Ancient Israelites and Their Neighbors: An Activity Guide
In modern Jerusalem an ancient tower catches the sun It's part of a structure called the Citadel first erected by King Herod about 2 000 years ago and rebuilt several times since Even the oldest parts of the Citadel were built long after the events in this book Courtesy of Scott Noegel A Note on Pronouncing Names You'll find tips on pronouncing tricky names the first time they appear Tips look like this Nebuchadnezzar neb oo khad NEZ zer Confused by the letters kh in the pro nunciation They stand for a sound that's not part of ordinary English but one you may use anyway Have you ever said yecch or blecch or the name of the German com poser Bach YEKH BLEKH BAKH That's the sound What Is This Book About This book is about how the Israelites Phoenicians and Philistines lived their daily lives in the land they shared Reading it you'll learn to do many things such as serve a meal ancient Israelite style
build a model Phoenician ship write messages in ancient alphabets fashion Israelite Phoenician and Philistine cos tumes and headdresses create a model Philistine lyre a stringed musical instrument shape a Phoenician style mask mold a Philistine bird shaped bowl make grape juice with your feet You'll learn about examples of ancient writing crumbling silver scrolls engraved with a blessing like one still used today and a mysterious inscription per haps written by a long dead Philistine You'll learn how the Israelites turned hillsides into farms grow ing grain and fruit trees and how bold Phoenician sailors risked their lives traveling to far off lands You'll also learn about less pleasant subjects such as captivity child sacrifice and war What Time Period Does This Book Cover This book covers events between the years 1200 B C E and 538 B C E with occasional side trips to periods before and after Have you ever seen the letters B C E after a date They stand for Before the Common Era a fancy way of saying before the year 1 See Telling Time page XV1 The first date 1200 B C E occurred 1 200
years before the year 1 or about 3 200 years ago The second date 538 B C E occurred only 538 years before the year 1 You'll notice the bigger date hap pened longer ago The dates 1200 B C E and 538 B C E were picked for reasons 1200 B C E marked the entry of the Philistines and Israelites into Canaan 538 B C E marked another important date the time the Persian King Cyrus II SIGH russ the second allowed the people of Jerusalem captured in war to return to their land Obviously there's a story there and many stories in between You'll learn some of those stories in this book O Telling Time Most books use the letters B C for dates occurring before the year 1 Why does this book use the letters B C E The letters B C stand for a religious phrase Before Christ Christians believe that Jesus also called Christ was born around the year 1 a religious event Some people would rather use B C E because it stands for a non religious phrase Before the Common Era If you prefer B C just say those letters in your head when you see B C E People who use B C for dates before the
year 1 usually use A D for dates occurring after the year 1 for example 800 A D 800 years after the year 1 But A D like B C is a religious term standing for Anno Domi ni Latin for the year of our Lord Our Lord refers to Jesus Instead of A D some people say C E which stands for the Com mon Era The Iron Age There's another way to name this book's time period the Iron Age That's the period when people used iron to make knives swords and other tools and weapons Scholars like to name periods in ancient history after the material used to make tools Just before the Iron Age was the Bronze Age and before that were the Copper Age and the Stone Age In reality things weren't quite this simple because people didn't change their ways all at once People in the Iron Age still made many tools of bronze and even stone but they knew how to make iron tools too Earlier in the Bronze Age people made a few objects out of iron but not well Their brittle knives and swords shattered too easily O The Peoples Yes Do you think it's odd to see the word peo
