Digging through History

Reviews / Votes

Elegantly written and a fascinating account of how the archaeologist Richard Freund encounters the evidence placed before him. This account is directed to the layman; there is no fussy academic speak; it is clear and to the point.

Richard Freund is one of our most sought after lecturers. Any student of history who is able to attend his lectures is in for an exhilarating experience. -- Robin O'Neil, University College London This is the kind of book that only a few people could write. Freund's wealth of global experiences, his multidisciplinary approach and use of the latest technologies open a fascinating window to the distant past. -- Fred Strickert, professor emeritus, Wartburg College; pastor of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Old City Jerusalem Richard Freund takes readers on fascinating trek through a vast archaeological landscape that spans three continents and details over two decades of his own research and active participation in excavations. From the lost cites of Atlantis and Tarshish to the dusty caves of Qumran to the horrors of the Sobibor death camp, Freund connects history, material remains, and texts as he expertly unravels some of the most vexing questions associated with these and other sites. Engaging, informative, and written in a style that will appeal to both lay readers and scholars alike, Digging through History is a rare gem. -- T. J. Wray, author of What the Bible Really Tells Us: The Essential Guide to Biblical Literacy Digging Through History: Archaeology and Religion from Atlantis to the Holocaust is a fascinating glimpse into how archaeologists collect data-not only from a variety of sites, but across an expansive temporal range. Richard Freund imaginatively and intelligently explores how data transform to story, and the crucial roles that archaeology and the scientific method play in that process. -- Jerome Hall, University of San Diego For scholars and the general public alike, a great deal of what is known-or what we think we know-concerning persons and events from antiquity to the mid-twentieth century derives from a complex intermingling of material culture and history. Digging through History offers an extraordinarily illuminating series of studies on the relationship between archaeology and history from ancient times to the present day. Freund's approach, which is both deeply personal and scholarly, makes it one of the most accessible books, ever, bridging disparate academic disciplines and a vast chronological sweep. While respectful of religious beliefs and traditions, it rigorously challenges a number of seminal myths concerning monumental historical remains and watershed events. Given the breathtaking range of Freund's investigations on the historical mediation of archaeology-from to ocean floor, to arid caves holding the Dead Sea scrolls, to Nazi killing grounds in Poland-readers will be tremendously enriched through the fascinating insights of Digging through History. -- Michael Berkowitz, University College London