The AJA seeks reviews that assess a book’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as locating it within the current field of scholarship. A reviewer’s assessment of the novelty of the author’s argument is often valuable for AJA readers. It is also helpful if reviewers indicate for which audiences and libraries the book seems appropriate. Reviews should not contain a list of contents or summarize a book, though overall organization and emphasis should be considered. Please avoid lists of minor imperfections (e.g., misplaced commas), but do not hesitate to draw attention to serious editorial problems and errors of fact or interpretation. A Book Review Editorial was published in AJA 121.1 (2017).
From 2010 to 2021, the AJA published all book reviews and some review articles exclusively on AJA Open Access. Each review is tied to a specific issue of the print-published journal and is included in the table of contents of that issue. Select review articles continue to be published in the printed journal. Beginning with the January 2021 issue, the AJA started releasing book reviews on a monthly basis; a Book Review Editorial about this was published in AJA 125.1 (2021). As part of the publishing partnership with the University of Chicago Press, in 2022 the AJA started issuing book reviews in PDF format with page numbers and posting the reviews on the same platform as the rest of the journal content. Early access book reviews can be found on the AJA’s University of Chicago Press site under the Ahead of Print Book Reviews tab.
Those who wish to become reviewers should contact the Book Review Editor and provide a CV.
In addition to the quarterly lists of new books, we also maintain a live list of books available for review.
Book Review Submission
A book review or review article should be submitted to the Book Review Editor at bookreviews@archaeological.org. A review should be submitted as an MS Word file, should be typed double-spaced in 12-point Times New Roman font with 1-inch margins on all sides, and should conform as much as possible to AJA review format and style. The length of the book review should be about 1,500 words.
A maximum of one figure may be submitted with a book review or an online-only review article. (The AJA does not accept figures for print-published review articles.) Figures should be sized between 500 x 500 pixels and 1000 x 1000 pixels x 72 dpi; acceptable file types include .tif, .jpg, .eps, .bmp, and .ai. Figures will be embedded within the published review and so will be available for public download.
A book review or review article will not be accepted and scheduled for publication until a signed author warranty and written permission to reproduce any copyrighted figures have been received.
Once a book review or review article has been accepted for publication, it will be copyedited, then emailed to the reviewer with instructions for making any final changes and responding to queries. While the reviewer may clarify or modify the text in minor ways, no major revisions are permitted. Corrected files should be returned by the requested deadline.
Authors of online reviews can print copies of their review directly from AJA Online or, for reviews published 2022 to the present, our digital publishing platform.
Book Review Format and Style
Each review should be preceded by a heading listing the book to be reviewed (no italics), including series title and number if applicable, publisher, year of publication, number of pages, price (if available), ISBN, and format:
The Mediterranean from 50,000 to 25,000 BP: Turning Points and New Directions
Edited by Marta Camps and Carolyn Szmidt. Oxford: Oxbow 2009. Pp. xxii + 354. $160. ISBN 978-1-842170314-5 (cloth).
The 2003 Excavations at Tol-e Baši, Iran: Social Life in a Neolithic Village
By Susan Pollock, Reinhard Bernbeck, and Kamyar Abdi (Archäologie in Iran und Turan 10). Mainz: Philipp von Zabern 2010. Pp. ix + 324. €49.90. ISBN 978-3-8053-4261-2 (cloth).
Excavations by K.M. Kenyon in Jerusalem 1961–1967. Vol. 5, Discoveries in Hellenistic to Ottoman Jerusalem: Centenary Volume. Kathleen M. Kenyon 1906–1978
By Kay Prag (Levant Suppl. 7). Oxford: Oxbow 2008 Pp. xviii + 518. $150. ISBN 978-1-84217-304-6 (cloth).
The Archaeology of Tomb A1K1 of Orthi Petra in Eleutherna: The Early Iron Age Pottery
By Antonis Kotsonas. Athens: University of Crete 2008. Pp. 397. Price not available. ISBN 978-960-88394-6-5 (paper).
Reviewer Information
At the end of each review, reviewers should include their name in the exact format in which they would like it to appear, department (optional), institution, location, and email address. Or, if the reviewer is an independent scholar: their name in the exact format in which they would like it to appear, Independent Scholar, location, and email address. Authors who wish to present their information differently are welcome to discuss it with us.
References
Notes and lists of works cited may be used only in review articles. References in single book reviews should be kept to a minimum and incorporated into the text itself, as follows:
The equivocal nature of the archaeological remains cries for a more theoretically grounded approach, perhaps through ethnographic comparanda along the lines of The Archaeology of Rank (P.K. Wason, Cambridge University Press 1994).
For the earlier period he points in particular to the apsidal houses and the incised pottery at the Altis site at Olympia, which Rutter (“A Group of Distinctive Pattern-Decorated Early Helladic III Pottery from Lerna and Its Implications,” Hesperia 51, 1982, 459–88) has identified as belonging to the early EH III.
Ryholt (The Political Situation in Egypt During the Second Intermediate Period, c. 1800–1550 B.C., Museum Tusculanum Press 1997, 104–5) has offered a different perspective on the palace.
Langdon (“The Awkward Age: Art and Maturation in Early Greece,” in Constructions of Childhood in Ancient Greece, A. Cohen and J. Rutter, eds., American School of Classical Studies at Athens 2007, 173–91) offers a different perspective.