detritus of a once-living society—that is, essentially as a garbage-dump. It is important therefore to explain what I wish to do in this volume, why the work is the natural outcome of the four which precede it, and how I regard the whole as a single work, a single history of the Mishnaic law of appointed times. For this purpose I define the terms of this project by providing an exegesis of the title, History of the Mishnaic Law of Appointed Times and specifying the problems to be worked out in this