94 BElWEENTEXTANDARTIFACT'TheIsraelitesis particularlyfocused ontheIronAge II to illustrate
topics such astown andvillageplanningandarchitecture,agriculture,
craftsandindustry,trade,warfare,language,religion,andart.Althoughthe
use ofartifacts to "illustrate" biblical history is traditional, the topical
arrangementcanbehelpfulfromastudent'sperspective.Inthiswayitis a
nicecomplementaryvolumetoamorebiblicallhisLOrical-basedapproach,
alsoemphasizingtheIronAge.Thereisa richarrayofillustrativemateri-
als,includingeighty-fivehigh-qualityblackandwhitephmographsand
seventy-fourlinedrawingsandillustrations,includingmaps,architectural
plansandreconstructions,andmostformsofmaterialculture,evenamusi~
calscore.
Unfortunately,thereisnolistofplatesandillustrations,makingthem
difficulttoaccess.Thebibliographyis alsonotuser-friendly,especiallyfor
abookdesignedforapopularaudience.However,thebiggestdrawback
tothisbookisassumingthattheauthoriscorrectincorrelatingaspectsof
Israelitesocietywithexemplarschosenfromthearchaeologicalrecord.So,
forexample,connectionsdrawnbetweena biblicaldescriptionofcivil
engineeringandanarchitecturalfeaturearebynomeansdirectThisis,of
course,themainprobleminthegeneralapplicationofarchaeologytobib-
licaltextsandwhatdistinguishesthearchaeologicallyorientedhandbooks
(e.g.,Mazar, Ben-Tor,orFritz)frombiblicalhistol)'books.
Ahlstrom's,Coogan's,andShanks'svolumesarcdesignedasbiblical
historytexts.However,eachauthororeditorwentoutofhiswaytoinclude
scholarswhoareeitherarchaeologiststhemselvesorhavea greatdealof
archaeologicalexperience.B3
Ahlstrom's History ofAncient Palestine deservesspecial attention,
Ahlstromclearlyunderstoodtheproblemsassociatedwith"doinghistol)'''
byrelyingonthebiblicaltexts,inshort,thatscholarswhoreconstmcted
thehistoryofancientIsraelworkedina differentwayfromthoserecon-
structingthe history ofMari, Ugarit, orMesopotamia. He was dearly
troubledbytheinfluenceofthebiblicaltexts(andtheirhistoricallimita-
tions),andthiswasAhlstrom'sattempttowritea historyofthesouthern
Levantinthesamewayancienthistoriansroutinelydofortherestofthe
ancientNearEastThissyntheticoverview,publishedposthumously,ofthe
historyoftheBronzeandIronAgeshada singlegoal.
83 InShanks,AllciemIsrael,Callaway,Miller,Horn,E.Meyers,andLevineareallarchae-
ologistS.InCoogan,OxfordHis/OT)'oftheJJihlico{IVorld,thearchaeologistswhocontributed
includeRedmount,Stager,C.Meyers,andCampbelLAhlstrom'schaptcronprehistorictimes
(ch. 2 covcnngthePaleolithicthroughtheChalcolithic)waswrittenbyGaryO.Rollefson,an
archaeologislwhodirectedIheexcavationof·AinGhaza!.