What archeologists discover -- Discovering ancient cities -- Discovering life in ancient Israel -- When stones speak --The principal types of inscriptions -- The difficulties of epigraphy -- The limits of archaeology -- Limits imposed by the interpretation of the data -- Limits inherent to excavations -- The Bible and archaeology -- what kind of relationship? -- The different approaches -- The use of the Bible -- Real-life scenarios -- A case study -- the kingdom of David and Solomon -- The problem -- What is at stake? -- The heart of the problem -- The debate today -- The case of Jerusalem -- Archaeology and writing in the time of David and Solomon -- The dearth of inscriptions from the tenth to ninth centuries BCE -- A correlation between the development of a country and literature? -- Pointers to literary activity in the tenth and ninth centuries.