Archaeology: A Very Short Introduction

129 Pages·2009·1.58 MB·English

by  Paul Bahn

Archaeology: A Very Short Introduction
‘Few introductory volumes on archaeology have covered the entire
scope of the field in as lively and entertaining a fashion as this
short book.’
Charles C. Boyd, American Antiquity
‘a series of acute and entertaining short essays on the subject’s great
themes ... this is a model of good writing for a general audience ...
[The] chapters rattle along, packed with information but never getting
bogged down in too much detail ... The book is full of jokes, but its
serious message – that archaeology can be a rich and fascinating
subject – it gets across with more panache than any other
book I know.’
Simon Denison, Editor of British Archaeology
Very Short Introductions are for anyone wanting a stimulating
and accessible way in to a new subject. They are written by experts, and have
been published in more than 25 languages worldwide.
The series began in 1995, and now represents a wide variety of topics
in history, philosophy, religion, science, and the humanities. Over the next
few years it will grow to a library of around 200 volumes – a Very Short
Introduction to everything from ancient Egypt and Indian philosophy to
conceptual art and cosmology.
Very Short Introductions available now:
ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY Continental Philosophy
Julia Annas Simon Critchley
THE ANGLO-SAXON AGE COSMOLOGY Peter Coles
John Blair CRYPTOGRAPHY
ANIMAL RIGHTS David DeGrazia Fred Piper and Sean Murphy
ARCHAEOLOGY Paul Bahn DADA AND SURREALISM
ARCHITECTURE David Hopkins
Andrew Ballantyne Darwin Jonathan Howard
ARISTOTLE Jonathan Barnes Democracy Bernard Crick
ART HISTORY Dana Arnold DESCARTES Tom Sorell
ART THEORY Cynthia Freeland DRUGS Leslie Iversen
THE HISTORY OF THE EARTH Martin Redfern
ASTRONOMY Michael Hoskin EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY
Atheism Julian Baggini Geraldine Pinch
Augustine Henry Chadwick EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY
BARTHES Jonathan Culler BRITAIN Paul Langford
THE BIBLE John Riches THE ELEMENTS Philip Ball
BRITISH POLITICS EMOTION Dylan Evans
Anthony Wright EMPIRE Stephen Howe
Buddha Michael Carrithers ENGELS Terrell Carver
BUDDHISM Damien Keown Ethics Simon Blackburn
CAPITALISM James Fulcher The European Union
THE CELTS Barry Cunliffe John Pinder
CHOICE THEORY EVOLUTION
Michael Allingham Brian and Deborah Charlesworth
CHRISTIAN ART Beth Williamson FASCISM Kevin Passmore
CLASSICS Mary Beard and THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
John Henderson William Doyle
CLAUSEWITZ Michael Howard Freud Anthony Storr
THE COLD WAR Galileo Stillman Drake
Robert McMahon Gandhi Bhikhu Parekh
GLOBALIZATION paul E. P. Sanders
Manfred Steger Philosophy Edward Craig
HEGEL Peter Singer PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
HEIDEGGER Michael Inwood Samir Okasha
HINDUISM Kim Knott PLATO Julia Annas
HISTORY John H. Arnold POLITICS Kenneth Minogue
HOBBES Richard Tuck POSTCOLONIALISM
HUME A. J. Ayer Robert Young
IDEOLOGY Michael Freeden POSTMODERNISM
Indian Philosophy Christopher Butler
Sue Hamilton POSTSTRUCTURALISM
Intelligence Ian J. Deary Catherine Belsey
ISLAM Malise Ruthven PREHISTORY Chris Gosden
JUDAISM Norman Solomon PRESOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY
Jung Anthony Stevens Catherine Osborne
KANT Roger Scruton Psychology Gillian Butler and
KIERKEGAARD Freda McManus
Patrick Gardiner QUANTUM THEORY
THE KORAN Michael Cook John Polkinghorne
LINGUISTICS Peter Matthews ROMAN BRITAIN
LITERARY THEORY Peter Salway
Jonathan Culler ROUSSEAU Robert Wokler
LOCKE John Dunn RUSSELL A. C. Grayling
LOGIC Graham Priest RUSSIAN LITERATURE
MACHIAVELLI Catriona Kelly
Quentin Skinner THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION
MARX Peter Singer S. A. Smith
MATHEMATICS SCHIZOPHRENIA
Timothy Gowers Chris Frith and Eve Johnstone
MEDIEVAL BRITAIN SCHOPENHAUER
John Gillingham and Christopher Janaway
Ralph A. Griffiths SHAKESPEARE Germaine Greer
MODERN IRELAND SOCIAL AND CULTURAL
Senia Pasˇeta ANTHROPOLOGY
MOLECULES Philip Ball John Monaghan and Peter Just
MUSIC Nicholas Cook SOCIOLOGY Steve Bruce
NIETZSCHE Michael Tanner Socrates C. C. W. Taylor
NINETEENTH-CENTURY SPINOZA Roger Scruton
BRITAIN Christopher Harvie and STUART BRITAIN
H. C. G. Matthew John Morrill
NORTHERN IRELAND TERRORISM Charles Townshend
Marc Mulholland THEOLOGY David F. Ford
Available soon:
THE TUDORS John Guy FUNDAMENTALISM
TWENTIETH-CENTURY Malise Ruthven
BRITAIN Kenneth O. Morgan Habermas Gordon Finlayson
Wittgenstein A. C. Grayling HIEROGLYPHS
WORLD MUSIC Philip Bohlman Penelope Wilson
AFRICAN HISTORY HIROSHIMA B. R. Tomlinson
John Parker and Richard Rathbone HUMAN EVOLUTION
ANCIENT EGYPT Ian Shaw Bernard Wood
THE BRAIN Michael O’Shea INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
BUDDHIST ETHICS Paul Wilkinson
Damien Keown JAZZ Brian Morton
CHAOS Leonard Smith MANDELA Tom Lodge
CHRISTIANITY Linda Woodhead MEDICAL ETHICS
CITIZENSHIP Richard Bellamy Tony Hope
CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE THE MIND Martin Davies
Robert Tavernor Myth Robert Segal
CLONING Arlene Judith Klotzko NATIONALISM Steven Grosby
CONTEMPORARY ART PERCEPTION Richard Gregory
Julian Stallabrass PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION
THE CRUSADES Jack Copeland and Diane Proudfoot
Christopher Tyerman PHOTOGRAPHY Steve Edwards
Derrida Simon Glendinning THE RAJ Denis Judd
DESIGN John Heskett THE RENAISSANCE
Dinosaurs David Norman Jerry Brotton
DREAMING J. Allan Hobson RENAISSANCE ART
ECONOMICS Partha Dasgupta Geraldine Johnson
THE END OF THE WORLD SARTRE Christina Howells
Bill McGuire THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR
EXISTENTIALISM Thomas Flynn Helen Graham
THE FIRST WORLD WAR TRAGEDY Adrian Poole
Michael Howard THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
FREE WILL Thomas Pink Martin Conway
For more information visit our web site
www.oup.co.uk/vsi
Paul Bahn
Archaeology
A Very Short Introduction
with illustrations by Bill Tidy
1
3
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp
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First published as an Oxford University Press paperback 1996
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ISBN13: 978–0–19–285379–0
ISBN10 :0–19–285379–1

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For Ann, Steve, James, and Philip
Preface
Exactly forty years ago, Vere Gordon Childe – one of this century’s
foremost prehistorians as well as one of the subject’s greatest
eccentrics – published a book called A Short Introduction to Archaeology.
The present volume has no pretensions to equal its predecessor except
in brevity.
Indeed, this little book is merely intended to whet the appetite by
presenting some rudiments of the subject of archaeology in the hope
that the reader may be stimulated to delve more deeply into its rich
literature, to carry out some research or fieldwork, or, in the case of
students, decide to take it up as a university course. You may not find
employment at the end of such a course, or even at the end of a Ph.D.;
but in these days when even the ‘safe’ areas like banking no longer
guarantee a job for life, you might as well enjoy yourself while you can,
and – as the late Glyn Daniel often emphasized – archaeology is nothing
if it is not about pleasure. Inevitably you may need to shift and sieve a
lot of earth, memorize some boring dates, wrap your tongue round
meaningless jargon, and try to grapple with the Sumo wrestlers of
theory, but at the same time you will be transported into a world of art
and artefacts, temples and tools, tombs and treasures, lost cities and
mysterious scripts, mummies and mammoths ... And although such
things are scorned or dismissed by purists as vulgar and
unrepresentative of modern archaeology, it would be a strange
youngster indeed who was not first turned on to the subject by its
exciting or spectacular aspects.
If you were to ask members of the educated public, in any country in the
world today, to name a living archaeologist, it is a safe bet that hardly
any of them would come up with a single example other than the
fictional Indiana Jones. Such is the power of Hollywood, and such is the
anonymity of present-day archaeology. The great characters of the past
are all gone – we shall probably not see their like again – but an army of
mildly eccentric and dedicated professionals and amateurs are hard at
work around the globe, trying to make sense of the past. You too could
join their ranks, and this book may help you decide whether you’re cut
out for the job. If you want to became a professional, there are three
basic routes: do a university course in archaeology, do a course in
museum studies, or find employment in a regional unit or (in America)
in Cultural Resource Management to gain practical experience. You may
never become a great archaeologist, but if you can’t do something well,
just learn to enjoy doing it badly.
Oh, and don’t expect to get rich.