Great Excavations: Tales of Early Southwestern Archaeology, 1888-1939, School of American Research Press, 1995
Great Excavations: Tales of Early Southwestern Archaeology, 1 888-1939, is an "intentionally selective" account of eight major archaeological expeditions to the Southwest in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It succeeds in achieving the goals set f...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Ubiquity Press
1997-05-01
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| Series: | Bulletin of the History of Archaeology |
| Online Access: | http://www.archaeologybulletin.org/article/view/339 |
| Summary: | Great Excavations: Tales of Early Southwestern Archaeology, 1
888-1939, is an "intentionally selective" account of eight major archaeological
expeditions to the Southwest in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It succeeds in
achieving the goals set forth in the prologue. The reader is taken on an "armchair tour"
 of early Southwestern excavations in the hope that the resulting "basic understanding
of what the early archaeologists did" will stimulate a desire to "learn more about the
intriguing prehistory of the Southwest" (pp. xiii). As a student of the history of North
American archaeology, I would be amiss to speak for Elion's "layperson" audience, but my
suspicion is that her presentation will indeed stimulate those readers. As an
archaeologist, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and it may well be that Elliott's
journalistic approach makes this book more enjoyable because she is able to remain above
the level of detail that often burden archaeologists' accounts of these expeditions. I
must temper this statement by noting that Elliott's journalistic hyper bole and
tendency to oversimplify complex research and analysis are at times discomforting. |
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| ISSN: | 1062-4740 2047-6930 |