Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Archaeology

This latest installment in the series fully lives up to the standards readers have come to expect from Oxford University Press titles. Master (archaeology, Wheaton Coll.), field director for the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon, has assembled a contributor list that forms a "Who's Who" of world-renowned archaeologists and biblical scholars, contributing articles in their areas of expertise. Their approach is to use archaeological evidence to provide context about the lives and culture of the writers of the biblical texts, not to reconstruct textual history or to link individual finds to specific passages. The 130 signed, alphabetically arranged articles cover individual archaeological sites, regions, and general topics such as material culture; each is followed by a bibliography and cross-references. Black-and-white illustrations accompany the pieces where needed, and a comprehensive index helps locate subject matter. The articles are written for a general audience, but those unfamiliar with archaeological practice might find it dense.