I can whole-heartedly recommend anything written by Michener, but 'The Source' is one of my all-time favorite novels. The story begins at an archaeological dig, "the Tell," at a believable fictional town named Makor in modern day Israel. Diagrams show the site and artifacts found at different levels of the Tell corresponding to different periods in time. Michener has stories to go with each artifact found bringing you forward in time from 9834 B.C.E. to 1964 C.E. in the town of Makor in western Galilee. :!: