class=\"fusion-button button-default button-medium button default medium\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\">Close<\/button><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><a class=\"fusion-modal-text-link\" data-toggle=\"modal\" data-target=\".fusion-modal.longview2\" href=\"#\">\n<h3>Longview News-Journal<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><div class=\"fusion-modal modal fade modal-25 longview2\" tabindex=\"-1\" role=\"dialog\" aria-labelledby=\"modal-heading-25\" aria-hidden=\"true\" style=\"--awb-border-color:#ebebeb;--awb-background:#f6f6f6;\"><div class=\"modal-dialog modal-lg\" role=\"document\"><div class=\"modal-content fusion-modal-content\"><div class=\"modal-header\"><button class=\"close\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\" aria-label=\"Close\">&times;<\/button><h3 class=\"modal-title\" id=\"modal-heading-25\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\">Longview News-Journal<\/h3><\/div><div class=\"modal-body fusion-clearfix\">\n<h1 class=\"fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" data-fontsize=\"38\" data-lineheight=\"41.799999px\">Review: A journey beneath Jerusalem<\/h1>\n<p>By J. KEMPER CAMPBELL<\/p>\n<p>Jerusalem is considered a holy city by Christians, Jews and Muslims. Millions of pilgrims visit the city each year to view the areas described in the Bible, the Torah, and the Qur\u2019an and celebrated on the Holy Days of each religion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnder Jerusalem\u201d by Andrew Lawler provides a meticulously researched record of the archeological activity, attempting to document the historic events which have occurred in the ancient city. Lawler, who has written for National Geographic, Smithsonian and Archeology magazines, has managed to coherently summarize the complicated history of the venerable city while detailing the myriad attempts of archeologists to provide physical evidence supporting the holy texts of Christianity, Judaism and Islam. His book provides a framework for Jerusalem\u2019s chaotic and violent three millennia of existence.<\/p>\n<p>Jerusalem was originally built by the Judean King David. His son, King Solomon, erected a mighty temple on the site which was destroyed by a Babylonian army six centuries before the birth of Christ. The city was subsequently conquered by Persians, Greeks and Romans before another Judean king, Herod, rebuilt the magnificent temple, which was again destroyed by a Roman army in 70 A.D.<\/p>\n<p>Muslims erected the present-day Dome of the Rock on the spot from which the prophet Muhammed ascended to heaven. Empress Helen, the mother of Emperor Constantine, had already identified and marked the sites of Jesus\u2019 crucifixion and burial cave in 327 A.D. All of these venerated structures are found on the area known as the Noble Sanctuary in the \u201cOld City\u201d section of Jerusalem.<\/p>\n<p>Jerusalem was ruled by the Knights Templar of the medieval Crusades and the Ottoman Turks before falling to the British forces during World War I. Following the Allied victory in World War II, in response to the Zionist movement the country of Israel was created as a permanent homeland for Jews. Originally partitioned between Jewish settlers and Palestinian Muslims, twentieth century wars have resulted in the return of the entire city of Jerusalem to the state of modern Israel.<\/p>\n<p>Archeological exploration of the porous limestone beneath the city began during the American Civil War. Mark Twain and Abraham Lincoln both desired to visit the historic sites within the city but only Twain got the opportunity.<\/p>\n<p>The book details the exploits of a colorful m\u00e9lange of French, British and Israeli explorers of the nether regions beneath the surface for relics of the City of David, the hidden riches of King Solomon and the missing Ark of the Covenant sought by Indiana Jones.<\/p>\n<p>Since wooden building materials are nonexistent in the region, each century\u2019s new construction was built upon the previous century\u2019s debris. Thus, the ground underneath present-day Jerusalem is a blueprint of the past. Unfortunately, any excavation risks disturbing the structures and people living above, so much of the exploration was completed surreptitiously.<\/p>\n<p>Strife between orthodox and more secular Jews and Muslims over the vast domed spaces, stairways and edifices beneath the city has resulted in bloody confrontations and nearly resulted in derailing the peace accords overseen by President Clinton in 2000.<\/p>\n<p>Author Lawler has sifted through the muddle of religious dogma, nationalistic fervor and commercial interests to uncover the nuggets of truth surrounding today\u2019s Jerusalem. Readers electing to accompany him on his search will be rewarded for their persistence.<\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"modal-footer\"><button class=\"fusion-button button-default button-medium button default medium\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\">Close<\/button><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><a class=\"fusion-modal-text-link\" data-toggle=\"modal\" data-target=\".fusion-modal.wral2\" href=\"#\">\n<h3>WRAL.com<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><div class=\"fusion-modal modal fade modal-26 wral2\" tabindex=\"-1\" role=\"dialog\" aria-labelledby=\"modal-heading-26\" aria-hidden=\"true\" style=\"--awb-border-color:#ebebeb;--awb-background:#f6f6f6;\"><div class=\"modal-dialog modal-lg\" role=\"document\"><div class=\"modal-content fusion-modal-content\"><div class=\"modal-header\"><button class=\"close\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\" aria-label=\"Close\">&times;<\/button><h3 class=\"modal-title\" id=\"modal-heading-26\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\">Salisbury Post<\/h3><\/div><div class=\"modal-body fusion-clearfix\">\n<h1 class=\"h-1 fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" data-fontsize=\"38\" data-lineheight=\"41.799999px\">New &amp; Upcoming Books from North Carolina Authors<\/h1>\n<div class=\"reviewer\">\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.quailridgebooks.com\/book\/9780385546850\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Under Jerusalem: The Buried History of the World\u2019s Most Controversial City<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In 1863, a French senator arrived in Jerusalem hoping to unearth relics dating to biblical times. Digging deep underground, he discovered an ancient grave that, he claimed, belonged to an Old Testament queen. News of his find ricocheted around the world, evoking awe and envy alike, and inspiring others to explore Jerusalem\u2019s storied past.\u00a0<em>Under Jerusalem<\/em>\u00a0takes readers into the tombs, tunnels, and trenches of the Holy City. It brings to life the indelible characters who have investigated this subterranean landscape. With clarity and verve, acclaimed journalist Andrew Lawler reveals how their pursuit has not only defined the conflict over modern Jerusalem, but could provide a map for two peoples and three faiths to peacefully coexist.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><div class=\"modal-footer\"><button class=\"fusion-button button-default button-medium button default medium\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\">Close<\/button><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><a class=\"fusion-modal-text-link\" data-toggle=\"modal\" data-target=\".fusion-modal.greek2\" href=\"#\">\n<h3>Greek Reporter<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><div class=\"fusion-modal modal fade modal-27 greek2\" tabindex=\"-1\" role=\"dialog\" aria-labelledby=\"modal-heading-27\" aria-hidden=\"true\" style=\"--awb-border-color:#ebebeb;--awb-background:#f6f6f6;\"><div class=\"modal-dialog modal-lg\" role=\"document\"><div class=\"modal-content fusion-modal-content\"><div class=\"modal-header\"><button class=\"close\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\" aria-label=\"Close\">&times;<\/button><h3 class=\"modal-title\" id=\"modal-heading-27\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\">Greek Reporter<\/h3><\/div><div class=\"modal-body fusion-clearfix\">\n<div class=\"BaseWrap-sc-TURhJ ContentHeaderRubricDateBlock-eerpLH eTiIvU jgMsiV\" data-testid=\"ContentHeaderRubricDateBlock\">\n<div class=\"RubricWrapper-cSFBEL llbSZh rubric ContentHeaderRubricContainer-eXoFpZ floLYB\">\n<div class=\"entry-meta woodmart-entry-meta\">\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_title tdi_106 tdb-single-title td-pb-border-top td_block_template_1\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_106\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" data-fontsize=\"38\" data-lineheight=\"41.799999px\">Quest to Find Ancient Ark of the Covenant Rocked Archaeological World<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_author tdi_108 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_1 tdb-post-meta\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_108\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-author-name-wrap\"><span class=\"tdb-author-by\">By<\/span><a class=\"tdb-author-name\" href=\"https:\/\/greekreporter.com\/author\/patricia\/\">Patricia Claus<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_date tdi_109 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_1 tdb-post-meta\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_109\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><time class=\"entry-date updated td-module-date\" datetime=\"2021-10-29T02:27:00+03:00\">October 29, 2021<\/time><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"reviewer\">\n<p>The quest to find the ancient Ark of the Covenant, created by the Hebrews thousands of years ago, not only rocked the archaeological world in the early 1900s but also caused so much outrage that it still reverberates around the Islamic world today.<\/p>\n<p>The Ark \u2014 long considered to be the \u201cHoly Grail\u201d of Old Testament archaeology \u2014 was said to have been created by the Hebrews as long as 3,000 years ago. Believed to have housed the two stone slabs on which the Ten Commandments were written, it was a gold-plated wooden chest topped with two large golden angels.<\/p>\n<p>Carried by two long poles that ran through metal loops, the Hebrews declared that the Jordan River itself stopped flowing when the Ark\u2019s bearers stepped in it during their Exodus to the Promised Land.<\/p>\n<p>Finding the Ark after the passage of thousands of years would be considered the ultimate archaeological discovery of all time \u2014 as we have seen from the Raiders of the Lost Ark film franchise and other forays into Biblical archaeology.<\/p>\n<p>What sparked the modern interest in the Ark? We may owe it to the most bizarre band of amateur archaeologists who have ever been assembled. They may have indeed created a renewed\u00a0interest in recovering the precious\u00a0religious relic, but they ended up angering Palestinians to such a degree that\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/greekreporter.com\/2021\/05\/10\/greek-orthodox-church-jerusalem-calls-for-peace-violence-escalates\/?swcfpc=1\">tensions were at a fever pitch in Jerusalem<\/a>\u00a0for years.<\/p>\n<p>As reported in a recent story in\u00a0<em>Smithsonian Magazine,<\/em>\u00a0the Dome of the Rock, which Muslims believe was the site at which Mohammed rose to heaven, was the site where the amateur sleuths did their digging \u2014 only after tricking its guards so that they would be out of the city for a few days.<\/p>\n<p>A new book by journalist Andrew Lawler called \u201cUnder Jerusalem: The Buried History of the World\u2019s Most Contested City\u201d records the incredible antics of the group, whose 1909-1911 quest for the Ark reads like a plot out of the Keystone Kops if they had ever embarked on an archaeological dig.<\/p>\n<p>Like the ill-fated team that uncovered the Tomb of Tutankhamun a few years later in 1922, it was led by a handsome British aristocrat. He was joined by a Swiss psychic, a Finnish poet, an English cricket champion and an adventuring Swede who had once served as a pilot on a steamboat on the Congo River, according to the report in\u00a0<em>Smithsonian.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Needless to say, none of these gentlemen had any training whatsoever in archaeology \u2014 nor apparently in diplomacy, which they were in sore need of after they offended religious sensibilities time and again in their dig to find the Ark.<strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This crew of adventurers arrived in Jerusalem in 1909, at a time when it was still under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. But it wasn\u2019t just the great religious treasure of the Ark that they were after \u2014 it was also the treasures that had been gathered by King Solomon 3,000 years ago that many believe were later hidden.<\/p>\n<p>Before too long, the men had opened such a can of worms that it took Indiana Jones-like escape skills just for them to be able to leave\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/greekreporter.com\/2021\/05\/01\/holy-light-arrives-from-jerusalem-to-athens-to-mark-easter\/?swcfpc=1\">the Holy Land<\/a>\u00a0in one piece.<\/p>\n<p>And sadly, the anger and mistrust engendered by their thoughtless ransacking of the Temple Mount has echoed down to this day, with periodic skirmishes taking place there periodically even now when tempers flare between Jews and Palestinians.<\/p>\n<p>Finnish scholar and poet teams up with aristocrat, assorted amateur archaeologists to find Ark, treasure<\/p>\n<p>Incredibly, the saga began with a Finnish scholar, Valter Juvelius, who had published his doctoral thesis a \u201cNew Chronology of the Jews,\u201d hinted that he had come upon a secret code that showed the way toward where the Ark had been buried.<\/p>\n<p>Nothing that Juvelius left behind shows any such thing, of course, but he insisted that the treasure was located in a tunnel under Jerusalem.<\/p>\n<p>By some stroke of luck, the Finnish scholar obtained an introduction to Captain Montagu (Monty) Brownlow Parker, the heir to an earldom.<\/p>\n<p>Parker was intrigued, signing on to serve as the leader of the quest for the Ark and even setting up a syndicate to sell 60,000 one-pound shares to investors \u2014 who he no doubt believed would profit handsomely \u2014 if the treasures of Solomon were indeed found.<\/p>\n<p>He used his natural charm to attract a slew of supporters, including Chicago meatpacking king J. Ogden Armour and the duchess of Marlborough, who gave Parker the equivalent of $2.4 million in today\u2019s money for the expenses the men would need.<\/p>\n<p>Parker gave estimates that the Ark, accompanied by along with the wealth of gold and silver platters, bowls and other treasures related in the Old Testament, would be worth \u00a0$200 million on the open art market, which at that time would have had few scruples in dealing in such historical objects.<\/p>\n<p>Worth approximately $5.7 billion today, this made the whole venture much more than a spiritual or archaeological quest \u2014 it also appealed to the greed that is in all of us if we dig deep enough.<\/p>\n<p>Ark mentioned in Books of Exodus, Chronicles<\/p>\n<p>As Exodus 25:22 states: \u201cThere, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the Ark of the Covenant law, I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites,\u201d God tells Moses.<\/p>\n<p>After being taken out just once a year during Yom Kippur, the Ark was tragically lost at some point, perhaps when the Babylonians conquered\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/greekreporter.com\/2019\/10\/23\/mystery-over-impressive-byzantine-church-near-jerusalem-uncovers-enigma\/?swcfpc=1\">Jerusalem<\/a>\u00a0in 586 BC, sending the Hebrews into exile for many years.<\/p>\n<p>The Book of Chronicles states that the invading army \u201ccarried to Babylon all the articles from the temple of God, both large and small, and the treasures of the Lord\u2019s temple and the treasures of the king and his officials.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Ark itself may indeed have been desecrated and destroyed at that time, with the treasures around it carted off. Or not.<\/p>\n<p>According to some long-held Jewish traditions, priests secreted the Ark and its accompanying treasures under or near the Temple Mount, where they somehow survived the destruction of the great Temple, and the entire city, by the Romans in the year 70 AD.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, the area eventually passed into the custody of Muslims, who erected the<br \/>\nDome of the Rock shrine in the late 7th century on that very spot, where they believe Mohammed ascended into heaven. It is the oldest extant Islamic monument of all in the world.<\/p>\n<p>Ancient city of David located where team excavated<\/p>\n<p>Naturally, archaeological digs under what Muslims call the \u201cNoble Sanctuary\u201d are completely forbidden. However, as one member of the ragtag archaeology team noted, Juvelius thought that \u201chis rendering of the Hebrew text denoted that the Ark of the Covenant could be found by working up the hill through underground passages,\u201d according to Lawler.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, archaeologists now state that this site, outside the Old City\u2019s walls and south of the Mount, was where the ancient city conquered by King David after 1,000 BC was located.<\/p>\n<p>True to the time period, Parker was sure to give bribes to the authorities in Istanbul, the seat of the Ottoman Empire, as part of shoring up his plans for the great adventure. He was also sure to include a stipulation that he would give half of the loot he uncovered to these Ottoman authorities.<\/p>\n<p>All seemed to be clear sailing in the summer of 1909, and the team of amateur archaeologists landed in the port city of Jaffa.<\/p>\n<p>After receiving criticism about the lack of professional oversight in the group, Parker finally added a French monk who was also an archaeologist to the team \u2014 although, as Lawler notes, their goal was still kept under wraps.<\/p>\n<p>But that wasn\u2019t to last for too long, as it took almost 200 laborers to excavate the passages under the ridgeline.<\/p>\n<p>The French monk recorded that \u201cWe lived underground nearly the whole time it was daylight,\u201d coming upon \u201cdark mysterious tunnels which seemed to stretch endlessly into the very entrails of the rock.\u201d But all the adventurers found was \u201csome old Jewish flat lamps made of baked clay, some red pottery jars (and) a few metal sling balls.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ancient pottery lamps, pots uncovered<\/p>\n<p>After finding no treasures of the kind they were after, the archaeologists ended their quest for that year; a smaller team returned the next summer and worked through the end of the year but still nothing was discovered.<\/p>\n<p>Becoming desperate, Parker threw all caution to the wind, engaging in outright deception in a way to make sure the team would have access to the holiest site of all for Muslims, the Dome of the Rock, just to the side of the surviving Western Wall of the ancient Temple.<\/p>\n<p>Bribing a local sheikh who was in charge of security there, the guards were waylaid, told that there was an Islamic festival outside town. Now free to do that they would on the site, Parker and his team dug as fast as they could for nine nights down under the platform there. Still, they found nothing.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, Parker was at his wits\u2019 end; he then made the unbelievably insensitive and rash decision to enter the cave beneath the Dome of the Rock, known as the Mosque of Omar, thinking that the Ark must be there since that was the spot where the Holy of Holies once stood before the Temple was razed for the final time.<\/p>\n<p>Muslim riots in Jerusalem sowed seeds of unrest today<\/p>\n<p>But his luck finally ran out. On the night of April 12, 1911,\u00a0Muslim residents of Jerusalem, hearing about the desecration, rioted in the streets of the holy city, causing Parker and his cronies to hightail it back to Jaffa, where their boat was awaiting them. After tricking local Ottoman officials by more smooth talk, Parker and his pals somehow made it onto the boat and sailed away as quickly as they could from the Holy Land.<\/p>\n<p>The jig was up, and headlines around the world screamed such phrases as \u201cGone with the Treasure that was Solomon\u2019s\u201d with the\u00a0<em>New York Times\u2019<\/em>\u00a0subheadline reading \u201cEnglish Party Vanishes on Yacht after Digging under the Mosque of Omar.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Soon, battalions of Turkish soldiers were deployed to stamp out the unrest that was reigning in Jerusalem; the Noble Sanctuary\u2019s sheikh who had taken the bribe and the city\u2019s governor were duly arrested for their part in the plot.<\/p>\n<p>Not only did Parker bot receive any reprimand from the British authorities for his rogue actions; he even had the temerity to return to the Holy Land just a few months later to try his hand at uncovering the treasure yet again. By that time, however, no one would take his bribes and the Ottoman Empire was at war with Italy; the untoward occurrences of 1911 faded into memory in the West, except in the minds of those who were intrigued by the prospect of a professional archaeological expedition for the Ark.<\/p>\n<p>But it had long-term consequences in the East, however, as that part of the world tends to have a long memory. It lingered in the form of a deep distrust of archaeologists amongst many Palestinians and proved to be an event which helped create the Palestinian nationalist movement.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, at the same time, more and more Jewish immigrants were arriving in Jerusalem, putting them in the crosshairs of this renewed controversy.<\/p>\n<p>Immune from all the troubles he and his bumbling friends had caused, Parker ended up living his life far away from the tumult in the Holy Land, serving in France in the First World War and then going to live in a Georgian mansion near Plymouth, in Devon, becoming the Fifth Earl of Morley after the death of his older brother.<\/p>\n<p>Wisely, he never apparently spoke or wrote about his exploits in the Holy Land until his dying day; he passed away at the age of 83 in 1962.<\/p>\n<p>Andrew Lawler\u2019s forthcoming book \u201cUnder Jerusalem: The Buried History of the World\u2019s Most Contested City\u201d will be published by Doubleday on November 2, 2021.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><div class=\"modal-footer\"><button class=\"fusion-button button-default button-medium button default medium\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\">Close<\/button><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><a class=\"fusion-modal-text-link\" data-toggle=\"modal\" data-target=\".fusion-modal.audiofile2\" href=\"#\">\n<h3>AudioFile<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><div class=\"fusion-modal modal fade modal-28 audiofile2\" tabindex=\"-1\" role=\"dialog\" aria-labelledby=\"modal-heading-28\" aria-hidden=\"true\" style=\"--awb-border-color:#ebebeb;--awb-background:#f6f6f6;\"><div class=\"modal-dialog modal-lg\" role=\"document\"><div class=\"modal-content fusion-modal-content\"><div class=\"modal-header\"><button class=\"close\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\" aria-label=\"Close\">&times;<\/button><h3 class=\"modal-title\" id=\"modal-heading-28\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\">AudioFile<\/h3><\/div><div class=\"modal-body fusion-clearfix\">\n<p>James Lurie\u2019s rich voice and expert phrasing make him a favorite narrator for serious biographies and nonfiction. His measured delivery is particularly effective for a history that, like its subject, straddles a number of sacred boundaries. For countless centuries Jerusalem has been built and rebuilt on top of its own ruins, and several faiths claim its ground. Here the subject is the city\u2019s archeological history, which is rife with controversy and drama. Lurie, like the author, keeps to an objective tone, and his reportorial presentation allows listeners to form their own judgments. The perennial quest for Solomon\u2019s Temple and its lost Ark of the Covenant has yet to produce results, but Lurie\u2019s account of the many vain efforts is story enough for several audiobooks.<\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"modal-footer\"><button class=\"fusion-button button-default button-medium button default medium\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\">Close<\/button><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><a class=\"fusion-modal-text-link\" data-toggle=\"modal\" data-target=\".fusion-modal.jerusalempost2\" href=\"#\">\n<h3>The Jerusalem Post<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><div class=\"fusion-modal modal fade modal-29 jerusalempost2\" tabindex=\"-1\" role=\"dialog\" aria-labelledby=\"modal-heading-29\" aria-hidden=\"true\" style=\"--awb-border-color:#ebebeb;--awb-background:#f6f6f6;\"><div class=\"modal-dialog modal-lg\" role=\"document\"><div class=\"modal-content fusion-modal-content\"><div class=\"modal-header\"><button class=\"close\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\" aria-label=\"Close\">&times;<\/button><h3 class=\"modal-title\" id=\"modal-heading-29\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\">The Jerusalem Post<\/h3><\/div><div class=\"modal-body fusion-clearfix\">\n<h5 class=\"fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" data-fontsize=\"18\" data-lineheight=\"23.4px\">By\u00a0RANDY ROSENTHAL\u00a0Published:\u00a0DECEMBER 30, 2021 19:59<\/h5>\n<h1 class=\"history fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" data-fontsize=\"38\" data-lineheight=\"41.799999px\">150 years of excavating Jerusalem: A rich layer cake<\/h1>\n<p>For the uninitiated, Jerusalem\u2019s Old City is a labyrinth of narrow streets, hidden stairways, secret courtyards, and dead-end alleys. Yet the deeper mystery lies underneath the Holy City, where ancient cisterns, tombs, tunnels, column-filled caverns, and forgotten prayer rooms have been layered on top of each other over the course of Jerusalem\u2019s vast and varied 4,000-year history.<\/p>\n<p>In Under Jerusalem, American author Andrew Lawler tells the story behind a century and a half of excavating the world\u2019s most contested city, paying as much attention to the aboveground politics as to the subterranean discoveries. Part history, part journalism and part adventure story, the book is nearly as fun to read as exploring the underground passages it describes.<\/p>\n<p>The first people to dig up Ottoman-occupied Jerusalem were not the Palestinian Muslims, Sephardic Jews, or handful of Eastern Orthodox Christians who lived there, but Western Protestants who felt that the \u201creal city of Jerusalem\u201d was underground \u2013 and belonged to them. For these foreigners, the bustling markets, crowded buildings, and sacred shrines covering the surface of actual Jerusalem didn\u2019t reflect the biblical city of their imagination. Rather than the medieval Arab town of dusty streets reeking of trash and sewage, they wanted to see Jerusalem as it was during the glory days of Solomon and Jesus. And so the foreigners dug \u2013 ironically to find that the ancient subterranean spaces were also filled with trash and sewage.<\/p>\n<p>Though the American Edward Robinson began identifying remnants of places mentioned in the Bible in the 1830s, the first official dig permit was issued in December 1863 to the French senator F\u00e9lix de Saulcy, who excavated the famed (and misnamed) Tomb of Kings and found sarcophagi he smuggled to the Louvre. The next was the British captain Charles Wilson, of the eponymous arch, who in 1864 described the ground beneath the Temple Mount to be \u201cperfectly honeycombed with passages and cisterns.\u201d It was this allure of a honeycombed underworld that led so many Westerners to try and find what lay within those secret passages \u2013 the Ark of the Covenant and treasures of Solomon being the most sought after of all. While such mythical treasures have yet to be found, the digs resulted in some of Jerusalem\u2019s most visited tourist attractions today, such as the controversial Western Wall Tunnel and the dramatically lit passages and caves beneath the City of David.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the Indiana Jones-style treasure hunt stories and tense political showdowns, what makes Under Jerusalem a compelling read is Lawler\u2019s style of ending each section with an alluring foreshadow of what\u2019s to come. For instance, after de Saulcy left the \u201ccity\u2019s domes and spires\u201d above him, Lawler explains that \u201cfrom that moment until the present, excavations would be an essential component in that effort to control the city, and the threat of protests, violence, and even war would haunt each dig.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>CONTROL OF the city came to mean control of the narrative of the city\u2019s history, which became the point of many excavations after the 1917 Balfour Declaration and its validation of Zionism. As \u201cexcavating a cistern or searching for treasure might make sense to Jerusalem\u2019s Arabs, but excavating to find your heritage did not,\u201d Lawler writes that these heritage-seeking digs would later create \u201cdevastating consequences for all those involved.\u201d He isn\u2019t being melodramatic \u2013 in 1996, the mere opening of the Western Wall Tunnel into the Muslim Quarter sparked 104 days of violence.<\/p>\n<p>Yet after the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, and more so after the Six Day War of 1967 \u2013 when the Old City came under Jewish control \u2013 the conflict was increasing not between Jews and Muslims, but between Israeli scientists and rabbis. As the state determined that sanctity trumped science, digs came to be controlled not by secular archaeologists but by religious groups who wanted evidence to prove Jerusalem belonged to the Jews \u2013 mainly to counter those like Yasser Arafat who claimed that there never was a Temple in Jerusalem, and that \u201cthe idea of a Jewish origin in Jerusalem is a myth used to justify conquest and occupation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The results of this tension were often mixed. For instance, with the discovery of the City of David and it\u2019s palace, archaeologists confirmed the existence of a historical David, but also that the Jerusalem of the so-called Golden Age around 900 BCE was simply a small town, not a major city. In terms of population and prosperity, excavators conclude that Jerusalem reached its most magnificent during the Byzantine era \u2013 when the city was neither Jewish nor Muslim.<\/p>\n<p>Rather that contradictory, however, the interests of scientists and rabbis should have been recognized as complementary. As the British philosopher Gilbert Ryle noted, \u201cto explode a myth is accordingly not to deny the facts but to re-allocate them.\u201d For example, Robinson\u2019s Arch was initially thought to be part of a massive bridge connecting the Temple Mount with the main part of the city, but later archaeologists determined \u201cit was an enormous pedestrian interchange that was a wonder of the ancient world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In this way, modern scientists confirmed the boast found in the Babylonian Talmud: \u201cWhoever has not seen Jerusalem in its splendor has never seen a fine city.\u201d As Lawler writes, \u201cOrthodox believers had long repeated the phrase, but it was secular Israeli archaeologists who made that splendor tangible.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"modal-footer\"><button class=\"fusion-button button-default button-medium button default medium\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\">Close<\/button><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><a class=\"fusion-modal-text-link\" data-toggle=\"modal\" data-target=\".fusion-modal.libraryjournal2\" href=\"#\">\n<h3>Library Journal<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><div class=\"fusion-modal modal fade modal-30 libraryjournal2\" tabindex=\"-1\" role=\"dialog\" aria-labelledby=\"modal-heading-30\" aria-hidden=\"true\" style=\"--awb-border-color:#ebebeb;--awb-background:#f6f6f6;\"><div class=\"modal-dialog modal-lg\" role=\"document\"><div class=\"modal-content fusion-modal-content\"><div class=\"modal-header\"><button class=\"close\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\" aria-label=\"Close\">&times;<\/button><h3 class=\"modal-title\" id=\"modal-heading-30\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\">Library Journal<\/h3><\/div><div class=\"modal-body fusion-clearfix\">\n<div class=\"BaseWrap-sc-TURhJ ContentHeaderRubricDateBlock-eerpLH eTiIvU jgMsiV\" data-testid=\"ContentHeaderRubricDateBlock\">\n<div class=\"RubricWrapper-cSFBEL llbSZh rubric ContentHeaderRubricContainer-eXoFpZ floLYB\">\n<div class=\"entry-meta woodmart-entry-meta\">\n<h2 class=\"fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" data-fontsize=\"24\" data-lineheight=\"26.4px\">Reviewed by Joel Neuberg, Santa Rosa Junior Coll. Lib., CA , Dec 10, 2021<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"reviewer\">\n<p>Science writer Lawler (The Secret Token) begins his history of nearly two centuries of European, American, and eventual Israeli archaeological exploration beneath the sites of Jerusalem revered by the world\u2019s monotheistic religions with a note on the political implications of the names and words an author uses when writing about the \u201cHoly City.\u201d The author continues to trace the national and international political impact of amateur and professional explorers trying to discover physical evidence in support of scriptural stories. In the process, Lawler summarizes thousands of years of the history (even the geology) of the city and explores the motives and missteps of the diggers. He begins each chapter with a quote from a poet, politician, or partisan focused on Jerusalem and a map locating a specific dig. His writing is clear and engaging, whether detailing colorful characters seeking fame and fortune or recounting the history of the West Bank, and supported by research. Included is a long list of publications for further reading.VERDICT This archeological exploration of Jerusalem will find a welcome audience among readers interest in or curious about the historic city.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><div class=\"modal-footer\"><button class=\"fusion-button button-default button-medium button default medium\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\">Close<\/button><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><a class=\"fusion-modal-text-link\" data-toggle=\"modal\" data-target=\".fusion-modal.virginianpilot2\" href=\"#\">\n<h3>Virginian Pilot<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><div class=\"fusion-modal modal fade modal-31 virginianpilot2\" tabindex=\"-1\" role=\"dialog\" aria-labelledby=\"modal-heading-31\" aria-hidden=\"true\" style=\"--awb-border-color:#ebebeb;--awb-background:#f6f6f6;\"><div class=\"modal-dialog modal-lg\" role=\"document\"><div class=\"modal-content fusion-modal-content\"><div class=\"modal-header\"><button class=\"close\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\" aria-label=\"Close\">&times;<\/button><h3 class=\"modal-title\" id=\"modal-heading-31\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\">Virginian Pilot<\/h3><\/div><div class=\"modal-body fusion-clearfix\">\n<div class=\"BaseWrap-sc-TURhJ ContentHeaderRubricDateBlock-eerpLH eTiIvU jgMsiV\" data-testid=\"ContentHeaderRubricDateBlock\">\n<div class=\"RubricWrapper-cSFBEL llbSZh rubric ContentHeaderRubricContainer-eXoFpZ floLYB\">\n<div class=\"entry-meta woodmart-entry-meta\">\n<h1 class=\"fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" data-fontsize=\"38\" data-lineheight=\"41.799999px\"><strong>In the book \u2018Under Jerusalem,\u2019 the history of archaeology meets today\u2019s struggles<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>By\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pilotonline.com\/vp-user-74e07706-6225-11e5-8bc3-10604b9ffe60-staff.html#nt=byline\">Erica J. Smith<\/a> | The Virginian-Pilot | Jan 02, 2022 at 7:00 AM<\/p>\n<p>From the mysteries of the Lost Colony to the global impact of the lowly chicken, Norfolk native Andrew Lawler long has made archaeology, history and science his pursuit as a writer. His latest book digs into the history and impact of archaeology in Jerusalem: \u201cUnder Jerusalem: The Buried History of the World\u2019s Most Contested City\u201d (Doubleday, 464 pp.).<\/p>\n<p>French and British Christians took archaeology there, seeking the biblical past. In 1863, a French senator started a dig just outside the Old City, wrote a Wall Street Journal reviewer. Louis-F\u00e9licien de Saulcy broke into an ancient tomb and \u201cabducted an attractive sarcophagus,\u201d\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/time.com\/6112694\/jerusalem-israeli-palestinian-conflict-archaeology\/\">enraging<\/a>\u00a0rabbis and making off-target claims about the remains\u2019 identity. \u201cDe Saulcy set the tone of most subsequent efforts: wild ambition, wild exaggeration, wild protests \u2014 and hardheaded chauvinism.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Offshoots included religious, scientific, historical and political strife, and war. Lawler \u201cincisively untangles the contentious geopolitical dimensions of ancient history as modern-day Israelis and Palestinians use archaeological analysis to bolster their political viewpoints and territorial claims,\u201d Publishers Weekly wrote in a starred\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.publishersweekly.com\/978-0-385-54685-0\">review.\u00a0<\/a>But, Lawler\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/\">says<\/a>\u00a0on his website, the archaeological pursuit \u201ccould provide a map for two peoples and three faiths to peacefully coexist.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lawler, now an Asheville resident, writes for National Geographic, Smithsonian and other major outlets. His other books: \u201cThe Secret Token: Myth, Obsession, and the Search for the Lost Colony of Roanoke\u201d and \u201cWhy Did the Chicken Cross the World?: The Epic Saga of the Bird that Powers Civilization.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><div class=\"modal-footer\"><button class=\"fusion-button button-default button-medium button default medium\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\">Close<\/button><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><a class=\"fusion-modal-text-link\" data-toggle=\"modal\" data-target=\".fusion-modal.bowlinggreen2\" href=\"#\">\n<h3>Bowling Green Daily News<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><div class=\"fusion-modal modal fade modal-32 bowlinggreen2\" tabindex=\"-1\" role=\"dialog\" aria-labelledby=\"modal-heading-32\" aria-hidden=\"true\" style=\"--awb-border-color:#ebebeb;--awb-background:#f6f6f6;\"><div class=\"modal-dialog modal-lg\" role=\"document\"><div class=\"modal-content fusion-modal-content\"><div class=\"modal-header\"><button class=\"close\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\" aria-label=\"Close\">&times;<\/button><h3 class=\"modal-title\" id=\"modal-heading-32\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\">Bowling Green Daily News<\/h3><\/div><div class=\"modal-body fusion-clearfix\">\n<div class=\"BaseWrap-sc-TURhJ ContentHeaderRubricDateBlock-eerpLH eTiIvU jgMsiV\" data-testid=\"ContentHeaderRubricDateBlock\">\n<div class=\"RubricWrapper-cSFBEL llbSZh rubric ContentHeaderRubricContainer-eXoFpZ floLYB\">\n<div class=\"entry-meta woodmart-entry-meta\">\n<p><em>\u2013 Reviewed by Jane Eisner, who is director of academic affairs at the Columbia Journalism School. She is writing a book about Carole King.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Yehuda Amichai, Israel\u2019s most celebrated poet, wrote often about Jerusalem with language and imagery that ricochets off the ancient stone walls and into a reader\u2019s heart. Jerusalem was where Amichai lived after escaping Nazi Germany; it is where he died in 2000; and it is where his accessible, imaginative and descriptive style transformed him into a sort of poetic prophet.<\/p>\n<p>His long, gorgeous poem \u201cJerusalem, Jerusalem, Why Jerusalem?\u201d has a haunting refrain. \u201cWhy, of all places, Jerusalem?\u201d he asks repeatedly. Why not New York, Athens, Egypt, Mexico, India, Burma? Why not Babylon, Petersburg, Mecca, Rome?<\/p>\n<p>What is it about this city, where ordinary life rubs up against parading pilgrims, where bombs and crucifixions commingle with church bells and the muezzin\u2019s call, where the ground is heavy with history \u2013 in Amichai\u2019s words, \u201csubmerged and sunken\u201d \u2013 that draws adventurers, scholars and ideologues like a magnet?<\/p>\n<p>That question propels the narrative of Andrew Lawler\u2019s new book, \u201cUnder Jerusalem: The Buried History of the World\u2019s Most Contested City,\u201d a sweeping tale of archaeological exploits and their cultural and political consequences told with a historian\u2019s penchant for detail and a journalist\u2019s flair for narration.<\/p>\n<p>Beginning when Abraham Lincoln was in the White House, and going up until the raucous headlines of today, Lawler introduces us to an array of men and women drawn to explore the hidden tunnels, broken cisterns, collapsing walls and sewage pits that lie under a small plot of land sacred to the world\u2019s Jews, Muslims and Christians.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnder Jerusalem\u201d is one of several new books chasing this Indiana Jones of a tale. And it\u2019s easy to sense the allure. The archaeologists and adventurers who came to excavate the past and claim its treasures were seeking scientific knowledge, professional glory and tangible proof of their connection to the ancient biblical text. At times, their eagerness led them to burrow and bulldoze through sacred space, even if, in so doing, they disrupted centuries of civilization and rocked the foundation \u2013 physically and spiritually \u2013 of Western faith traditions.<\/p>\n<p>Today, controversy over excavations in the Old City is too often framed as simply a conflict between Jews seeking to legitimize their connection to Jerusalem and Muslims resistant to those claims. But in this \u201ccity of political hypervigilance,\u201d as Lawler calls it, the real story is far more complicated.<\/p>\n<p>From the beginning, and for many decades following, it was in fact Christians \u2013 first from France, then from Britain, mostly Protestants \u2013 who swooped into the Holy Land and made a holy mess. In 1863, Louis-F\u00e9licien Joseph Caignart de Saulcy of France was the first to conduct an archaeological dig in the city, fueled by the conviction that \u201cJerusalem\u2019s ancient heritage belonged not to those who lived in and ruled there, but to foreigners like himself,\u201d Lawler writes.<\/p>\n<p>Despite angering local Jews and Muslims and infuriating Ottoman authorities, de Saulcy managed to extract a sarcophagus from the Tomb of Kings that he believed was a consort of a Judean ruler from the 7th century B.C., take it to France and eventually display it in the Louvre. Never mind that experts questioned its true identification and significance. The discovery, Lawler writes, \u201copened the possibility that archaeology could yield concrete proof of scripture\u2019s accuracy at a moment when advances in geology and biology had put Christianity on the defensive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This theme \u2013 that science can be used to verify religious beliefs and national claims \u2013 courses through this narrative like the streams flowing beneath the Old City. So does the political tumult that de Saulcy\u2019s discovery ignited. Fearful of France\u2019s influence, Britain very quickly launched its own archaeological strike force. Russia also sponsored digs, while Western philanthropists poured money underground \u2013 and still do.<\/p>\n<p>One can see how Jerusalem natives, particularly the Muslims who retain authority over sections of the Old City, became so hostile to outside interference in the name of science. Their homes were damaged; their businesses disrupted; their autonomy questioned; their sacred space violated.<\/p>\n<p>There is another, deeper reason for this antipathy, writes Lawler: \u201cExcavating a cistern or searching for treasure might make sense to Jerusalem\u2019s Arabs, but excavating to find your heritage did not. You were your heritage, and there was no need to find that which you had not lost. This profound cultural divide between Westerners and Arabs \u2013 and, later, between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs \u2013 would grow wider in generations to come, with devastating consequences for all those involved.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Would that Lawler had delved more deeply into this fascinating cultural divide and the questions raised. What lies behind the compulsion to locate Jesus\u2019 tomb or King David\u2019s palace or Solomon\u2019s temple? How do we balance the drive to uncover the past with reverence for the present? There is endless detail in this book about each excavation, contextualized with discussion of the ethical dimensions and methodological advances in the expanding field of archaeology. But there were times when I wished Lawler had stepped back to explore those larger, motivational questions more fully.<\/p>\n<p>That said, he displays remarkable evenhandedness in cataloguing the politicization of archaeology today, especially considering that so many characters in this book believed that God \u2013 or Adonai, or Allah, or Jesus \u2013 was on their side. Lawler also carefully narrates the dramatic and consequential rifts between the increasingly powerful Orthodox Jewish rabbinate in Jerusalem and its largely secular, scholarly counterparts.<\/p>\n<p>Tragically, we see positions harden and compromise made more difficult, whether it is in Yasser Arafat\u2019s refusal to acknowledge the Jewish historical claim to the Old City or in the growing influence exerted by the fundamentalist City of David Foundation, widely known by its Hebrew acronym Elad. Sadly, too, we hear in this story echoes of broader troubling trends, as the neutral pursuit of science slams into ideology, greed, nationalism and faith.<\/p>\n<p>Why, of all places, Jerusalem?<\/p>\n<p>Amichai offers a partial, poetic answer: \u201cIn Jerusalem,\u201d he writes, \u201ceverything is a symbol.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lawler\u2019s timely book builds on that insight, showing how and why ordinary men and women, and great empires alike, continue to seek meaning in the dirt and debris beneath this magnetic, confounding city.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><div class=\"modal-footer\"><button class=\"fusion-button button-default button-medium button default medium\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\">Close<\/button><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><a class=\"fusion-modal-text-link\" data-toggle=\"modal\" data-target=\".fusion-modal.jewishjournal3\" href=\"#\">\n<h3>Jewish Journal<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><div class=\"fusion-modal modal fade modal-33 jewishjournal3\" tabindex=\"-1\" role=\"dialog\" aria-labelledby=\"modal-heading-33\" aria-hidden=\"true\" style=\"--awb-border-color:#ebebeb;--awb-background:#f6f6f6;\"><div class=\"modal-dialog modal-lg\" role=\"document\"><div class=\"modal-content fusion-modal-content\"><div class=\"modal-header\"><button class=\"close\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\" aria-label=\"Close\">&times;<\/button><h3 class=\"modal-title\" id=\"modal-heading-33\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\">Jewish Journal<\/h3><\/div><div class=\"modal-body fusion-clearfix\">\n<div class=\"BaseWrap-sc-TURhJ ContentHeaderRubricDateBlock-eerpLH eTiIvU jgMsiV\" data-testid=\"ContentHeaderRubricDateBlock\">\n<div class=\"RubricWrapper-cSFBEL llbSZh rubric ContentHeaderRubricContainer-eXoFpZ floLYB\">\n<div class=\"entry-meta woodmart-entry-meta\">\n<h3 class=\"fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" data-fontsize=\"22\" data-lineheight=\"24.200001px\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jewishjournal.com\/podcasts\/343428\/andrew-lawler-under-jerusalem\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Listen to the podcast here<\/a><\/h3>\n<div>Shmuel Rosner and\u00a0Andrew Lawler discuss\u00a0his latest book: \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/665396\/under-jerusalem-by-andrew-lawler\/\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/665396\/under-jerusalem-by-andrew-lawler\/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1639991933911000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3FrIvV92MstpbEBJq-tjhz\">Under Jerusalem: The buried history of the world`s most contested city<\/a>\u201c.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Andrew Lawert is author of\u00a0the bestselling\u00a0<i>The Secret Token: Myth, Obsession, and the Search for the Lost Colony of Roanoke,\u00a0<\/i>and the acclaimed\u00a0<i>Why Did the Chicken Cross the World?: The Epic Saga of the Bird that Powers Civilization<\/i>. His work has appeared in\u00a0<i>The New York Times, The Washington Post, National Geographic,\u00a0<\/i>and<i>\u00a0Smithsonian<\/i>. He is a contributing writer for\u00a0<i>Science<\/i>\u00a0and a contributing editor for\u00a0<i>Archaeology.<\/i>\u00a0Lawler\u2019s work has appeared several times in\u00a0<i>The Best of Science and Nature Writing<\/i>.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><div class=\"modal-footer\"><button class=\"fusion-button button-default button-medium button default medium\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\">Close<\/button><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><a class=\"fusion-modal-text-link\" data-toggle=\"modal\" data-target=\".fusion-modal.jewishreview2\" href=\"#\">\n<h3>Jewish Review of Books<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><div class=\"fusion-modal modal fade modal-34 jewishreview2\" tabindex=\"-1\" role=\"dialog\" aria-labelledby=\"modal-heading-34\" aria-hidden=\"true\" style=\"--awb-border-color:#ebebeb;--awb-background:#f6f6f6;\"><div class=\"modal-dialog modal-lg\" role=\"document\"><div class=\"modal-content fusion-modal-content\"><div class=\"modal-header\"><button class=\"close\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\" aria-label=\"Close\">&times;<\/button><h3 class=\"modal-title\" id=\"modal-heading-34\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\">Jewish Review of Books<\/h3><\/div><div class=\"modal-body fusion-clearfix\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/JRB-Spring-2022_Page_1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-9061 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/JRB-Spring-2022_Page_1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1275\" height=\"1650\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/JRB-Spring-2022_Page_1-200x259.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/JRB-Spring-2022_Page_1-232x300.jpg 232w, https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/JRB-Spring-2022_Page_1-400x518.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/JRB-Spring-2022_Page_1-600x776.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/JRB-Spring-2022_Page_1-768x994.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/JRB-Spring-2022_Page_1-791x1024.jpg 791w, https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/JRB-Spring-2022_Page_1-800x1035.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/JRB-Spring-2022_Page_1-1187x1536.jpg 1187w, https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/JRB-Spring-2022_Page_1-1200x1553.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/JRB-Spring-2022_Page_1.jpg 1275w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1275px) 100vw, 1275px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/JRB-Spring-2022_Page_2-1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-9062 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/JRB-Spring-2022_Page_2-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1275\" height=\"1650\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/JRB-Spring-2022_Page_2-1-200x259.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/JRB-Spring-2022_Page_2-1-232x300.jpg 232w, https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/JRB-Spring-2022_Page_2-1-400x518.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/JRB-Spring-2022_Page_2-1-600x776.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/JRB-Spring-2022_Page_2-1-768x994.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/JRB-Spring-2022_Page_2-1-791x1024.jpg 791w, https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/JRB-Spring-2022_Page_2-1-800x1035.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/JRB-Spring-2022_Page_2-1-1187x1536.jpg 1187w, https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/JRB-Spring-2022_Page_2-1-1200x1553.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/JRB-Spring-2022_Page_2-1.jpg 1275w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1275px) 100vw, 1275px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"modal-footer\"><button class=\"fusion-button button-default button-medium button default medium\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\">Close<\/button><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><a class=\"fusion-modal-text-link\" data-toggle=\"modal\" data-target=\".fusion-modal.Approaching2\" href=\"#\">\n<h3>Approaching Jerusalem<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><div class=\"fusion-modal modal fade modal-35 Approaching2\" tabindex=\"-1\" role=\"dialog\" aria-labelledby=\"modal-heading-35\" aria-hidden=\"true\" style=\"--awb-border-color:#ebebeb;--awb-background:#f6f6f6;\"><div class=\"modal-dialog modal-lg\" role=\"document\"><div class=\"modal-content fusion-modal-content\"><div class=\"modal-header\"><button class=\"close\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\" aria-label=\"Close\">&times;<\/button><h3 class=\"modal-title\" id=\"modal-heading-35\" data-dismiss=\"modal\" aria-hidden=\"true\">Approaching Jerusalem<\/h3><\/div><div class=\"modal-body fusion-clearfix\">\n<p>By Chandler Collins<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"subtitle fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" data-fontsize=\"22\" data-lineheight=\"24.200001px\">Lawler\u2019s book shows how archaeology has affected the landscape of a contested city. The detailed narrative is a fun and engaging read but assumes the framing it claims to critique.<\/h3>\n<p>Andrew Lawler\u2019s highly touted book<a id=\"footnote-anchor-1\" class=\"footnote-anchor\" href=\"https:\/\/approachingjerusalem.substack.com\/p\/summary-and-review-under-jerusalem?utm_source=twitter&amp;sd=pf#footnote-1\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">1<\/a>\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/under-jerusalem\/\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">Under Jerusalem<\/a><\/em>\u00a0is an engaging and accessible account of select excavations in Jerusalem from the 1860s to the present day. The work is broken into three parts: part one focuses on early exploration of Jerusalem from the 1860s through 1967 when the Israelis captured East Jerusalem; part two covers the years 1967-2001 when peace talks collapsed; and part three extends from 2001 to today. Maps of Jerusalem at the beginning of each chapter highlight the location of key discussion points in the pages following.<\/p>\n<p>Lawler\u2019s narrative chronicles how the exploration of Jerusalem\u2019s underground has had powerful effects on the city above. He contends that archaeologists who dig in the city have some responsibility to mitigate the ideological intents of their donors and wield influence over the way their excavations will inevitably affect changes in the city\u2019s landscape. He even believes that archaeology is powerful enough to pave a path to peace.<\/p>\n<p>Readers will benefit from\u00a0<em>Under Jerusalem<\/em>\u00a0in several ways. The book contains detailed narratives about more obscure (at least to me) archaeological ventures in Jerusalem such as Ron Wyatt\u2019s search for the ark of the covenant on the grounds of the Garden Tomb, a two-decade lawsuit between a group of Coptic priests and an Arab shop owner into whose basement they burrowed (with the unofficial help of the IAA), Yehuda Getz\u2019s attempt to break through Warren\u2019s Gate and into the Noble Sanctuary\u2019s underground, and others. Particularly interesting were the chapters that discussed the political ramifications of opening a new exit from the Western Wall Tunnels onto the Via Dolorosa. Even the well-known stories Lawler recounts are loaded with tantalizing details, many connected with the broader context in which the excavations occurred.<\/p>\n<p>The book also includes material from Lawler\u2019s personal interviews with archaeologists and locals, some of whom share information which may be unfamiliar to the reader. One of the most scandalous revelations in the book comes from Lawler\u2019s interview with Meir Ben-Dov who relays that Yigal Yadin advised him to bulldoze the Umayyad palaces he had uncovered south of the Noble Sanctuary rather than reveal them to the public (144, 146). Thankfully Ben-Dov did not indulge Yadin.<\/p>\n<p>Another strength of the book is that it gives a glimpse into the thorny context relating to archaeology in Jerusalem, especially in the chapters focused from the 1970s onward. Readers will learn how in general the religious-secular divide in Israel has contributed to very different orientations toward archeology in each community (especially in his discussion of Yigal Shiloh\u2019s excavations on the Southeastern Hill). Lawler also discusses the historical reasons for different attitudes toward archaeology among Israelis and Palestinians. Additionally, the book highlights key players in Jerusalem, both individuals and organizations, and discusses them in relationship to each other, such as the IAA, Elad, the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, the Waqf, the Ecole Biblique, various ecclesiastical communities and educational institutions, invested politicians, donors, and others. Although it is by no means exhaustive, the web of information Lawler paints helps to bring some clarity to the knotty context in which Jerusalem\u2019s excavations occur.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"header-with-anchor-widget fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" data-fontsize=\"22\" data-lineheight=\"24.200001px\">The cast of characters<\/h3>\n<div id=\"\u00a7the-cast-of-characters\" class=\"header-anchor-widget\">\n<div class=\"header-anchor-widget-button-container\">The book follows a familiar cast of archaeological characters, but readers are not presented with a full-orbed account of Jerusalem\u2019s excavation history. The excavations omitted from Lawler\u2019s book are notable, including Hermann Guthe\u2019s soundings on the Southeastern Hill, Broshi\u2019s major digs across several areas on the Western Hill, Amiran and Eitan\u2019s-and later Geva\u2019s\u2014work in the Citadel, Crowfoot and Fitzgerald\u2019s dig on the Southeastern Hill, Hamilton\u2019s excavations during the British Mandate, and Sukenik and Mayer\u2019s excavation at the Third Wall, to mention a few. Other excavations are mentioned but hardly discussed, such as those of Johns, Avigad, Barkay, Kenyon, Gibson, Re\u2019em, and others. The book also does not consider the many hundreds of routine and small-scale salvage digs that have taken place in Jerusalem.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><em>Under Jerusalem<\/em>\u00a0focuses instead on the city\u2019s most notorious, controversial, and ideologically driven excavations (probably in most cases better termed \u201cdigging activity\u201d). More well-known figures in Jerusalem\u2019s excavation history are one-dimensionalized to fit the narrative of the book: Edward Robinson is a \u201cdevout and conservative scholar\u201d who used \u201cthe tools of science to counter religious skepticism\u201d (xxxi); Charles Warren is a Freemason with \u201cclosely guarded spiritual reasons\u201d for excavating in Jerusalem (40); Flinders-Petrie is \u201cself-taught\u201d (85); Vincent is an academic opportunist (111; see also 349); Kenyon is a \u201cpious Anglican\u201d searching for the City of David (130). This framing reflects Lawler\u2019s view that Jerusalem\u2019s archaeologists are best understood as biblical apologists or treasure-hunters (xxxi).<\/p>\n<p>The book makes much of the fact that Vincent published a scientific report detailing the controversial and bizarre Parker Expedition. Lawler implies that Vincent did so for financial gain and in the process \u201cturned a blind eye\u201d to the chaos caused by Parker\u2019s nocturnal escapades on the Noble Sanctuary \u201cfor the sake of immediate scientific gain\u201d (111). It is interesting that Lawler does not apply the same standard to his own book which happily makes use of the Parker Expedition to support its own narrative.<\/p>\n<p>The excavations of Kathleen Kenyon, taking place over seven seasons and the most extensive the city had ever seen, are afforded only one page in the book. Here is part of the section:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cConfident that she could use this [new trenching] approach to find the still-missing City of David, she set to work with a team of Silwan workers on the slopes of the ridge extending south of the Noble Sanctuary. Jerusalem\u2019s subterranean scramble, however, frustrated even the savvy Kenyon. Like Parker and Vincent, she found plenty of walls and fortifications dating to the millennium before the Israelite arrival. But Kenyon uncovered nothing clearly tied to the days of David and Solomon\u201d (130).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The length of the section given to Kenyon reflects a common approach that minimizes her role in the excavation history of Jerusalem. Strangely, it also presents her as a kind of biblical apologist. As is well known, Kenyon had just come from Jericho where she refuted Garstang\u2019s popular claim to have uncovered the wall of Joshua. In a similar way, her excavations in Jerusalem demonstrated that the structures Macalister had unearthed on the Southeastern Hill and dated to the time of the Jebusites and King David in fact came from the Hellenistic Period\u2014about a thousand years later.<\/p>\n<p>Kenyon brought her rigorous archaeological method to Jerusalem and inaugurated a new era of scientific excavations in the city, the significance of which is not emphasized in the book. Her team excavated throughout East Jerusalem and pursued a variety of research goals related to several different historical periods. While some of her conclusions about Jerusalem\u2019s history were controversial and later proved incorrect, Kenyon was no fundamentalist or treasure hunter as the book paints her.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"header-with-anchor-widget fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" data-fontsize=\"22\" data-lineheight=\"24.200001px\">Echoing the past<\/h3>\n<div id=\"\u00a7echoing-the-past\" class=\"header-anchor-widget\">\n<div class=\"header-anchor-widget-button-container\"><em>Under Jerusalem<\/em>\u00a0discusses how the city\u2019s earliest excavations in the 19th and early 20th centuries created disputes between western archaeologists and locals. This foundation allows for later callbacks that connect controversial archaeological activity after 1967 to these early predecessors. For instance, when Yehuda Getz attempted to tunnel through Warren\u2019s Gate under the Noble Sanctuary and was met by an group of appalled Muslim men, Lawler writes: \u201cPalestinian Muslims suspected Getz had the quiet backing of the Israeli government,\u00a0<em>much as the Ottoman regime was implicated in the 1911 desecration<\/em>\u00a0(172; emphasis mine).\u201d The desecration he refers to was Montagu Parker\u2019s illicit digging on top of the Noble Sanctuary mentioned above. There are several such instances in the book connecting digging activity in Jerusalem after 1967 to earlier excavations, some loosely and others more tightly (e.g. 235, 296).<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>This framing is important for the book since it aims to draw a similarity between the early imperial archaeologists and later Israeli excavators. However, the attempt to mark a solid line from one to the other is not very compelling. Taking the above example, although Parker\u2019s dig had massive political ramifications, one does not need to understand that context in order to grasp why Getz\u2019s probe into the side of the Noble Sanctuary caused a huge controversy. We should also not imagine that knowledge of Parker\u2019s 1911 dig on top of the platform hung around in the ether of Jerusalem (as implied on pg. 189) and somehow informed the response of the Waqf to Getz in 1981. Understanding the dynamics of the city and the fact that the Noble Sanctuary is sacred space provides enough context.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"header-with-anchor-widget fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" data-fontsize=\"22\" data-lineheight=\"24.200001px\">Misleading information and imagined controversies<\/h3>\n<div id=\"\u00a7misleading-information-and-imagined-controversies\" class=\"header-anchor-widget\">\n<div class=\"header-anchor-widget-button-container\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The book is dotted with some misleading information. For example, Lawler repeats the idea that Charles Warren believed the shaft he climbed up in 1867 \u201cmust be the passage mentioned in the Bible that King David\u2019s soldiers used to infiltrate and conquer Jebusite Jerusalem\u201d (46; see also 87 and 210). In fact, it is not clear that Warren believed the shaft he discovered was the\u00a0<em>sinnor<\/em>\u00a0mentioned in II Samuel 5. The mistaken idea was only overtly applied to Warren\u2019s Shaft later and not by Warren.<a id=\"footnote-anchor-2\" class=\"footnote-anchor\" href=\"https:\/\/approachingjerusalem.substack.com\/p\/summary-and-review-under-jerusalem?utm_source=twitter&amp;sd=pf#footnote-2\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">2<\/a><\/p>\n<p>In another place, Lawler writes that the Greek inscription discovered by Charles Clermont-Ganneau warning gentiles from passing beyond the stone balustrade and approaching the temple is \u201cone of the few undisputed pieces of physical evidence from within the complex renovated under Herod the Great and destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE\u201d (70). This is a strange statement considering that more than 500 pieces originating from the Royal Stoa built on the southern side of the Herodian Temple Mount and described in detail by Josephus have been recovered and published.<a id=\"footnote-anchor-3\" class=\"footnote-anchor\" href=\"https:\/\/approachingjerusalem.substack.com\/p\/summary-and-review-under-jerusalem?utm_source=twitter&amp;sd=pf#footnote-3\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">3<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Concerning the Nea Church uncovered in Nachman Avigad\u2019s excavations, Lawler writes:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201c\u2026a church in the midst of the Jewish Quarter was anathema to many Orthodox Jews, and\u00a0<em>its vaults and apses were later locked behind gates and doors inaccessible to the public<\/em>\u201d (158; emphasis mine).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>His overall point about the Nea Church is well-taken, namely that it is purposefully neglected. Even the informed visitor to the city will have difficulty in locating it, and it is near impossible to gain access to the key that unlocks the church vaults. However, the southern apse is hardly locked away. It sits in broad daylight visible to anyone willing to look for it. Apparently Lawler has not or was willing to exaggerate the point anyway.<\/p>\n<p>Lawler also contends that rather than dig from the top down as is common practice, Ronny Reich and Eli Shukron opted to revive the old tunneling method of 19th-century archaeologists in their excavations near Jerusalem\u2019s spring (211). While true enough that part of their excavations took place within ancient rock-cut tunnels, in all other places they employed the usual top-down excavation technique.<\/p>\n<p><em>Under Jerusalem<\/em>\u00a0also presents some imagined controversies that stoke the fire of its narrative. From the time of Charles Warren, Lawler argues that there was a controversy of competing theories over the location of the City of David (70, 86, 88). Warren is said to be looking for the City of David in his excavations (46). However, the far and away majority view at the time still placed the City of David on the Western Hill (as Lawler mentions later). Despite some earlier suggestive breadcrumbs, it was not until closer to 1900\u2014after the excavations of Bliss and Dickie\u2014that the Southeastern Hill of Jerusalem came to be accepted as the ancient core. Lawler mentions this archaeological revolution but still uses an anachronistic controversy to hype Warren\u2019s digs.<\/p>\n<p>In an other instance he mentions the \u201c\u2026nagging question of the temples\u2019 location, hotly debated among biblical scholars since Robinson\u2019s day\u201d (190; see also 258ff.). I would like to know what biblical scholars he has in mind. The overwhelming majority view in scholarship has been that all iterations of the temple building proper stood over the limestone bedrock under the Dome of the Rock. It is true that this remains a hypothetical conjecture, but there is a large amount of supporting evidence, especially geographical. The other scholarly views that I am aware of shift the temple\u2019s location only a bit to the west (an older view that makes the Foundation Stone the location of the altar of burnt offerings) or\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblicalarchaeology.org\/reviews\/the-temple-mount\/\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">to the north<\/a>\u00a0(near the Dome of the Spirits, setting the temple in line with the Golden Gate).<a id=\"footnote-anchor-4\" class=\"footnote-anchor\" href=\"https:\/\/approachingjerusalem.substack.com\/p\/summary-and-review-under-jerusalem?utm_source=twitter&amp;sd=pf#footnote-4\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">4<\/a><\/p>\n<p>There are more of these kinds of issues in the text. While any one of them is not a major problem by itself, together they obscure a number of facts in order the smooth the book\u2019s narrative. Knowing the background to these problems, I find myself less confident in accepting other information in the book that relates to events with which I am less familiar.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"header-with-anchor-widget fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" data-fontsize=\"22\" data-lineheight=\"24.200001px\">Perpetuating old ideas<\/h3>\n<div id=\"\u00a7perpetuating-old-ideas\" class=\"header-anchor-widget\">\n<div class=\"header-anchor-widget-button-container\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Lawler importantly mentions that Jerusalem\u2019s four-quarter system is the synthetic creation of western outsiders (22, 353-354). However, readers of the book are still presented with a city marked by conflict:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cEver since Abraham Lincoln was in the White House, when a French explorer broke into an ancient Jewish tomb, [Jerusalem\u2019s] subterranean realm has sparked riots, threatened to trigger regional war, and set the entire world on edge\u201d (xxvii).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>This conflict is not just regional or between western archaeologist and city residents. Lawler writes that during De Saulcy\u2019s expedition to the Tomb of the Kings in 1863, the governor of Jerusalem\u2019s primary task was \u201cto keep the peace in a city split among its three main religious communities, and in particular to maintain comity among the unruly Christian sects\u201d (10). More of these kinds of statements appear in other places.<a id=\"footnote-anchor-5\" class=\"footnote-anchor\" href=\"https:\/\/approachingjerusalem.substack.com\/p\/summary-and-review-under-jerusalem?utm_source=twitter&amp;sd=pf#footnote-5\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">5<\/a>\u00a0An atmosphere of perpetual conflict in Jerusalem is the assumption underlying the book\u2019s discussion of 19th and early-20th century digs, as well as those after 1967.<\/p>\n<p>Western narratives that describe the city as a filthy and neglected place are presented as the impetus for the visitors to look underground for the \u201creal\u201d Jerusalem instead (xxxii-xxxiii). But the fact that Jerusalem was filthy and neglected or riddled in conflict is not questioned in the book.<\/p>\n<p>These stereotypes of Late Ottoman Jerusalem were built mainly on the assumption that the writings of western visitors to the city should be taken at face value.<a id=\"footnote-anchor-6\" class=\"footnote-anchor\" href=\"https:\/\/approachingjerusalem.substack.com\/p\/summary-and-review-under-jerusalem?utm_source=twitter&amp;sd=pf#footnote-6\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">6<\/a>\u00a0Over the last several decades, scholars have pointed instead to Jerusalem\u2019s rapid modernization in the second half of the 19th century and early 20th century which included a number of innovations.<a id=\"footnote-anchor-7\" class=\"footnote-anchor\" href=\"https:\/\/approachingjerusalem.substack.com\/p\/summary-and-review-under-jerusalem?utm_source=twitter&amp;sd=pf#footnote-7\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">7<\/a>\u00a0They have also suggested that the divisions wrought by the conflict of World War I and later British Mandate policies were much less pronounced in the earlier period Lawler writes about.<\/p>\n<p>Lawler mentions the common disappointment of westerner travelers who arrived in Jerusalem. The city they encountered\u2014most coming from some of the world\u2019s largest urban centers at the heart of expanding global empires\u2014did not meet their imagined expectations. However, the book does not discuss to what degree their observations about Jerusalem (such as Warren\u2019s or Mark Twain\u2019s) can be used as a fair window into the reality of the city they experienced. Native sources, such as\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.simonandschuster.com\/books\/The-Storyteller-of-Jerusalem\/Wasif-Jawhariyyeh\/9781566569255\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">the memoirs of Wasif Jawhariyyeh<\/a>, paint Jerusalem in an entirely different light.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"header-with-anchor-widget fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" data-fontsize=\"22\" data-lineheight=\"24.200001px\">Conclusion<\/h3>\n<div id=\"\u00a7conclusion\" class=\"header-anchor-widget\">\n<div class=\"header-anchor-widget-button-container\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Lawler joins a host of authors who have written linear narratives about Jerusalem\u2019s excavation history. Partway through the book I found myself wondering what its contribution would be. Considering that it focuses so heavily on the controversy created by archaeology in Jerusalem, I was surprised to read that Lawler believes archaeology could also serve as the seed for future peace. His rationale for this is not only because Jerusalem\u2019s underground attests to the long presence of all three monotheistic religions but also because the archaeological process has revealed surprises that upended exclusive understandings of the city\u2019s history.<\/p>\n<p>The notorious Pontius Pilate was recently credited with building a massive street leading to the Herodian temple; elaborate Umayyad palaces near the Noble Sanctuary suggest a significant investment in Jerusalem beyond religious concerns very early in Islam\u2019s history; the lack of monumental remains from the tenth century BCE has raised questions about how to understand the kingdoms of David and Solomon.<\/p>\n<p>Lawler hopes that readers will accept his interpretation of the archaeological material, much of which is informed by minimalist views and tropes about the Bible, and set aside their differences. I suspect that those who are deeply invested in Jerusalem\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/jewishreviewofbooks.com\/jewish-history\/12261\/the-treasure-of-the-jews\/\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">will not find this approach compelling<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em>Under Jerusalem<\/em>\u00a0is an engaging and page-turning read with important chapters, sources, and data points. But in the end, the book cannot escape from the same point of view that it claims to critique. Its fixation on the spectacle of archaeological stories throughout is summarized in its final words asserting that Jerusalem\u2019s \u201cabiding power remains bound up in its underworld\u201d (344). I agree with\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tarb.co.il\/going-underground\/\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">Michael Press<\/a>\u00a0that this view attributes too much potency to the city\u2019s subterranean realm. It also echoes the same framework of Jerusalem\u2019s early explorers who looked past the living city in efforts to find the real and powerful one hidden below.<\/p>\n<p>Few who are paying attention will question Lawler\u2019s assertion that archaeology has become a tool of control in a contested city. Readers will have to judge how well this book can serve as a guide to this and other issues related to Jerusalem\u2019s archaeological past.<\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"modal-footer\"><button class=\"fusion-button button-default button-medium button default medium\" type=\"button\" data-dismiss=\"modal\">Close<\/button><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-11 fusion_builder_column_1_3 1_3 fusion-flex-column\" style=\"--awb-padding-right:10px;--awb-padding-left:10px;--awb-bg-color:#e5e5e5;--awb-bg-color-hover:#e5e5e5;--awb-bg-size:cover;--awb-width-large:33.333333333333%;--awb-margin-top-large:0px;--awb-spacing-right-large:5.76%;--awb-margin-bottom-large:20px;--awb-spacing-left-large:5.76%;--awb-width-medium:100%;--awb-order-medium:0;--awb-spacing-right-medium:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-medium:1.92%;--awb-width-small:100%;--awb-order-small:0;--awb-spacing-right-small:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-small:1.92%;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-column-has-shadow fusion-flex-justify-content-flex-start fusion-content-layout-column\"><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-6\"><p>INTERVIEWS<\/p>\n<\/div><ul style=\"--awb-line-height:23.8px;--awb-icon-width:23.8px;--awb-icon-height:23.8px;--awb-icon-margin:9.8px;--awb-content-margin:33.6px;--awb-circlecolor:#9e9e9e;--awb-circle-yes-font-size:12.32px;\" class=\"fusion-checklist fusion-checklist-1 fusion-checklist-default type-icons\"><li class=\"fusion-li-item\" style=\"\"><span class=\"icon-wrapper circle-yes\"><i class=\"fusion-li-icon fa-arrow-alt-circle-right fas\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/span><div class=\"fusion-li-item-content\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.publishersweekly.com\/pw\/by-topic\/authors\/interviews\/article\/87452-city-of-peace-pw-talks-with-andrew-lawler.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">City of Peace: Publisher\u2019s Weekly Talks with Andrew Lawler<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/li><li class=\"fusion-li-item\" style=\"\"><span class=\"icon-wrapper circle-yes\"><i class=\"fusion-li-icon fa-arrow-alt-circle-right fas\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/span><div class=\"fusion-li-item-content\">\n<p>Acast Podcast : <a href=\"https:\/\/play.acast.com\/s\/612edc98c1afca00192ded2f\/625c959efa71dd0012e910da\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jerusalem Unplugged, Under Jerusalem with Andrew Lawler<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/li><\/ul><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-7\" style=\"--awb-margin-top:20px;\"><p>VIDEOS<\/p>\n<\/div><ul style=\"--awb-line-height:23.8px;--awb-icon-width:23.8px;--awb-icon-height:23.8px;--awb-icon-margin:9.8px;--awb-content-margin:33.6px;--awb-circlecolor:#9e9e9e;--awb-circle-yes-font-size:12.32px;\" class=\"fusion-checklist fusion-checklist-2 fusion-checklist-default type-icons\"><li class=\"fusion-li-item\" style=\"\"><span class=\"icon-wrapper circle-yes\"><i class=\"fusion-li-icon fa-play-circle fas\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/span><div class=\"fusion-li-item-content\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=wiWokFRopIY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Andrew Lawler UJ Book Talk: Center for Jewish History<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/li><li class=\"fusion-li-item\" style=\"\"><span class=\"icon-wrapper circle-yes\"><i class=\"fusion-li-icon fa-play-circle fas\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/span><div class=\"fusion-li-item-content\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=QFvdpgoba0M\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Andrew Lawler UJ Book Talk: Book Passage<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/li><li class=\"fusion-li-item\" style=\"\"><span class=\"icon-wrapper circle-yes\"><i class=\"fusion-li-icon fa-play-circle fas\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/span><div class=\"fusion-li-item-content\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=PZ0TXZXSLok\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Andrew Lawler UJ Book Talk: Country Bookshop<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/li><li class=\"fusion-li-item\" style=\"\"><span class=\"icon-wrapper circle-yes\"><i class=\"fusion-li-icon fa-play-circle fas\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/span><div class=\"fusion-li-item-content\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=7gsuGFYO-HM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Andrew Lawler UJ Book Talk: Norfolk Historical Society<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/li><li class=\"fusion-li-item\" style=\"\"><span class=\"icon-wrapper circle-yes\"><i class=\"fusion-li-icon fa-play-circle fas\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/span><div class=\"fusion-li-item-content\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=mKVDhzC1CiQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Andrew Lawler UJ Book Talk: Congregation Beth Israel &amp; Malaprop&#8217;s<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/li><li class=\"fusion-li-item\" style=\"\"><span class=\"icon-wrapper circle-yes\"><i class=\"fusion-li-icon fa-play-circle fas\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/span><div class=\"fusion-li-item-content\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=sgKks2D6pRo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Andrew Lawler UJ Book Talk: The Harvard Club<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/li><li class=\"fusion-li-item\" style=\"\"><span class=\"icon-wrapper circle-yes\"><i class=\"fusion-li-icon fa-play-circle fas\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/span><div class=\"fusion-li-item-content\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=-rQWHS3CfPI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Under Jerusalem Announcement<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-builder-row-8 fusion-flex-container has-pattern-background has-mask-background nonhundred-percent-fullwidth non-hundred-percent-height-scrolling\" style=\"--awb-border-radius-top-left:0px;--awb-border-radius-top-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-left:0px;--awb-padding-top:0px;--awb-padding-bottom:0px;--awb-margin-bottom:0px;--awb-background-image:linear-gradient(180deg, #efefef 0%,#ffffff 100%);--awb-flex-wrap:wrap;\" ><div class=\"fusion-builder-row fusion-row fusion-flex-align-items-center fusion-flex-content-wrap\" style=\"max-width:1144px;margin-left: calc(-4% \/ 2 );margin-right: calc(-4% \/ 2 );\"><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-12 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-flex-column\" style=\"--awb-padding-top:19px;--awb-bg-size:cover;--awb-width-large:100%;--awb-margin-top-large:0px;--awb-spacing-right-large:1.92%;--awb-margin-bottom-large:20px;--awb-spacing-left-large:1.92%;--awb-width-medium:100%;--awb-order-medium:0;--awb-spacing-right-medium:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-medium:1.92%;--awb-width-small:100%;--awb-order-small:0;--awb-spacing-right-small:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-small:9.6%;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-column-has-shadow fusion-flex-justify-content-flex-start fusion-content-layout-column\"><div class=\"fusion-title title fusion-title-4 fusion-sep-none fusion-title-text fusion-title-size-one\" style=\"--awb-text-color:#000000;--awb-margin-left:40px;--awb-margin-top-small:10px;--awb-margin-right-small:0px;--awb-margin-bottom-small:10px;--awb-margin-left-small:0px;--awb-font-size:1.5em;\"><h1 class=\"fusion-title-heading title-heading-left fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" style=\"font-family:&quot;Public Sans&quot;;font-style:normal;font-weight:900;margin:0;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:1em;--fontSize:22.5;line-height:1.1;\">RELATED READING<\/h1><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-builder-row-9 fusion-flex-container has-pattern-background has-mask-background nonhundred-percent-fullwidth non-hundred-percent-height-scrolling\" style=\"--awb-border-radius-top-left:0px;--awb-border-radius-top-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-left:0px;--awb-flex-wrap:wrap;\" ><div class=\"fusion-builder-row fusion-row fusion-flex-align-items-flex-start fusion-flex-content-wrap\" style=\"max-width:1144px;margin-left: calc(-4% \/ 2 );margin-right: calc(-4% \/ 2 );\"><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-13 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-flex-column\" style=\"--awb-bg-size:cover;--awb-width-large:100%;--awb-margin-top-large:0px;--awb-spacing-right-large:1.92%;--awb-margin-bottom-large:20px;--awb-spacing-left-large:1.92%;--awb-width-medium:100%;--awb-order-medium:0;--awb-spacing-right-medium:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-medium:1.92%;--awb-width-small:100%;--awb-order-small:0;--awb-spacing-right-small:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-small:1.92%;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-column-has-shadow fusion-flex-justify-content-flex-start fusion-content-layout-column\"><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-8 awb-text-cols fusion-text-columns-3\" style=\"--awb-columns:3;--awb-column-spacing:2em;--awb-column-min-width:100px;\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/time.com\/6112694\/jerusalem-israeli-palestinian-conflict-archaeology\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Christian Archaeologists Wanted to Excavate the Biblical Past. They Ended Up Sparking Today\u2019s Strife in Jerusalem<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/indiana-jones-rabbi-thought-he-found-the-ark-of-the-covenant-and-nearly-started-a-war\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u2018Indiana Jones\u2019 Rabbi Thought He Found the Ark of the Covenant and Nearly Started a War<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/history\/the-secret-excavation-of-jerusalem-180978888\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Secret Excavation of Jerusalem<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/magazine\/2021\/10\/02\/western-wall-tunnel-opening-jerusalem-israel-palestine-peace-514531\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">No Way Out: How the Opening of a Tunnel Blocked the Path to Peace in Jerusalem<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalgeographic.com\/magazine\/article\/these-archaeological-findings-unlocked-the-stories-of-our-ancestors-feature\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">These archaeological findings unlocked the stories of our ancestors.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/2022\/01\/jerusalem-archaeology-history-zionism-treasure-hunters\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">How Bible Scholars and Treasure Hunters Unearthed Modern Jerusalem<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-builder-row-10 fusion-flex-container has-pattern-background has-mask-background nonhundred-percent-fullwidth non-hundred-percent-height-scrolling fusion-no-medium-visibility fusion-no-large-visibility\" style=\"--awb-border-radius-top-left:0px;--awb-border-radius-top-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-left:0px;--awb-padding-top:30px;--awb-padding-bottom:0px;--awb-margin-top:0px;--awb-margin-bottom:0px;--awb-flex-wrap:wrap;\" ><div class=\"fusion-builder-row fusion-row fusion-flex-align-items-flex-start fusion-flex-content-wrap\" style=\"max-width:1144px;margin-left: calc(-4% \/ 2 );margin-right: calc(-4% \/ 2 );\"><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-14 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-flex-column\" style=\"--awb-padding-bottom-small:0px;--awb-bg-size:cover;--awb-width-large:100%;--awb-margin-top-large:0px;--awb-spacing-right-large:1.92%;--awb-margin-bottom-large:20px;--awb-spacing-left-large:1.92%;--awb-width-medium:100%;--awb-order-medium:0;--awb-spacing-right-medium:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-medium:1.92%;--awb-width-small:100%;--awb-order-small:0;--awb-spacing-right-small:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-small:1.92%;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-column-has-shadow fusion-flex-justify-content-flex-start fusion-content-layout-column\"><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-9 fusion-text-no-margin\" style=\"--awb-content-alignment:center;--awb-font-size:12px;--awb-margin-top:30px;--awb-margin-bottom:0px;\"><p>BOOK AUTHOR | MAGAZINE WRITER | TRAVELER<\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"fusion-title title fusion-title-5 fusion-sep-none fusion-title-center fusion-title-text fusion-title-size-one\" style=\"--awb-margin-top-small:10px;--awb-margin-right-small:0px;--awb-margin-bottom-small:10px;--awb-margin-left-small:0px;--awb-font-size:25px;\"><h1 class=\"fusion-title-heading title-heading-center fusion-responsive-typography-calculated\" style=\"font-family:&quot;Public Sans&quot;;font-style:normal;font-weight:900;margin:0;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:1em;--fontSize:25;line-height:1.1;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Public Sans'; font-weight: 900;\" data-fusion-font=\"true\" data-fusion-google-font=\"Public Sans\" data-fusion-google-variant=\"900\">ANDREW LAWLER<\/span><\/h1><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"100-width.php","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-5014","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Under Jerusalem &#8226; Andrew Lawler<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/under-jerusalem\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Under Jerusalem &#8226; Andrew Lawler\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/under-jerusalem\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Andrew Lawler\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AndrewLawlerAuthor\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-01-06T15:31:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/amazon.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"118 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/under-jerusalem\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/under-jerusalem\\\/\",\"name\":\"Under Jerusalem &#8226; Andrew Lawler\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/under-jerusalem\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/under-jerusalem\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/content\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/10\\\/amazon.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-07-05T15:01:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-01-06T15:31:08+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/under-jerusalem\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/under-jerusalem\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/under-jerusalem\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"\",\"contentUrl\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/under-jerusalem\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Under Jerusalem\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Andrew Lawler\",\"description\":\"Andrew Lawler is author of four books\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/cbc9a5140b6f2e4922d45f0726e70022\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/cbc9a5140b6f2e4922d45f0726e70022\",\"name\":\"AndrewLawler\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/content\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/02\\\/ST-LawlerJacketPic-1x1.jpg\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/content\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/02\\\/ST-LawlerJacketPic-1x1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/content\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/02\\\/ST-LawlerJacketPic-1x1.jpg\",\"width\":1920,\"height\":1920,\"caption\":\"AndrewLawler\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/content\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/02\\\/ST-LawlerJacketPic-1x1.jpg\"},\"description\":\"Andrew Lawler is author of three books, Under Jerusalem: The Buried History of the World\u2019s Most Contested City, The Secret Token: Myth, Obsession, and the Search for the Lost Colony of Roanoke, a national bestseller, and Why Did the Chicken Cross the World?: The Epic Saga of the Bird that Powers Civilization. As a journalist, he has written more than a thousand newspaper and magazine articles from more than two dozen countries. His byline has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, National Geographic, Smithsonian, and many others. He is contributing writer for Science and contributing editor for Archaeology. Andrew\u2019s work has appeared several times in The Best of Science and Nature Writing.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/AndrewLawlerAuthor\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/in\\\/andrew-lawler-9b5a064a\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/LawlerAndrew\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.youtube.com\\\/channel\\\/UCsliIwdDC_wPYE01Se2zzAw\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Under Jerusalem &#8226; Andrew Lawler","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/under-jerusalem\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Under Jerusalem &#8226; Andrew Lawler","og_url":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/under-jerusalem\/","og_site_name":"Andrew Lawler","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AndrewLawlerAuthor","article_modified_time":"2025-01-06T15:31:08+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/amazon.png","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"118 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/under-jerusalem\/","url":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/under-jerusalem\/","name":"Under Jerusalem &#8226; Andrew Lawler","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/under-jerusalem\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/under-jerusalem\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/amazon.png","datePublished":"2021-07-05T15:01:05+00:00","dateModified":"2025-01-06T15:31:08+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/under-jerusalem\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/under-jerusalem\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/under-jerusalem\/#primaryimage","url":"","contentUrl":""},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/under-jerusalem\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Under Jerusalem"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/","name":"Andrew Lawler","description":"Andrew Lawler is author of four books","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/#\/schema\/person\/cbc9a5140b6f2e4922d45f0726e70022"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/#\/schema\/person\/cbc9a5140b6f2e4922d45f0726e70022","name":"AndrewLawler","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/ST-LawlerJacketPic-1x1.jpg","url":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/ST-LawlerJacketPic-1x1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/ST-LawlerJacketPic-1x1.jpg","width":1920,"height":1920,"caption":"AndrewLawler"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/ST-LawlerJacketPic-1x1.jpg"},"description":"Andrew Lawler is author of three books, Under Jerusalem: The Buried History of the World\u2019s Most Contested City, The Secret Token: Myth, Obsession, and the Search for the Lost Colony of Roanoke, a national bestseller, and Why Did the Chicken Cross the World?: The Epic Saga of the Bird that Powers Civilization. As a journalist, he has written more than a thousand newspaper and magazine articles from more than two dozen countries. His byline has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, National Geographic, Smithsonian, and many others. He is contributing writer for Science and contributing editor for Archaeology. Andrew\u2019s work has appeared several times in The Best of Science and Nature Writing.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AndrewLawlerAuthor","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/andrew-lawler-9b5a064a\/","https:\/\/x.com\/LawlerAndrew","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCsliIwdDC_wPYE01Se2zzAw"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5014"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20345,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5014\/revisions\/20345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}