{N}GEOGRAPHY{/}

{C}"Yet God has chosen what the world considers weak, 
to shame the strong" {/}[1Cor_1,27].
Taken from Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, these words perfectly 
illustrate the situation of Palestine on the map of human geography. This 
small and impoverished land did not seem predestined to play any relevant 
role in history at any rate. Nevertheless, from the mystery of his wisdom 
God chose it to celebrate his covenant with his people: here {C} the Word 
was made flesh; he had his tent pitched among us{/} [Jn_1,14].
Enclosed by the Mediterranean Sea from the West and the plain of Jordan 
from the East, the Holy Land is composed of three parallel zones that 
extend from north to south.
1. The most western one is a coastal plain, which is surrounded by a 
continuous line of sand dunes and bounded by the spur of Mount Carmel. It 
has been consecutively named the plain of Zebulun, the plain of Saron, 
and Sefela.
2. Secondly, there are found the various mountains that form the central 
range of the country. The transversal plain of Jezreel runs across this 
range. North of it are the mounts of High Galilee, from which the 
isolated peaks of Tabor and More become detached towards the south. On 
the middle of the country the hills of Samaria and Judaea continue this 
range that descends gradually south of Hebron, and rises again farther in 
the Negev.
3. This line of peaks dominates from the eastern border the hollow of 
Ghor, which is inscribed within the great rift that extends from the 
North of Syria to the great African lakes. At the bottom of this hollow, 
the river Jordan descends towards the Dead Sea after feeding Tiberias 
Lake with its waters. This river has its source at the foothill of mount 
Hermon, at the north of the country.
Metulla lies on the latitude of 33\u00ba17' N, totally north of the country.
To the south lies Taba, which is 8 kms from Eilat, and marks the border 
at 29\u00ba30' north latitude.
Jerusalem lies at longitude 35\u00ba13' east, and latitude 31\u00ba46' north. The 
time difference with Greenwich is here of two hours and twenty minutes.
{K}- THE COASTAL PLAIN{/}

Composed of alluvial deposits torn off by winter rains from the 
calcareous rocks of the central range, the coastal plain appears today as 
a prosperous agricultural area. But this recent condition should not make 
us forget that the biggest part of this plain was unhealthy and not 
suitable for any crop for milleniums. In particular, this was the case 
for the whole biblical period. Along the coast, the line of dunes has 
blocked the water from flowing into the sea from the central range. Since 
the alluvial deposits were stacked over a base of impermeable sandstone 
(originated from transformations undergone by previously existing sands) 
they turned into marshes.
{K}THE DRYING UP OF THE MARSHES{/}

Apparently early in the Roman period there was carried out a serious 
attempt to dry up the coastal plain. It was then likely opened a way for 
the waters of the Nahal Poleg to flow through the coastal line, north of 
present day Tel - Aviv. But it was not until the XX century that the 
modern technicians fully exploited the coastal plain. To dry up the 
marshes the surface water was drained and kept in spacious pools that 
subsequently would serve as reserves for the rational irrigation of the 
crops. Besides that, the sandstone base was drilled to facilitate the 
water to flow in deeper. This also helped the formation of new 
underground water layers.
The sanitation of the shore has brought right away a dramatic soar of 
agriculture, capable now to fully exploit the good raining conditions of 
this region. For the whole winter cold rains alternate with lighter 
showers resulting in a yearly water rate equivalent to 600 mm.
The massif of Mount Carmel dominates Saron's plain, north of which the 
banana trees plantations are particularly prosperous. South from there, 
and all over the central part of the coastal plain, fields of cotton, 
corn, and all kinds of horticultural crops extend as far as the eye can 
see. The citric crops line up evenly on the old red sand dunes. 
Particularly are found the orange groves whose fruits are worldwide 
exported. Southerly is found Sefela, the also called "Lower Land" in the 
Bible. This was the land of the ancient Philistines whose name was 
adopted, and subsequently transformed, by the whole country as{N} 
Palestine{/}. There can be found on the low hills, olive trees and 
vineyards, typical crops on Mediterranean region.
{K}THE URBANIZATION OF THE COAST{/}

This fast cultivation has brought an important development of the habitat 
and an economic soar affecting the industrial as well as the tertiary 
sector. The cities of Haifa, Tel - Aviv, and Ashdod, together with their 
vast suburbs presently house half of the population of the state of 
Israel.
The heavy industry and the refineries are found in the industrial zone of 
Haifa, which extends over the southern part of the plain of Zebulun. The 
prosperity of Tel-Aviv's mass of people relies on the diamond cutting (in 
which the country is world leader), on the agrarian factories, on 
chemical industries, and various manufacturing centers, together with the 
establishment of the headquarters from banking societies and companies, 
either national or foreign.
The rocky base of the shore is formed mainly by emerged sandstone 
stratums, and facilitated since ancient times the establishment of 
middle-sized sea ports. The most known are Tantura also called Dor, the 
Tower of Estraton (which turned to be Caesarea during the period of Herod 
the Great), Arsuf and Jope (presently named Jafa).
Twenty kilometers north from Mount Carmel the coast projects a peak that 
used to protect the marina of Akko, subsequently named Tolemaida, and 
later Saint John of Acre. But it was late in the XIX century when the 
port of Haifa arose and grew. For the last few years, the southern port 
of Ashdod prevails in importance, due to the relevant goods exported from 
there. The minerals extracted from the Dead Sea region that are treated 
in the large chemical plants of The Negev arrive there.
{K}- THE CENTRAL RANGE{/}

The central range of Palestine rises to the east of the coastal plain. It 
is the southerly extension of the range of Lebanon, which exceeds 3000 
meters in height around Tripoli and descends gradually from High Galilee 
to The Negev.
{K}THE HIGH GALILEE{/}

North of the country, in the High Galilee, the massif is elevated. Its 
average height is 800 meters, but the peaks normally exceed 1000 m, Mount 
Merom being the most important (1208 m). A foothill extends from there to 
the Mediterranean, and the eastern side of the cliff dominates (from 500 
to 700 meters) the high valley of the Jordan, with which it is joined 
through steep slopes.
Firmly deeply - rooted on a hard limestone, the original forest has 
withstood quite easily the anarchic tree felling, which has beaten 
against this region for centuries. Since ancient times until recently, 
this plain of the High Galilee has been very poorly inhabited. Safed is 
the most renowned city among those lying on the slopes of this massif of 
the High Galilee. It was the mother country for many artists, and a 
remarkable place for the Cabbala since XV century.
The limit between the High and the Low Galilee is marked by a depression, 
which provides a pass from Akko to the high valley of river Jordan. Here 
the massif is less homogeneous, transversal faults cut the outlines of 
hills that hardly exceed 500 m of height. In the middle of the plains, 
some unusual and isolated peaks like Mount Turan are found. It divides in 
two the rich plain of Bet - Netofa. The same thing can be said about 
mount Tabor, standing with its 588 m of height on the northern border of 
the plain of Yizreel, which it divides in the middle. The massif of Mount 
Carmel should be added to this list, but in a different way. From its 
western side its chains descend parallel and in a large number towards 
the coastal plain, where they often end up being cliffs. Its eastern side 
dominates the river Quison, from al line of rounded peaks with sharp 
slopes.
On the hills the almond trees coexist with the olive trees, while on the 
plains the cotton prevails over cereals and traditional horticultural 
crops. Nazareth on the heights, and Afula on the plain are still the most 
important cities. However the region is rich enough to host a large 
number of crowded villages.
{K}THE BASALTIC ZONE{/}

The limestone composing the mounts of Low Galilee is covered by a thick 
layer of basalt in the neighborhood of the lake. The basalt originates in 
tectonic movements which shook this region during the Quaternary period. 
The volcanic eruption of Jebel Druze is the most important and recent. 
Its lava extended all over an area of 100 km in radius, widely exceeding 
the Jordan River rift westwards. The lime's decomposition due to erosion 
generated a brown soil, which accumulates on the plain. Up on the meseta 
a similar process of erosion and decomposition has generated a soil of 
darker brown and also very fertile.
{K}THE CENTRAL REGION{/}

A group of very low hills continues the landscape between Mount Carmel 
and the hills of Samaria; but here the altitude is remarkably different. 
Two renowned mounts form the pass where the present-day city of de Naplus 
lies: the Ebal and the Garizim. The first of them stands 930 m, and the 
second 880. To the east, the whole massif maintains its height over Ghor, 
but many deep cuts make easier the descent. However, to the west quite 
easy passes provide access to the coastal plain. Many bare hills, where 
the gray limestone stretches all over wide plates, alternate with high 
plains covered by crops carefully planted on terraces. Those are 
maintained thanks to a careful work. As it happens in Galilee, also in 
the reduced interior plains the soil coming from the decomposition of the 
limestone brought by the rainfalls from the hillsides is exploited.
To the south, the central range is called the mounts of Ephraim. The 
small interior plains lead to a narrower valley, which merge through 
passes of little height. They trace a natural north-to-south route used 
for milleniums. The average altitude of this pass is about 600 m, however 
higher mounts surround it. The highest stands over 1000 m.
The meseta of Benjamin prolongs to the south all the extension of the 
mount of Ephraim: a line of hills, the southerner of which is the Mount 
of the Olive Trees (818 m). This line is the eastern outline and 
dominates the slopes of Judaean desert; we are on the same latitude as 
Jerusalem.
{K}IN THE NEGEV NEIGHBORHOOD{/}

The natural pass in the way to the coastal plain is surrounded by hills 
covered by a wide forest. This forest continues southwards covering the 
west slope of the central range, known as hills of Judaea. The top of the 
meseta reaches 1.000 m of height next to Hebron. On that peak, the lime-
based soil is conscientiously worked. From the spring on, the vineyards, 
the olive trees, the fig trees, and the fruit trees make up a delightful 
landscape, where the various greens of the foliage tone in with the 
bright whiteness of the limestone banks, and the red - brown of the 
ground. South of Hebron, the central range descends abruptly and it ends 
with a string of hills decreasingly lower which disappear close to 
Beersheba. It rises again in The Negev along 100 km, with a height about 
600 m reaching again 1000 m to the south. The most important structures 
in this geographic outline are the Makhteshim: the Makhtesh Ha-Gadol, the 
Makhtesh Ha-Qatan and the Makhtesh Ramon. These wide and oval circuses 
are 10 to 35 km long, and were derived from the folds originated by the 
opening of the Jordanian pit. The upper layers of the peaks so originated 
where forcibly extended and lay open to erosive agents which digged them 
to the point of unbaring the original rocks on bottom of those circuses 
and leaving on the contours a ground of broken and erect stones.

{K}- THE EASTER DEPRESSION{/}

To the east of the central range, which stretches north to south of the 
country, the Jordanian depression is found, followed by the Dead Sea and 
the Araba depression. This fracture line in the earth's crust is nothing 
but a ring of the deep rift which starts in Syria, runs through Al Beqa 
in Lebanon, continues through all Palestine, the Gulf of Eilat, the Red 
Sea, and dies at the Great Lakes of East Africa.
{K}THE HIGH JORDAN{/}

To the north, the bottom of the depression reaches a height of several 
hundred meters. The various sources of Jordan River merge gradually their 
waters to create the river there. In particular, the sources of Banias 
and Dan merge with a source located north, on the other side of the 
Lebanese frontier.
Time ago this region was characterized by the presence of Hula Lake, 
surrounded by marshes. These marshes are represented in ancient atlases, 
but it is useless to look for them in modern maps because here some 
important projects transformed the insanitary marshes into a magnificent 
agricultural plain, as it happened before in other places in the country. 
Nowadays many "kibbutzim" and "moshavim", as well as the city of Quiriat 
Shemona witness the profound change in the high Jordan Valley.
From there the depression appears covered by a thick layer of basalt 
which descends southwards. Between old Lake Hula and the side of Lake 
Tiberias the relief reaches 400 m. The soil is fertile here, but only 
after a tedious stone removal, for the fields are scattereded with 
volcanic rocks.
{K}THE LAKE TIBERIAS{/}

The bottom of the rift opens even more at Lake Tiberias: it forms a 
depression, which is filled with waters coming from the high Jordan River 
and from some sources spread over the banks. The remaining water flows 
through the lower segment of the river towards the Red Sea, in what is 
the lake's spillway.
While the small plains to the northwest, the Magdala and Ginosar plains 
are fully exploited, the northeast plain (called plain of Betsaida) is 
still in preparation. Both east and west banks of the lake are confined 
between the water and the very close cliffs; they are undergoing the soar 
of bananas plantations and various crops as well as pools in which fish 
farming is carried out.
The sulfurous thermal spring waters from Hammat-Tiberias allow the re-
establishment of health resorts long time ago forgotten. Besides this, an 
increasing number of local and foreign tourists gather about the Lake. 
They enrich the existing hotels and camping resorts, which are undergoing 
a non-stopping growth in number.
{K}THE LOW JORDAN{/}

The narrow valley descends again southwards and maintains a constant 
width of about 10 km. The alluvium soils and the presence of a large 
number of ruins indicate the existence of an extremely ancient 
settlement. However, recent digs carried out at the prehistoric site of 
Oubeidiyeh indicate an early human presence, long before historic times, 
at the dawn of human adventure: 850,000 years ago!
The ruins of the Bellavista medieval castle overlook the basaltic meseta, 
which stretches 30 km east at the area where the Yarmuk River flows into 
the Jordan River, after a long running through a narrow and magnificent 
valley.
Once in a while, the depression temporarily hosts a tributary of the 
Jordan River, whose alluvial deposits have fertilized the estuary in 
particular at Beth-Shean and a little southern at the mouth of the wadi 
Farah. As we get closer to the Dead Sea, the lack of rainfalls brings the 
dryness to the banks: after the wadi Farah the landscape is desert land. 
The leafy oasis of Jericho provides some exceptions, hosting crops such 
as palm trees fields, ceibas and the unforgettable bouganvilleas. But 
this prosperity is only due to the magnanimous fountains that pour their 
fresh and fertile waters into the gardens
{K}THE DEAD SEA{/}

A few kilometers from Jericho, the marly and saline plain blurredly ends 
in the rocky walls of the Judaean desert to the west, and in the walls of 
the Transjordanian meseta to the east. Southwards, the Dead Sea occupies, 
with its mass of salty water, the main part of the rift, almost 800 m 
deep here. The water level is 400 m bellow the sea level. Sometimes a 
source provides spring water to fertilize and cultivate the modest 
coastal plain, as happens in A\u00efn Feskha and Engadi. Everywhere else the 
landscape shows a wonderful greatness, hit by a relentless sun, whose 
heat accumulates onto the rocky cliffs making it shine even brighter. 
Sometimes during the year, unexpected torrents dump their water onto the 
Dead Sea, flowing through the deep and torn up faults running east to 
west of the plain. Those waters originated in upper sites, where the soil 
is too dry to absorb them.
Close to the ancient fortress of Masada, the bottom of the Dead Sea rises 
suddenly and shows the peninsula of Lisan. The south blank is only a few 
meters deep, and there are extracted the plenty and various mineral 
products that justify the industrial facilities existing in the region.
Then begins the Araba: a large deserted valley located between The Negev 
and the Edom mounts. The Araba leads to the Gulf of Eilat right after a 
journey of 200 km.

{K}- THE CLIMATE{/}

With the characteristics due to its relief, Palestine enjoys subtropical 
climate. There are only two seasons here: the summer lasting May through 
October, and the winter lasting November through April. Only winter 
brings rains with varying rates up to the region. Both winter's and 
summer's ends are characterized by warm winds coming from the desert 
lands, which affect mainly the east and the southern parts of the 
country.
The climate in the coastal plain is Mediterranean: warm and humid in the 
summer and mild in the winter. The proximity of the Mediterranean Sea 
diminishes the temperature change from day to night.
The rainfall rates reach 500 mm per year in the north and the middle of 
the country, and remain lower to the south. The temperature does not 
exceed 28\u00b0C during the summer and rarely falls below 11\u00b0C during winter.
The weather is harsher at the central range: temperature drops 7\u00ba lower 
than in the coast and the peaks remain covered by snow for winter. 
However, during the summer the temperature reaches easily 30\u00baC, although 
nights are colder. Showers are frequent and rainfall rates vary between 
700 and 900 mm per year. The western slope benefits from marine rainfalls 
more than the eastern slope.
The eastern depression is the warmest region in Palestine. Temperatures 
there rise above 40\u00baC during summer in the area of the Dead Sea. Very 
often, rainfalls are brief but frequently severe, and then the "uedes" 
shower impressive amounts of water cutting communications for hours.
Since rains are infrequent in the Negev, the climate there is dry for the 
whole year and it is the typical steppe climate. The winter is not cold, 
but during the summer the temperature can reach 40\u00ba in the eastern 
depression.

{N}GEOLOGY{/}

{K}A QUICK LOOK AT THE FORMATION OF PALESTINE{/}

At the end of Secondary age, during the end of the Cretaceous period, 
little more than a hundred million years ago, the Sea of Tetis still 
covered Palestine completely. Following the usual {C}lithogenous{/} process 
(formation of the rocks), the sediments were taken by erosive agents from 
the relief already emerged in the surrounding regions. Then, they settled 
on the bottom of the sea subsequently undergoing the combined action of 
chemical agents dissolved in the water and the pressure from new sediment 
layers. The results of this transformation are the various types of 
limestone, which now compose the main materials of the central range. 
These types of limestone are cenomanian and turonian (which sometimes 
have turned into dolomitic for their high content in magnesium carbon) 
and santonian, all mixed with soft clay.
During the Tertiary era (which began 70 million years ago) the gradual 
withdrawal of the sea revealed the sunken relief. At the end of Tertiary 
era, during the Pliocene period (which began 11 million years ago) the 
seaside lay at the foothill of the mounts which today compose the east 
boundary of the coastal plain. Since then, the coastal plain was formed 
from the gathering of sands carried by the Nile and from sediments taken 
from the emerged relief.
At the end of Pliocene period, and during the Pleistocene period (which 
began one million years ago), the genesis of the large rift brought 
transformations in the orography, and the current outline of the coastal 
plain was reached as recently as a few millenniums before our era. 
{K}A QUICK LOOK AT THE FORMATION OF JORDANIAN DEPRESSION{/}

In accordance with the "Theory of the Plates", the top layer of the 
earth's crust consists of a set of plates staying on a viscous crust. For 
the problem at hand, we need to consider three of those plates. The 
Eurasian one (which covers all of Europe and Asia except India), the 
African one (which extends widely eastwards and westwards from the 
current African continent), and the Arabic one (much smaller, and clamped 
between the two formerly mentioned). The African plate slides southwards 
and parallel to the Arabic one, which translates northwards. This 
relative displacement generates what is called a "transformer fault". 
This phenomenon started about 3 million years ago.
Three hundred thousand years before, an important basaltic casting had 
filled a previously existing valley. However, the earth's crust movement 
brought the Jordanian depression, and created a succession of several 
lakes with spring water which placed marl layers more that 50 meter deep. 
The rises and falls of the level of these lakes are related to 
alternating periods of moisture and dryness, which correspond 
approximately with glaciation and inter - glaciation periods known over 
Europe during the Quaternary age. However, these two phenomena have not 
been proven to have a reliable relation so far.
About 600,000 years ago, new lava castings, reaching 10 meters thick in 
some points, extended all over the depression and covered the former lake 
- originated marls.
A late saline lake happened to occupy completely the fault from the north 
of Tiberias Lake through the south of the Dead Sea. This happened 60,000 
years ago. However, the dry climate over the region during the recent 
Mousterian period (approximately 50,000 years ago). originated a gradual 
withdrawal of the lake, leaving behind many sediments of marl, gypsum, 
and salt, all over a thickness of 40 m. As the lake dried southwards, the 
Jordan River stretched its course through the emerged marls. The current 
configuration of the valley and the Dead Sea which is formed with the 
remaining saline waters, was fixed only 20,000 years ago.

{N}A LOOK AT THE ARCHAEOLOGY{/}

Every pilgrim turning to the Holy Land or traveler covering the 
Mediterranean basin learns how much the archaeological excavations have 
enriched our knowledge about the past. Many ancient cities were no more 
than a name in an atlas or a history book and now are gradually 
recovering their appearance. Here and there are found city walls or door 
foundations, and close to those can also be found the basement of a 
temple or palace. Inside the site's museum we can see statues or ceramic 
vessels dated and correlated with a certain event which determined the 
city's history. We are not simply visiting a set of stones, but the 
history of a people, which is revealed thanks to those remains patiently 
exhumed and interpreted by the archaeologists. This interdisciplinary 
science has in the Holy Land a history more than a hundred years old.
{K}THE PIONEERS{/}

A hundred and fifty years ago, Edward Robinson and Eli Smith devoted 
themselves to identify and look for the biblical sites in Palestine. 
Their patient research and inquiries throughout the Arab inhabitants of 
the country in those days led to the writing of some lists, still of high 
interest in our days. In a first approach it looks surprising that the 
old sites kept their original names through the centuries and sometimes 
though the millenniums. However, this phenomenon is not that surprising, 
considering the country has been inhabited by Semitic settlers since 
remote times.
In 1865 was created the Palestine Exploration Fund, and the British 
captain Charles Warren was in charge of the excavation's initiation in 
Jerusalem. Although this young captain's methods might look hilarious, 
they reveal his willpower and the desire of the Society that hired him to 
update the remains of the past.
{K}FLINDERS PETRIE (1853 - 1942){/}

At the end of XIX century, Flinders Petrie worked in the tell of El-Hesi 
for the Palestine Exploration Fund; a double instinct led him to be the 
father of the Palestinian archaeology. With a single stroke, he revealed 
both the interest of opening a "stratigraphical ditch" and the importance 
of pottery as a means for dating the various archaeological layers found. 
His instinct was decisive for the future. Extremely simplified, a tell 
can be described as a superposition of cities, each of them built over 
the ruins of the former one. Thus, it can be very well concluded that a 
vertical ditch open in the flank of a tell will reveal the stacked 
remains of the different cities that were succeeding to each other.
Regarding the pottery industry, about 2,000 years older than the first 
metallurgy, Flinders Petrie felt that it varied from period to period and 
region to region, and thus allowed the identification and dating of the 
various layers from which it was picked up. Nevertheless, reality was 
much more complex. The time spacing between the rise of a city over 
another could vary, an old building's foundations could have been used to 
start a new one; very often it was found that new builders had used old 
stones previously worked. Regarding the pottery, foreign cultural 
influences could have affected a local craftsman, ending up in composite 
and abnormal shapes. The commercial activities and population movements 
had indeed taken some pottery pieces very far away from their original 
place. Therefore, it was a duty for XX century's archaeologists to 
confirm and specify Flinders Petrie's assumptions.
{K}A MULTIDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH{/}

Nowadays the "ceramics" are very closely studied and under several 
standpoints. The manufacturing (mineral composition, preparation, work 
and oven procedures), the shape and decoration of the object (profile, 
decoration methods, materials used, graphic style), are parallel elements 
that allow the specialist  to date the pottery, to determine its 
geographical origin and sometimes to find out its usage.
Other analysis criteria are based on the architecture. For instance, 
materials used, stones sculpture, structures layout, manufacture of 
ornamental components... In addition to this, it should not be forgotten 
the epigraphy (the study of ancient inscriptions and documents) and the 
numismatic (the study of the coins and currency) of more recent periods. 
The collection of data provided by the various disciplines is 
complemented with the results from the renowned "carbon - 14" dating 
method, applicable on soils as well as human, vegetable, or animal 
remains.
{K}THE "CARBON - 14" DATING METHOD{/}

This dating procedure was set up in 1947 by the American chemist Willard 
Frank Libby upon his discovery of this carbon's isotope formation process 
that takes place in the atmosphere. After penetrating the atmosphere, the 
galaxy-originated protons generate neutrons, which adhere to oxygen and 
nitrogen molecules in the first place. Afterwards they take part in the 
formation of carbon-14 in the atmospheric mixture. In the superior 
vegetation, the chlorophylous cells retain atmospheric carbon gas, which 
contains a small but measurable amount of carbon-14 (0.00000000012{K}). 
Because of having fourteen neutrons around the typical six protons, 
carbon-14 can be distinguished from carbon-12 (the main type existing in 
the atmosphere, 98.89{K}) and from carbon-13 (existing in a rate of 
1.108{K}).
This carbon isotope is radioactive. It keeps a constant radioactivity in 
the chlorophylous vegetation as long as they live, due to a cycle of 
formation and disintegration. However, as soon as they die, radioactivity 
decreases and splits in half every 5,568 years. The moment of death in 
vegetation can be determined by the in-lab measurement of radioactivity 
loss of the carbon found in their chlorophylous cells. Animals are not 
capable to assimilate carbon, however vegetables are the feeding resource 
of herbivores and the non-assimilated carbon is fixed to their bones, 
under the form of lime, where it can be analyzed.
Processes are normally more complex in reality, however, and taking into 
account certain parameters better known presently, a reasonably accurate 
dating can be obtained even for the non-vegetation living beings, always 
that and as long as the remains are not older than 40,000 years.
Right after the Second World War, in 1952, one of the biggest names in 
the Palestinian archaeology was bound to achive an important breakthrough 
on the work methods: Miss Kathleen Kenyon applied in Jericho an 
excavation procedure set up by Mortimer Wheeler eight years before. After 
a topographic mapping and the staking out of the work area, the ground is 
cut in 4 meters wide squares, each square with side ramps one meter wide. 
Every square is exhaustively explored, and the remains found in there are 
carefully labeled (pieces of pottery, coins, building components...). 
Regardless of many improvements derived from the practical usage, this 
procedure is still presently the main frame for archaeological works.
