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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 Archaeol
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.
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
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.
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.
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
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)
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
In recent years archaeology has acquired a bit of a split personality. The traditional academic discipline of archaeology is still concerned with digging old objects out of the ground and making educated and informed ideas about past peoples and civilizations based on the artifacts of their material culture. It is a well-established and respectable discipline, but it suffers from all the image issues that other scholarly activities are plagued with. It is considered stuffy, pedantic, uncool, and concerned with distant past and things that most people don't really care about. On the other hand thanks to a few highly successful movie franchises (Indiana Jones and the "Mummy" movies come to mind) archaeologists have risen high in the popular esteem, especially with the younger generations. Many boys and girls today grow up dreaming of becoming an archaeologist in hopes that they will discover an ancient artifact with mystical and otherworldly powers.
This short book is a well presented introduction to archaeology. Paul Bhan is a very engaging and sometimes quirky writer who nonetheless knows how to present archaeology in a very informative and accurate manner. In this short introduction he presents all important facets of archaeology providing the reader with a very comprehensive view of this field. The writing is lucid and engaging, and Bhan throws in an occasional joke or pun here or there. Most of them are amusing, but some of them fall flat or make you scratch your head. Nonetheless, these comic diversions show a lot of character, and this is one of the books with the most personality in the entire very short introduction series. There are also numerous archaeology-themed cartoons throughout the book, and they too make this a unique very short introduction. I didn't find the cartoons terribly amusing, but taste in humor is a very individual matter.
One of the most admirable traits of this short book is that Bahn is very honest and forthright in dealing with all the less than savory aspects of the discipline of archaeology - petty rivalries, overly pompous "experts," and a sense of self-importance that is disproportionate to the everyday relevance. Bahn is also not impressed with some of the latest conceptual trends in archaeology, but unfortunately it seems that those are in ascendance within the walls of modern academia. In the light of that this short introduction is especially valuable as an example of what clear and to-the-point educational approach ought to look like.
This short book is a well presented introduction to archaeology. Paul Bhan is a very engaging and sometimes quirky writer who nonetheless knows how to present archaeology in a very informative and accurate manner. In this short introduction he presents all important facets of archaeology providing the reader with a very comprehensive view of this field. The writing is lucid and engaging, and Bhan throws in an occasional joke or pun here or there. Most of them are amusing, but some of them fall flat or make you scratch your head. Nonetheless, these comic diversions show a lot of character, and this is one of the books with the most personality in the entire very short introduction series. There are also numerous archaeology-themed cartoons throughout the book, and they too make this a unique very short introduction. I didn't find the cartoons terribly amusing, but taste in humor is a very individual matter.
One of the most admirable traits of this short book is that Bahn is very honest and forthright in dealing with all the less than savory aspects of the discipline of archaeology - petty rivalries, overly pompous "experts," and a sense of self-importance that is disproportionate to the everyday relevance. Bahn is also not impressed with some of the latest conceptual trends in archaeology, but unfortunately it seems that those are in ascendance within the walls of modern academia. In the light of that this short introduction is especially valuable as an example of what clear and to-the-point educational approach ought to look like.
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