This is a big, beautifully produced book. It is a tribute to the generosity of the co-publishers that the 506 figures outnumber the 444 pages of text. These figures are mainly colour photographs, some black-and-white photographs and a small number of line drawings. Few openings are unadorned by a mosaic, pictured in full or in detail, so that the reader is immersed in an astounding variety of mosaic designs.

Talgam's approach is multi-faceted. She allies herself with both archaeologists and historians of art, and yet feels the need to defend her moderately detailed stylistic analyses (pp. 132–3). This apologetic stance derives from her aspiration to cross disciplinary boundaries to produce not a catalogue of mosaics, but a study of the development of mosaic pavements from the Hellenistic to the Abbasid periods that addresses stylistic, iconographic and compositional concerns while also posing questions of cultural and religious meaning that may arise from the texts and images in her material.

The division of the book into three sections is not simply a practical device but, as the author acknowledges (pp. 78–9), an interpretative stance that reinforces the conventional fault lines between Hellenistic and Roman (pt i), Byzantine (part ii) and post-Muslim conquest (pt iii), even though she observes that ‘the continuity of local Byzantine traditions under Muslim rule raises the question of whether it is warranted to regard the fifth to the eighth centuries as a single unit’. Talgam's choice of material and her analyses reveal an acute awareness of current scholarly concerns: while prudently insisting on widespread ‘stylistic polyphony’(p. 132), she provides detailed yet accessible discussions of the development in figural rendering from Classicism to schematic representation to a revived Classicism; of the transmission of stylistic and compositional trends; and of the erasure of the human form. The latter subject is of tremendous interest to archaeologists, theologians and historians alike because of the intriguing examples of selective destruction observable in many mosaics treated in section iii (particularly in chapter xii, ‘The defacement of images’). Talgam illustrates examples of the phenomenon and provides a useful, brief discussion. In all sections, the descriptions and analyses are succinct and pertinent, and the more theoretical considerations – such as, for example, in chapter v (‘The Church as the heir of the tabernacle and Solomon's temple: a microcosm, and an earthly paradise’), and chapter vi (‘The Synagogue as the “lesser temple”’) – are woven into the more technical treatments in a manner that is mutually reinforcing and provides stimulating reading interspersed with fascinating visual counterpoints.

Talgam's is an admirable study, even if many of the questions that she raises remain necessarily unanswered. The book's title informs the reader from the very outset that this careful study of pavements aspires to tell the story of religious communities in a particular place. The author employs the term ‘Holy Land’ as a geographical and religious designation: ‘the provinces of Palaestina and Arabia (present-day Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and Jordan) are especially rich in mosaics dating to late antiquity, when the region became a Christian and, later, an Islamic Holy Land (fourth–eighth centuries ce)’ (p. xiv). While in the preface and introductory sections Talgam can perhaps be excused for her indulgence in vague if well-intending language more akin to modern interfaith dialogue than any surviving late antique texts, there are serious omissions that cannot be explained by cultural or scholarly fashions, or even by oversight or the lack of space in an already extensive treatment. The omissions are of a different nature and include maps, on the one hand, and discussion of geometric designs, on the other. Both omissions represent significant intellectual choices worth consideration by students of late antique history, material culture and religion.

We are treated to over a hundred pages of useful notes and an extensive bibliography, but there is not a single map. This is a strange omission for any study that attempts to track artistic and religious interaction in practice, using evidence from often lesser known archaeological sites, and it is certainly inconsiderate of the reader. In a characteristic statement of her goals Talgam writes that ‘This book traces the multifaceted interactions of the various religious groups that lived in the Holy Land during the most significant periods when the three major monotheistic faiths crystallized. Observation of the mosaic floors brings to light the diverse ways of communication and reveals cultural, religious, and social processes that were the outcome of close and direct contact with people of the other faiths’ (p. ix). Perhaps Talgam expects too much from the observation of floors. Nevertheless, our efforts to reconstruct channels of communication and cultural, religious and artistic exchange must be painstakingly traced on the ground and plotted on maps, a process which may also aid our understanding of the possible modes and routes of transmission of the very ideas and practices that Talgam hopes to reveal.

The second omission might also be seen as a window open for future investigation. As if responding to a critic, Talgam admits that ‘I have virtually ignored the geometric motifs that form the largest part of mosaic floors’ (p. 168). But if we are interested to understand more about ‘extensive commonality’ (p. ix), might we pay more attention to the geometric patterns found across the entire chronological span that Talgam studies? What might these motifs, and the ubiquitous carpets and textiles that they echo, and possibly inspire in turn, tell us about the less overtly theological aspects of what Talgam prefers to call ‘faiths’ rather than religions, religious traditions, beliefs or practices? Talgam's rich collection of mosaics could now serve for a second complementary study that would investigate not why aniconism, but why geometry. Such a question would also distract us from the current erroneous association of Islamic culture with iconoclasm, and offer those interested in pursuing questions of commonality a truly shared visual world, and one that would go from strength to strength over time in all the traditions that she explores – namely, that of geometric design.