82 BI:JWEENTEXTANDAR"I1FACTArchaeologyo[AncientIsraelisverysimilartoMazar'svolume.Thisisnot
unexpected, as Ben-Tor is a colleague of Mazar'sat the Institute of
Archaeologyat HebrewUniversity.alsowith atremendousamountof
excavationexperience.49Additionally,bothbookswerepublishedwithin
twoyearsofeachother.Ingeneral,thereis alsoa lessovenemphasison
the biblical narratives in this volume as compared to Mazar; so, for
instance,eachchaplertitleissimplythenameoftheperiod,''The Iron
AgeI"or~TheIronAge[I-III."
Thereis, however,oneimportantdifference, Ben-Tor'sisanedited
volumeinwhicheachchapteriswrittenbyanexpertin that paniclllar
period.ThoughhemodelshimselfonAlbright,Ben-Torassertstheneed
forrevision,notingthata singleschoLarcannolongerhandlethemassof
material ittakestocomposeahandbookandthustheneedfora "team
approach."SOThe resulting volumeindeed hassomeadded advantage;
eachchapterreflectsa fullydevelopedandmaturesummatystatementon
a givenperiodbyanexpenwithdirectexperienceinthatperiod.S1
However,thelackofa singlevoiceandthusconsistentnarrativestyle
isalsoa weakness.Thecontributors'methodsofinterpretationdiffer,espe-
ciallyintheirhandlingoftheinterrelationshipbetweenbiblicalnarratives,
histoty,andarchaeology.Usually,thisunevennessaffectsonlythestyleof
presentationandnotthequalityofthecontent.Still,styleor,morespecifi-
cally, strength of narrative can be an important consideration in the
selectionofa textbook.
Ben-Tor'sintroductotychapterismuchbrieferthanmanyOlhersuch
chapters,buthismusingsoverthenameofthedisciplineandthetraditions
ofarchaeologicalresearchareimportant.Unfortunately,hiscoverageofthe
environmentisweak,althoughsomeofthismaterialishandledwithinthe
individualchapters. Becausespecialistsarehandlingtheirownmaterial,
severalchaptersareparticularlystrong.Bar-YoserschapterontheNeolithic
isperhapsthebestgeneralovclViewofthisperiodinanyofthetextsunder
consideration.OtherparticularlystrongcontributionsincludeBen~Tor'son
theEarlyBronzeAgeandKempinski'sontheMiddleBronzeAge.
AswithMazar,thequantityofillustrativematerialisexemplaty,asis
thequalityofreproduction.Thereareeleventables,mostofwhichare
onchronology,handled hereingreaterdetailthan in mostanyother
thetermerefzyisraelfortheregion,whereasintheEnglishversionI3en-Toradoptedtheterm
"AncientlSr.leJ.-Mazar.ontheotherhand.used"LandoftheBible."
49 Den-ToriscurrentlydiredingtheexcavationofHazor.
SODen-Tor,ArchaeologyofAnciemIsrael,xix.
StNotethatMazarwrotethechapterontheIronAgeI.replicatingthesamechaplerin
hisownbook.