OSHER 912 - Six Conundrums in the Archaeology of the Holy Land and Their Resolution with the Aid of Science

We will address the following six unsolved questions about Holy Land archaeology and use various scientific disciplines to tease out possible answers: Did Homo Sapiens evolve from Neanderthals, or were they coeval? How and why did the city of Jericho exist thousands of years before the origin of cities? How did the Holy Land become the "cockpit of the ancient world"? How did Joshua make the walls of Jericho come tumbling down? Who were the Habiru and were they the Hebrews? And finally, did David and his dynasty really exist?