Product Description

This entertaining Very Short Introduction reflects the enduring popularity of archaeology-a subject which appeals as a pastime, career, and academic discipline, encompasses the whole globe, and surveys 2.5 million years. From deserts to jungles, from deep caves to mountain tops, from pebble tools to satellite photographs, from excavation to abstract theory, archaeology interacts with nearly every other discipline in its attempts to reconstruct the past.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #131399 in Books
• Published on: 2000-02-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

Review
"Few introductory volumes on archaeology have covered the entire scope of the field in as lively and entertaining a fashion as this short book....It would be useful as a reader in introductory archaeology classes. Professional archaeologists should also enjoy reading this book....Interesting....Refreshing."--Charles C. Boyd, Radford University
"Superb! Just the sort of fast-paced introduction one needs to help stoke the fires of one's students' curiosity."--John J. Shea, State University of New York at Stony Brook
"A series of acute and entertaining short essays on the subject's great themes....It is often said that well-written books are rare in archaeology, but this is a model of good writing for a general audience....Packed with information but never get[s] bogged down in too much detail....Its serious message--that archaeology can be a rich and fascinating subject--it gets across with more panache that any other book I know."--Simon Denison, Editor, British Archaeology
"A wonderful little text, well thought-out and informative. It puts it all in perspective."--Richard Veit, Monmouth College
"Bahn has produced a frank, easy to read, and colorful weekend tour of a vastly interesting, but frequently jargon-rich, scientific discipline. His personalized text puts even the most academic topics on a common level for all to enjoy, professional and enthusiast alike."--Jarrod Burks, Ohio State University

About the Author
Paul Bahn is a freelance writer, translator, and broadcaster in archaeology. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, a contributing editor of Archaeology magazine (New York), vice-president of the Australian Rock Art Research Association, and vice-president (UK) of the Easter Island Foundation.

Customer Reviews

A must read for wannabe archeologists!
As part of the very short introduction series, reading this book was like a breath of fresh air. Witty and informative it outlines the main areas of this subject, and includes chapters on dating artefacts, how people lived and thought, settlement and society,and how minorities are dealt with within archeology. It should be on every archeologist's bookshelf!(oh, and the cartoons are wonderfully funny as well)

Dig this
In the Preface to this excellent little book, the author says his intention is to give the reader a taste of the subject and to help students decide if they want to study archaeology at University. It performs those tasks admirably. It quite rightly provides a very broad overview rather than going deeply into specific topics, but manages to cram in loads of interesting facts along the way. The tone is jocular, and sometimes the humour is rather forced ("Relative dating does not mean going out with your cousin") but for the most part it works, and Bill Tidy's cartoons are well up to standard.

Bahn is pretty harsh with some modern archaeological notions, and objectivity toward his peers is clearly not a priority with him, but I don't think this seriously distorts what he has to say.

I do not know of a better short introduction to the subject than this book. Following this, you might want to read Egyptology, another excellent entry in the same series.