It is the purpose of this book to gather into one volume the most valuable information of all sorts that the excavations in Bible lands have afforded, and to put it in such form that it may be of service to the pastor and Sunday-school teacher. An attempt has been made so to present the material that one may not only have the wealth of illumination for Biblical study that exploration has produced, but also that he may possess an outline of the history of the exploration and of the countries sufficient to enable him to place each item in its proper perspective. Whether in handling so large a mass of data the writer has achieved his aim, the reader must judge. The preparation of the volume was undertaken at the request of the Board of Managers of the American Sunday-School Union, for publication under the John C. Green Income Fund,--a fund founded in 1877 “for the purpose of aiding ... in securing a Sunday-school literature of the highest order of merit ... by procuring works ... germane to the objects of the Society.” The foundation requires that the manuscripts procured by the fund shall become the exclusive property of the American Sunday-School Union, and, that the selling price may be reduced, the Society is prohibited from including the cost of the manuscript in the price of the book. This work is confined to those phases of archæology upon which light has been thrown by exploration. No attempt is made, for example, to treat the constitution of the Hebrew family, or the dress worn in ancient Palestine, for these are subjects to which exploration has contributed no new knowledge. The texts published in Part II have, with few exceptions, been freshly translated by the writer especially for this work. This is true of all except the majority of the Egyptian texts and two Greek papyri which were not accessible in the original. Translations of these were taken from the works of well-known scholars, to each of whom credit is given in connection with the passage quoted from his work. The quotations of Palestinian place names from the inscriptions of the Egyptian kings, of which the writer has made a special study, are based on his own translations of the originals. An archæological fact, or a text brought to light by excavation, is often of little significance apart from its interpretation, and the interpretation of such data frequently varies according to the point of view occupied by the interpreter. As stated in the foreword of Part II, it has been the writer’s aim throughout to maintain a neutral attitude on controverted points.