Inside BAR

If travel posters had existed in ancient Israel, one of them might have declared, “Come visit the exotic Land of Geshur!” Though tantalizingly close—just east of the Sea of Galilee—Geshur lay beyond the reach of normal Israelite activity. “The Israelites failed to dispossess the Geshurites and the Maacathites,” Joshua 13:13 informs us while listing the territories conquered by the Twelve Tribes. Geshur’s importance can be gauged from the fact that King David considered it politic to forge an alliance with its people by marrying the Geshurite princess Maacah. But the ancient Israelites were not the only people to whom Geshur was just slightly out of reach: Modern archaeologists did not begin their research in the area until 1987. Concentrating on five key sites that spanned more than two millennia, the excavators are revealing a region that was dotted by well-fortified cities and was busily engaged in far-flung trade. Moshe Kochavi, Timothy Renner, Ira Spar and Esther Yadin act as our tour guides in “Rediscovered! The Land of Geshur.”