    the archaeology of israel is the study of the archaeology of the present-day israel, stretching from prehistory through three millennia of documented history. the ancient land of israel was a geographical bridge between the political and cultural centers of mesopotamia and egypt. despite the importance of the country to three major religions, serious archaeological research only began in the 15th century.encyclopedia of zionism and israel, edited by raphael patai, herzl press and mcgraw-hill, new york, 1971, vol. i, p.66-71 the first major work on the antiquities of israel was adrian reland's palestina ex monumentis veteribus, published in 1709. edward robinson, an american theologian who visited the country in 1838, published the first topographical studies. a frenchman, louis felicien de saucy, embarked on the first "modern" excavations in 1850. in discussing the state of archaeology in israel in his time, david ussishkin commented in the 1980s that the designation "israeli archeology" no longer represents a single uniform methodological approach; rather, its scope covers numerous different archaeological schools, disciplines, concepts, and methods currently in existence in israel. ==archaeological time periods==  === neolithic period=== thumb|250px|natufian burial, nahal me'arot stream, israel the neolithic period appears to have begun when the peoples of the natufian culture, which spread across present-day syria, israel and lebanon, began to practice agriculture. this neolithic revolution has been linked to the cold period known as the younger dryas. this agriculture in the levant is the earliest known to have been practiced. the neolithic period in this region is dated 8500-4300 bce and the chalcolithic 4300-3300 bce. the term "natufian" was coined by dorothy garrod in 1928, after identifying an archaeological sequence at wadi al-natuf which included a late levallois-mousterian layer and a stratified deposit, the mesolithic of palestine, which contained charcoal traces and a microlithic flint tool industry.new fieldwork at shuqba cave and in wadi en-natuf, western judea 
Archaeological_sites_in_Israel Archaeology_of_Israel History_of_Israel