88 \3ElWEENTEXTANDARTIFACf
issummedupbyRastinhisintroduction:"Inwhatfollows,thisbroadpic-
turewillbetracedinoneareaonly,thatofancientPalestine.Wewillnot
pretendtocovereverything. theobjectiveshouldbetoobtainsome-
thingofanintegratedumlerslandingratherthanabarrageoffactualdata
thaimayseemdiffuseandunrelatcd."64
However,canlessbemore?Becausethesehandbooksdonotgointo
detail,theylackacenaingmvity,andsomeoftheirconclusionsarereached
aftera muchtooabbreviatedpresentationofdata.Inmanyrespects,then,
theyarcabridgedversionsofMazarorBen-Tor,whichraisesthequestion,
Howmuchclaw needstobepresentedinorderadequatelytosupporta
systematicoverview?
Thatbeingsaid,thereismuchtocommendintheseshonhandbooks,
orevenbener,primers.Hast'svolumecoversa greatdC'alofground,from
thePaleolithicthroughtheIslamicperiod,inadditiontothreeintroductory
chaptersthatdiscussfieldmethodology,archaeologicaltheory,theenvi-
ronmentandgeography,historicalgeography,andchronology.Hast,who
hasatremendousamountoffieldexperience,writesinanengagingand
livelyfashionandmanagestosqueezemanyofthemostimponantcontro-
versiesandideasintohistex!.WhileRastdoesincludea fewobservations
onbiblicalhistory,over-illthevolumeisa straightforwardpresentationof
thearchaeologicalhistorywithoutanyovenrelianceonthebiblicaltexts.
Eachperiodchapt.erhasa smallchronologicalchal1anda highlightedtop-
ical"window."However,duetothevolume'sslendernature,therearefew
illustrations,photogl.lphs,charts,ormaps,andthequalityofthegraphics
islacking. Itconcludeswitha listofselectedreadings(nowoutofdate)
arrangedbychapter.
Fritz'svolumeislimitedtotheNeolithicthroughtheIronAge,witha
shonchapterontheHellenisticandRomanperiods,unfortunatelyignoring
thePersianperiod.Thisistoobad,sincethePersianperiodisincreasingly
recognizedasofparticularimportanceinunderstandingtheculturalcon-
textoftheperiodinwhichIsraelitereligionandculturetransformediLSelf
intoJudaismandtheHebrewBibleunderwenttheprocessoffinalediting
andcanonization.^65
Chapter 1 isa usefulmeditationontheinterrelationshipbetweenbibli-
cal studies and archaeology, the "task" of biblical arch<leology, the
geographicalterminologyfortheregion,andthenatureofculture-historical
studiesintheregion.Chapter 2 isdedicatedtoa carefulexplicationofthe
historicalandbiblicalnamesusedforthesouthernLevantsincethesecond
64 lla~1.11JrollglJIbeAg.:.'SiI/l)af('SlillimlArchaeology,xii.
65 Set..es(X-'CiallyShayeJ.D.Cohen,71JeBegillllillgsofjell'ishlless(Berkeley:ll1dLos
Angeles:UniversityofC31iforniaPress,1993).