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Hershel Shanks

Scholarly combatants but on friendly terms otherwise, Israel Finkelstein and Amihai Mazar are two central figures in the debate over the chronology of ancient Israel. Finkelstein, co-director of the Megiddo excavation, argues for a “low” chronology that shifts many impressive remains from the time of Solomon to the ninth century B.C. Mazar, director of the dig at Rehov, argues that those remains date to the tenth century B.C., as claimed by the “traditional” chronology.