Sacred Geography: A Tale of Murder and Archeology in the Holy Land

by Edward Fox

Biblical archeology has for centuries been subject to the manipulations of adventurers, generals, and statesmen, all seeking to further their own aims. Now more than ever, digging into the Holy Land is a weapon as two rival nations seek to prove their claims to ownership. The most puzzling casualty in this tug-of-war is Albert Glock, a prominent American archeologist, who devoted his life to helping Palestinians find evidence of their historic roots and was shot dead in the West Bank. Edward Fox investigates Glock's unsolved murder and its background in the explosive cultural politics of archeology. Fox reveals the strange subdiscipline of biblical archeology and pursues the various suspects-Islamic zealots, Jewish extremists, and rival archeologists-only to find himself caught in an expanding labyrinth of deceit.

A lively history and a riveting mystery, Sacred Geography is also the tragic story of a man who dedicated himself to a cause that ultimately destroyed him.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Crime

272 pages, Paperback

First published November 7, 2001

Reviews

[Marc A.]

The book was well written and well researched as one could hope for from a quality and experienced journalist. Moreover, in covering some extremely sensitive and controversial subject matter, the author manages to eliminate all but the sort of subtle bias that is unavoidable and inevitable in discussing such subject matter.

Unfortunately for me, it turned out to be more a book about a murder, it's context and it's aftermath, and very little about archeology - in particular the archeological record - if such exists - of the people who call themselves Palestinians (the thing I was primally interested in). Nevertheless, the detailed examination of the life and untimely death of Prof. Albert Glock, late if Bir Zeit University in the West Bank, may be the best explanation available as to why accounts of such archeological information is so hard to find.

My search continues.

[Sarah]

The complicated and unresolved story about a man who thought he was doing the right thing. I found out about this book from my mother, whose college mentor taught at Birzeit University and was friends with Albert Glock. Dr. Glock's work on the development of Palestinian archeology and his assassination (probably because of it) that are its subjects.