Books in Brief
Archaeology of the Land of the Bible
Amihai Mazar (New York: Doubleday, 1990) 602 pp., 8 tables, 11 maps, 256 illustrations, $30.00
Teachers of Biblical archaeology have been looking for an updated, comprehensive textbook to use in their introductory courses. Amihai Mazar’s book fills this gap and is highly welcomed. It is also befitting that its publication falls during the 100th anniversary of Sir William Flinders Petrie’s excavations at Tell el-Hesi, an event that marked the beginning of what is known today as Biblical archaeology.
In the preface to Archaeology of the Land of the Bible, Mazar states that “the purpose of this volume [is] to present a comprehensive, updated and as objective as possible picture of the archaeological research of Palestine relating to the Old Testament period” (p. xv), and there is no question that he has done what he aimed to do.
When reviewing such a book of basics, we have to remember that it cannot cover everything that needs to be covered. Some matters must be dealt with in an abbreviated manner with the hope that the topic will be better covered in more specialized books or in classroom lectures.
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