Editorial Reviews:
This comprehensive five-volume work analyzes the archaeological and linguistic data that pertain to the broad cultural milieu of the ancient Near East, the crossroads of three of the world's most influential religions--Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Ranging from prehistoric times up to the early centuries of the rise of Islam, the work covers the civilizations of Syria-Palestine, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Iran, Arabia, Cyprus, Egypt, and the coastal regions of North and East Africa. It includes 1,125 alphabetically arranged entries on sites, languages, material culture, archaeological methods, organizations and institutions, and major excavators and scholars of the field. This one-of-a-kind, accessibly written reference brings new breadth to the study of archaeology in the biblical world, making it a valuable resource not only to scholars and students of archaeology, but also to those with an interest in ancient art and architecture, languages, history, and religion.
Customer Reviews:
 I love it
This thing is simply great - Looks good, nice paper, great content, not overly academic/pretentious in its stile of writing. Also serves as a good read when not looking for specific topics. Im sorry I did not discover that treasure sooner. Whoa!
This Oxford publication is the Motherload for sites in the Near East. Just about every site, with the exception of those found after 1996-97, in the near east is listed in this beautifully bound set (vol 1-5). It is an excellent source for any Archaeology student researching sites in the Near East. One draw back of the volumes is the lack of diagrams and photo's. However, the volumes are very well written with the student or researcher in prespective. All sites are in alphabetical order, making location a task easy to accomplish. This set is a must for serious students in the field.(Notice: The above book offered by Amazon.com is just the first of a set of five books. I refer to all Volumes in my review, not just the one book presented above.)  A missed opportunity
This voluminous, five volume set, is meant to serve as a comprehensive dictionary of the ancient near east. Though the topics covered are impressive, the main drawback of this volume is the surprisingly small amount of illustrations and pictures that are incorporated in the text. In a work that claims to summarize the archaeology of the ancient near east, the few pictures, plans, etc., seriously lowers the intrinsic value of the encylopedia. This said, nevertheless, these volumes can be used for the convenient summaries of the archaeology of various sites and the basic relevant bibliography.
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(3 reviews)