ON THE COVER: Astonished archaeologists at Tel Dan uncovered a 3,800-year-old gateway consisting of a mudbrick arch—preserved intact—connecting two 20-foot-high mudbrick towers. The curved mudbrick arch and the northern tower (on the right) are seen here at the top of the stairway. Unique in the entire Near East, this gateway was built more than 700 years before the tribe of Dan captured and renamed the city of Laish. (See
“The Remarkable Discoveries at Tel Dan.”)