The range of subjects covered here is breathtaking--everything from the domestication of the camel, to Egyptian hieroglyphics, to luminescence dating, to the Mayan calendar, to Koobi Fora and Olduvai Gorge. Readers will find extensive essays that illuminate the full history of archaeology--from the discovery of Herculaneum in 1783, to the recent finding of the "Ice Man" and the ancient city of Uruk--and engaging biographies of the great figures in the field, from Gertrude Bell, Paul Emile Botta, and Louis and Mary Leakey, to V. Gordon Childe, Li Chi, Heinrich Schliemann, and Max Uhle. The Companion offers extensive coverage of the methods used in archaeological research, revealing how archaeologists find sites (remote sensing, aerial photography, ground survey), how they map excavations and report findings, and how they analyze artifacts (radiocarbon dating, dendrochronology, stratigraphy, mortuary analysis). Of course, archaeology's great subject is humanity and human culture, and there are broad essays that examine human evolution--ranging from our early primate ancestors, to Australopithecus and Cro-Magnon, to Homo Erectus and Neanderthals--and explore the many general facets of culture, from art and architecture, to arms and armor, to beer and brewing, to astronomy and religion. And perhaps most important, the contributors provide insightful coverage of human culture as it has been expressed in every region of the world. Here entries range from broad overviews, to treatments of particular themes, to discussions of peoples, societies, and particular sites. Thus, anyone interested in North America would find articles that cover the continent from the Arctic to the Eastern woodlands to the Northwest Coast, that discuss the Iroquois and Algonquian cultures, the hunters of the North American plains, and the Norse in North America, and that describe sites such as Mesa Verde, Meadowcraft Rockshelter, Serpent Mound, and Poverty Point. Likewise, the coverage of Europe runs from the Paleolithic period, to the Bronze and Iron Age, to the Post-Roman era, looks at peoples such as the Celts, the Germans, the Vikings, and the Slavs, and describes sites at Altamira, Pompeii, Stonehenge, Terra Amata, and dozens of other locales. The Companion offers equally thorough coverage of Africa, Europe, North America, Mesoamerica, South America, Asia, the Mediterranean, the Near East, Australia and the Pacific. And finally, the editors have included extensive cross-referencing and thorough indexing, enabling the reader to pursue topics of interest with ease; charts and maps providing additional information; and bibliographies after most entries directing readers to the best sources for further study. Every Oxford Companion aspires to be the definitive overview of a field of study at a particular moment of time. This superb volume is no exception. Featuring 700 articles written by hundreds of respected scholars from all over the world, The Oxford Companion to Archaeology provides authoritative, stimulating entries on everything from bog bodies, to underwater archaeology, to the Pyramids of Giza and the Valley of the Kings.

Given the space and range of the subject matter, it seems that any kind of judgmental review would be superfluous. No topic is missed, and everything is written with a depth and clarity that one expects from a book in the Oxford Companion series. There are only two regrets. I would have liked to see illustrations, photos and maps of certain sites, but that is more wishful thinking than constructive criticism.

The other problem is that the 29 maps in the back of the book are inadequate. Some sites are listed, some are not. They lack a note indicating what time period they apply to What date does "Early China" map refer to? Or the "Late China?" The sole map of the Roman Empire shows it at its largest, but omits the date of when that was. One might as well review a dictionary.

These are just a few of the idle facts and notions gleaned from these pages:

* A long-term study of what people throw away has been going on out in Tucson, Arizona, since 1973. It has found that the average U.S. household throws away 10 to 15 percent of its edible solid food, that curbside recycling has conserved about 20 percent of landfill space since it began in 1982, and that paper takes up 40 to 50 percent of landfill space.

* Although the wheel was in use in Mesopotamia from about 4,000 B.C., it was not in the Americas, nor in Africa south of the Sahara.

* Diseases brought by European explorers may have reduced North American population, estimated at 18 million, (roughly the current population of South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia and North Carolina combined) by up to 80 percent.

* Silk was such a lucrative export from China that from the second century on, persons caught attempting to export the technology of silk production could be executed.

*That the Great Wall of China is not a continuous wall, but a series of walls, built and rebuilt at different times. The section outside Beijing was reconstructed recently as a tourist attraction. (This account also perpetuates the popular error that the wall is the only human product visible from the moon. Astronaut Alan Bean has written that "the only thing you can see from the moon is a beautiful sphere, mostly white (clouds), some blue (ocean), patches of yellow (deserts), and every once in a while some green vegetation.")

* Last but not least, after reading accounts of civilizations that have lasted thousands of years, only to collapse into a heap of dusty ruins and sometimes indecipherable records, it's hard to feel smug about a country with a mere 200 years of history.


excellent resource for archaeology student   March 24, 2000
 2 out of 2 found this review helpful

The multidisciplinary study of archaeology requires a broad database of knowledge, and the Oxford Companion offers itself as an excellent resource. Alphabetical entries are provided in subject areas, and especially helpful is a variety of timelines and graphical data as well as a comprehensive index. Fagan's compilation of entries from renowned social scientists in the Oxford Companion is an essential in my personal library, and is referred to consistently.