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David Rohl is the champion of a cause. It may be a very specific area and one seemingly fairly irrelevant to modern life, but if he is correct in his theories, then his findings may cause us to review our whole understanding of ancient near eastern history, or to put it another way, the Old Testament. His focus in this book, and a thread common to most of his writing, is what is known as the New Chronology. The basic tenant of the New Chronology is that our understanding of the relative order of events and the placing of those events in a proper historical sequence is flawed. What Rohl's mission is throughout his books, is to present evidence to establish a well-supported alternative to our current understanding of history and in this book he focuses on the Old Testament.

To understand the need for a review of the situation requires an understanding of the development of archaeology from its earliest days. Egyptology, as the plaything of wealthy Victorian gentlemen, was the first avenue of modern archaeological exploration to be developed. However in the 19th century history could only be accepted as fact if it was supported by what was found in the Bible. Because of this a number of assumptions and leaps of faith were made in trying to harmonise the two sets of evidence. Then with time and due to the seemingly infallible nature of those early pioneers, Egyptology and the historical order of events has also become carved in stone. The problem this created was that since those days there has been a stubborn refusal by those in control of the facts to admit that there is any possibility of doubt cast over their valued historical interpretations. All Rohl is suggesting is that those historical time lines be re-examined with the light of more recent discoveries rather than coming up with convoluted theories to justify bolting on new threads of evidence. The reality of the Old Chronology is very few dates and events can be established without doubt, and those that can relate only to the later periods.

After undermining the wisdom of four of the basic foundations of the Old Chronology Rohl brings the perceived wisdom of the past crashing down allowing him to re-build an alternative history based on newer discoveries and revisions of the older ones. But just when you think that Rohl is going to discard the Old Testament writings in favour of more scientific methods he surprises the reader by using it as the foundation of his new thrust. Much like in his previous book,

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