This evening when I arrived home from work I had a key in my mailbox. That meant that I had a package, and I was sure I knew what it would be.

The package was from the Biblical Archaeology Society. As most of you know I subscribe to their magazine Biblical Archaeology Review (BAR). Click on In the BAR VIII for the latest post in my series of magazine reviews.

Here is what is inside the package. You can definitely tell that it is a nice thick book, but what is it about?

The book is Biblical Lachish: A Tale of Construction, Destruction, Excavation and Restoration by David Ussishkin. I will be spending a lot of time reading this book over the next few months as I prepare for my vacation later this year. My plan is to work on the dig at Lachish this summer for a couple of weeks.

When I take a big vacation I like to do a lot of Research Reading.

I want to know as much as I can about Lachish before I go so that I have a good base of knowledge to build on.

I visited Lachish several years ago when I was in The Shephelah. Unfortunately, we did not have a chance to climb up on the tel to explore as we were making our way to the airport and visiting as many sites as possible. The organizer of our tour was on an earlier dig at Lachish, so we had a chance to learn a bit about the site.

I will also be contacting my friend Wayne who was at the dig at Lachish last year to learn more about his experiences.

You can also read a little more about Lachish in my post: Dig Season

I will most likely be sharing tidbits of information about Lachish in the near future.

I did scan through the book and look at all the wonderful pictures and diagrams, now I am looking forward to really digging into the text.

If you have any good recommendations for books to read about Lachish, let me know.

Steven