Subject: Publication of the Book Antiquities and History of Palestine

Dr. Hamdan

It gives me great pleasure to share with you and to congratulate you on the publication of the book Antiquities and History of Palestine, which is the result of collective work by the authors and the editorial board under the auspices of the Palestinian Research Center. The book covers the civilizational history of Palestine from the Paleolithic era to the present day. It includes an introduction and a preface on the history of archaeological research, the geography of historical Palestine, and the development of ancient languages and scripts in Palestine, as well as new trends in archaeological research such as environmental archaeology, archaeobotany, zooarchaeology, and community archaeology.

The book also addresses a number of specialized topics, including the development of coinage in Palestine, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Samaritan history. The final chapters focus on issues of contemporary history, including Zionist settlement, the Nakba, oral history, and the development of Palestinian identity. Nearly 40 Palestinian researchers contributed to the volume, presenting Palestinian history from a comprehensive perspective, as a contribution to the objective writing of the history of Palestine and to freeing historical writing from the colonial legacy that has clung to it—an important step on the path toward the Palestinian people reclaiming their history, which has been subjected to all forms of erasure and appropriation over the past century, in the words of Keith Whitelam.

The book comprises approximately 800 large-format pages and includes about 410 illustrations, including maps, photographs, and diagrams.