F.B.A. provides an in-depth photographic presentation of this item to stimulate your feeling and touch. More traditional book descriptions are immediately available.

This is becoming an increasingly rare book.

BC: The Archaeology of the Bible Lands was a BBC television series from the 1970s. It investigated the archaeology of the Bible lands. It was presented by Magnus Magnusson. The consultant on Biblical archaeology was James B. Pritchard of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was professor of religious thought and the first curator of Biblical archaeology at the University Museum. A book of the programmes was published in March 1977. There were twelve programmes in the series, each of an hour duration, and the book’s twelve chapters share their titles and subject matter.

The first programme was shown on BBC2 on 20 January 1977 following filming the previous year in Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Syria and Iraq. The rest were shown at weekly intervals.

The purpose and tone of the programmes is indicated by this extract from the Foreword that Dr Pritchard wrote for the book:

‘The scene of scholarly debate has long been curtained off from the general public, with the excuse that the layman cannot understand. One may believe, as I do, that the specialist has underestimated his wider public, or has found himself incapable of presenting involved arguments to a general audience. In this book these conflicting views have been brought into the open. The reader is allowed to see and hear the doubters as well as the believers, to learn of ingenious theories and their rebuttal — in fact, to face candidly some of the hard questions that have for so long perplexed scholars as they have tried to reconcile what has been handed down in the Bible with the artefacts which have come up from archaeological excavations in the lands of the Bible. At long last the intelligent onlooker has been given a chance to participate, to make up his mind about possible alternatives.’

Magnus Magnusson, KBE (born Magnús Sigursteinsson; 12 October 1929 – 7 January 2007) was an Icelandic-born British-based journalist, translator, writer and television presenter. Born in Reykjavík, he lived in Scotland for almost all his life, although he never took British citizenship. He came to prominence as a BBC television journalist and was the presenter of the BBC television quiz programme Mastermind for 25 years. His catchphrase “I’ve started so I’ll finish” was said whenever the time ran out while he was reading a question on the show.