The Archaeology of Daily Life: Ordinary Persons in Late Second Temple Israel - Paperback

by David A. Fiensy (Author)

Have you ever wondered what it was like to live in the past? Did they experience reality in a much different way than we do now with our media, our fast travel, our fast food, and our leisure? Do you especially think about what it might have been like to have lived in Bible times? What would your childhood have been like? How would you have chosen a marriage partner? How would you probably have made a living? What sort of house would you have lived in? What diseases would have threatened your daily existence? How long would you have lived? How would you have practiced your religion? These are a few of the intriguing questions answered by this study. The book takes you on a journey into the past to view daily life through the lenses of not only texts but archaeological finds. The information from the past is also filtered through ethnographic studies of more contemporaneous, yet traditional, societies in the Middle East. The result is a presentation that may surprise you-even shock you-at times, but always will interest you.

Author Biography

David A. Fiensy is Emeritus Professor of New Testament at Kentucky Christian University. He has participated in seven archaeological excavations and surveys and has otherwise traveled widely in the Mediterranean area and the Middle East. His publications include Insights from Archaeology (2017), Christian Origins and the Ancient Economy (Cascade, 2014), and Galilee in the Late Second Temple and Mishnaic Periods (coedited with James Riley Strange, 2014).