“The premise of this book—to summarize the development of arguments concerning identification of particular sites in the ancient world known from both literary and archaeological sources—is very interesting. . . . Recommended.”

Choice

“Artifact and Artifce makes clear that textual evidence and archaeological evidence must be situated within a broader literary and material context. No research field, regardless of its cumulative perceptions, is one dimensional; nothing is as simple as it appears. . . . [Hall’s] book demonstrates that . . . promising avenues for a fruitful dialogue between disciplines are certainly in the offing.”

Journal of Interdisciplinary History

"Hall deftly analyses the politics that lie behind the archaeology. This is an eloquent discussion."

Current World Archaeology

"A careful and informative introduction to the case studies."

Bryn Mawr Classical Review

“Offers a good overview of important discoveries and their historical context, particularly for students of ancient history and classical archaeology, and also increases awareness of the proper use of sources within and among disciplines. Spanning both fields, this study integrates crucial questions and discussions that can be pedagogically useful and stimulating for individual research.”

sehepunkte

“Excellent. . . . This lively and provocative survey offers a good overview of several important discoveries and their historical context for students, teachers and lovers of the ancient world.”

Classics for All Reviews

“Just in time to lead the way for a new generation of scholars. . . .  Highly commendable and obligatory reading in both ancient history and archaeology classes.”

American Journal of Archaeology

“Texts may lie. The spade cannot lie—it is mute. We make it speak for us through our imagination, based on what seem comparable but better understood cases, and through our knowledge of texts (history). Thus arises the question of whether a scholar should come to classical archaeology from textual study and ancient history rather than field archaeology and art history. Jonathan Hall confronts this question in nine case studies, Greek and Roman. . . . While the physical evidence on hand may be incomplete or misinterpreted and the literary evidence a matter of convenience or pure invention, Hall’s expertise with both is phenomenal, and he carefully dissects it all. He offers a serious, if tacit, warning to both archaeologists and historians that they will do well to heed.”

Common Knowledge

“In the shoes of a master sleuth, Hall, expert in many fields, guides his readers through nine prominent cases in which scholars have combined material and textual evidence to explain the archaeological record. Judiciously exposing errors and pitfalls and searching for methods that promise tenable results, he presents a thoroughly researched, well-written, and fascinating tale of history as an active, forensic practice that will help archaeologists and historians to collaborate more productively.”

Kurt A. Raaflaub, Brown University

“Hall is one of our very best archaeo-historians, a specialist in ancient Greece who is as conversant with and as competent in handling the authentic but mute evidence of archaeology as the often-unsatisfactory written texts, and authoritative, especially in marrying the two different kinds of historical sources. In his latest book he ranges widely in period and place from archaic (preclassical) Delphi and Eretria to thirteenth-century CE Hierapolis in modern Turkey by way of classical Athens, Alexander’s Macedonia, and regal-period Rome, among others. Like many of the best books in his field, this series of acutely researched and shrewdly argued case studies is firmly based on his teaching at the University of Chicago and will be a boon for instructors and students alike.”

P. A. Cartledge, author of After Thermopylae: The Oath of Plataea and the End of the Graeco-Persian

“Too many books have been labeled thought provoking, but the verdict would in any case be an understatement here. Artifact and Artifice targets one of the most basic tenets in classical studies that impact archaeologists and ancient historians alike in their everyday research operations. Hall surveys the driving theories of the ‘Great Divide’ to take us on an eventful journey to ancient places that are well known. Or are they? From the Pythia at Delphi to the Bones of St. Peter, from the Athenian agora to the House of Augustus, Hall discloses how our understanding is blurred by entangled preconceptions of visual and textual legacies. Accented with superb snapshots of the mind and rich illustrations, his case studies offer dazzling aperçus into key themes in antiquity. Artifact and Artifice should be in the hands of anyone interested in the field of classical studies.”

Hans Beck, McGill University