Editorial

Abstract

This issue appears in the year in which we commemorate 50 years of the AngloIsrael Archaeological Society. Founded in 1961 by Professor Yigal Yadin, Dr Alec Lerner, Leon Shalit and Dr Richard Barnett, the aim of the Society is to foster the dissemination of knowledge about archaeology in Israel and surrounding regions. Over the past decades this has been done by a series of illustrated public presentations on recent archaeological finds and new theories, and by the publication of the Bulletin of the Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society, now Strata. The Society also gives grants for students of archaeology. Interest in discoveries in Israel and its vicinity has remained strong internationally over the decades, because of the relevance archaeological excavations have for understanding Biblical history, and for the history of Jews, Christians and Muslims in IsraelPalestine. We hope that in enabling the furtherance of archaeological scholarship the work of the AlAS will be fulfilled.