Book Review: The Archaeology of Central Asia

The book "Archeology of Central Asia" written by Dr. Seyed Mansour Seyed Sajjadi, in 2016, with 912 pages of text, photos, plans and maps, has been published in two volumes by Samat Organization. The book is published on right time and will definitely be a useful book for the Iranian archeologists and other researchers who are interested in the history and culture of Iran in the Central Asian region. The book is highly edited in terms of writing and editing principles, and the staff, from the author to the editors, have worked hard. Although the book, structurally, after introducing the region and the history of research, has gone through a period from Paleolithic to Iron Age, but with the study of the book, a kind of confusion and structural incoherence can be seen in most parts. In terms of content, the book, although covering almost all prehistoric topics in the Central Asian region; However, some of the periods and chapters of the book are thinner and some of the topics, especially the topics about the bronze age, are very fat and voluminous. The main point of the book is that more than half of the book's writing is taken from a single source, the book "Central Asian Archeology: From the Paleolithic to the Iron Age" by the American archaeologist Philip Cohl. Although the author has referred to it almost in all the cases in which he has used this book, it is clear to everyone that such a large and sudden use of a source is not a common practice in academic profession. The author of this article suggests that at least on the cover of the book, the title "translation and compilation" be given so that the nature of the book is more consistent with its title.