CURRENT LITERATURE
A CENTURY OF EXCAVATION IN PALESTINE. By R. A. S. Macslister. (Religious Tract Society. 10s. (Id. net.) PROFESSOR MACALISTER'S review of modern research in
Palestine is a most admirable work. His own prolonged ex-. ploration of Gezer before the War and his recent discovery of David's fortress on Ophel outside Jerusalem attest his expert knowledge. He shows great literary skill, too, in selecting from a mass of material the salient facts which show how excavation has illustrated the topography and the political eultural and religious history of the Holy Land. The archaeo- logist in Palestine cannot hope for rich finds but must be Content to turn over, month after month, the sordid relics of a sordid people." But the common things, rightly interpreted,
enable the author to reconstruct the past. The fragments of early pottery, for example, show that under the Hebrew Icings there was a low state of general culture—lower perhaps than before the Israelite invasion. At Gezer and elsewhere there is evidence that human sacrifices prevailed. The outpourings of the Hebrew prophets seem more majestic than ever when *e realize the condition of society in their day, since "the pre-exilic Hebrews, as a body, were hardly other than pagan." Professor hfacalister deals humorously with the many grotesque identifications of Biblical rites which the tourist is invited to accept. His own compact account of ancient Jerusalem is clear and interesting and is well illustrated
with photographs and plans. -
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