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Lives in Ruins: Archaeologists and the Seductive Lure of Human Rubble
The author of The Dead Beat and This Book is Overdue! turns her piercing eye and charming wit to the real-life avatars of Indiana Jones—the archaeologists who sort through the muck and mire of swamps, ancient landfills, volcanic islands, and other dirty places to reclaim history for us all.
Pompeii, Machu Picchu, the Valley of the Kings, the Parthenon—the names of these legendary archaeological sites conjure up romance and mystery. The news is full of archaeology: treasures found (British king under parking lot) and treasures lost (looters, bulldozers, natural disaster, and war). Archaeological research tantalizes us with possibilities (are modern humans really part Neandertal?). Where are the archaeologists behind these stories? What kind of work do they actually do, and why does it matter?
Marilyn Johnson’s Lives in Ruins is an absorbing and entertaining look at the lives of contemporary archaeologists as they sweat under the sun for clues to the puzzle of our past. Johnson digs and drinks alongside archaeologists, chases them through the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, and even Machu Picchu, and excavates their lives. Her subjects share stories we rarely read in history books, about slaves and Ice Age hunters, ordinary soldiers of the American Revolution, children of the first century, Chinese woman warriors, sunken fleets, mummies.
What drives these archaeologists is not the money (meager) or the jobs (scarce) or the working conditions (dangerous), but their passion for the stories that would otherwise be buried and lost.
283 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2014
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3555 people want to read
About the author
Marilyn Johnson
27 books108 followersAuthor of three non-fiction books about those who work to capture, preserve, provide access to, and excavate our cultural memories.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 360 reviews
November 18, 2014
Between the ages of about eight and 15, I was adamant that I wanted to be either an archaeologist or a paleontologist when I grew up. I can date the latter ambition to the first Jurassic Park movie, which I saw in the theater when I was in third grade; the former is a bit more challenging to trace, but may have something to do with the hours my first best friend and I spent “excavating” behind the shed in her backyard. With our hand trowels we unearthed ceramic fragments and seemingly endless oyster shells. I doubt any of it was worth anything, or proof of any kind of interesting history on this plot of land. It was most likely just a 1950s suburban trash dump. Still, I felt like Indiana Jones discovering buried treasure.
When I was 15, I finally had the chance to do some real archaeology, through a University of Maryland summer field school. Five of us eager high school students won places through an essay contest to participate in the college kids’ dig behind a Colonial-era home in Annapolis. A classmate and I carpooled every day for those two weeks, our moms taking turns driving us in to the historic town center, where we split our time between field work and lab work.
I wish I could say the field school was inspiring, but if anything it convinced me that I wasn’t cut out for archaeology. It was a dripping hot Maryland August, and our work was painstaking and filthy. Outsiders probably don’t realize that you work literally centimeter by centimeter, and spend proportionally more time taking notes and making sketches than you do digging. Finds are few and far between, and usually not very exciting; the highlights of the whole time were an animal tooth and a few shards of blue pottery. It was hard to gauge our contribution to the overall goal of finding traces of the home’s formal garden. I finished the two weeks feeling glad of the experience, but disillusioned with my erstwhile life goal.
All the same, I’ve never quite shaken off my interest in archaeology — despite an introductory college course that bored me to tears (and lowered my grade point average). It turns out I wasn’t actually that compelled by soil layers and evidence of early farming and animal domestication. I couldn’t see the rare delight of discovery past all the mundane, laborious realities of an archaeologist’s day job; I studied English and Religion instead, and became a freelance writer and book reviewer via multiple bookstore and library jobs.
Approaching journalist Marilyn Johnson’s third book, then, I hoped for an off-beat journey through the world of contemporary archaeology: a nostalgic but not overly rosy view of a difficult profession. I certainly was not disappointed. Johnson captures perfectly both the cinematic allure and the everyday drudgery of archaeologists’ work: “From a distance, this kind of work might seem to fit the Indiana Jones fantasy, full of treasure and danger. Up close, the glamour can be hard to detect. Archaeologists are explorers and adventurers — Hollywood got that part right — but not exactly in the way you’d think.”
From a position of almost total ignorance, Johnson went about educating herself through a whirlwind tour of as many different aspects of archaeology as possible. She attended two field schools, one on the Caribbean island of St. Eustatius, where she looked for remnants of Dutch plantations, and one at Yeronisos, off Cyprus, where Joan Connelly runs an ongoing dig searching for proof of a Greek priestess cult. The variety just in these two field experiences points to the difficulty of making generalizations about the career as a whole:
Yet Johnson was determined to get the whole picture. She learned about bog bodies, Native American methods of harvesting bone grease, forensic archaeology, and jade “pig dragon” sculptures from the Goddess Temple in northeastern China. At conferences she chatted with experts on ancient alcoholic beverages (Uncorking the Past by Patrick E. McGovern), debated the historical authenticity of Jean Auel’s Earth’s Children series (starting with The Clan of the Cave Bear), and toured Machu Picchu with UNESCO delegates in Peru. A female archaeologist also gave her a sneak peek into the Explorers Club in Manhattan — where women were only admitted in 1981!
Underwater archaeology is where it’s at nowadays, apparently, and in one of the key chapters of the book Kathy Abbass introduces Johnson to marine archaeology taking place in Newport, Rhode Island, a hotspot for Revolutionary War shipwrecks. Fishkill, New York also proved to be a surprisingly good Revolutionary-era site, with a soldiers’ graveyard that has more than once been under threat from developers.
The book is not all about centuries-old history, though. It’s just as much about what we value today, and what we will commit to saving. One of the most intriguing sections of the book is about modern war zones. A group of archaeologists had the brilliant idea of issuing American soldiers with playing cards featuring Iraqi and Afghan archaeological treasures. By collecting them all, and putting them together to form a bigger photo, they might absorb the message that they are in a land of ancient traditions with riches worth preserving. “These sites have survived thousands of years; will they survive you?” went the provocative slogan.
“Good archaeology fills in the blanks of history. It tells the losers’ story. It teases out the history that falls between cracks,” Connelly told Johnson. Sometimes, sadly, it seems archaeologists are the losers at risk of falling between the cracks. This year Forbes magazine named archaeology the #1 worst college major, “based on high initial unemployment rates and low initial earnings.” The husband-and-wife team with whom Johnson worked in the Caribbean struggled to find jobs when they moved to England. It took two years for Grant Gilmore to get a six-month contract, and two and a half years in total for him to get his dream job — a dispiriting 300 job applications later. Johnson sums it up with this sobering sentence: “Jo and Grant were in thrall to a profession that couldn’t sustain them.” Indeed, none of the archaeology graduates I know personally are working in their field.
But if Johnson paints an overall somewhat depressing picture of archaeology today — it’s a difficult field to break into or make a living from, and governments and ordinary people are not always supportive of digs that stand in the way of development — she makes a case for how relevant and essential the work still is. As she asked herself of one enthusiastic archaeologist she met while exploring Deadwood, South Dakota,
Now that’s a noble aim.
I highly recommend this book, for armchair travelers and professionals alike.
(This review originally appeared at Bookkaholic.)
When I was 15, I finally had the chance to do some real archaeology, through a University of Maryland summer field school. Five of us eager high school students won places through an essay contest to participate in the college kids’ dig behind a Colonial-era home in Annapolis. A classmate and I carpooled every day for those two weeks, our moms taking turns driving us in to the historic town center, where we split our time between field work and lab work.
I wish I could say the field school was inspiring, but if anything it convinced me that I wasn’t cut out for archaeology. It was a dripping hot Maryland August, and our work was painstaking and filthy. Outsiders probably don’t realize that you work literally centimeter by centimeter, and spend proportionally more time taking notes and making sketches than you do digging. Finds are few and far between, and usually not very exciting; the highlights of the whole time were an animal tooth and a few shards of blue pottery. It was hard to gauge our contribution to the overall goal of finding traces of the home’s formal garden. I finished the two weeks feeling glad of the experience, but disillusioned with my erstwhile life goal.
All the same, I’ve never quite shaken off my interest in archaeology — despite an introductory college course that bored me to tears (and lowered my grade point average). It turns out I wasn’t actually that compelled by soil layers and evidence of early farming and animal domestication. I couldn’t see the rare delight of discovery past all the mundane, laborious realities of an archaeologist’s day job; I studied English and Religion instead, and became a freelance writer and book reviewer via multiple bookstore and library jobs.
Approaching journalist Marilyn Johnson’s third book, then, I hoped for an off-beat journey through the world of contemporary archaeology: a nostalgic but not overly rosy view of a difficult profession. I certainly was not disappointed. Johnson captures perfectly both the cinematic allure and the everyday drudgery of archaeologists’ work: “From a distance, this kind of work might seem to fit the Indiana Jones fantasy, full of treasure and danger. Up close, the glamour can be hard to detect. Archaeologists are explorers and adventurers — Hollywood got that part right — but not exactly in the way you’d think.”
From a position of almost total ignorance, Johnson went about educating herself through a whirlwind tour of as many different aspects of archaeology as possible. She attended two field schools, one on the Caribbean island of St. Eustatius, where she looked for remnants of Dutch plantations, and one at Yeronisos, off Cyprus, where Joan Connelly runs an ongoing dig searching for proof of a Greek priestess cult. The variety just in these two field experiences points to the difficulty of making generalizations about the career as a whole:
Archaeology itself is not easy to navigate; it is a broad and complicated profession, and the archaeologists of the Old World (who study Iraq and the ancient civilizations of the East and Middle East, including classical Rome and Greece) tend to go to different conferences and read different journals than the archaeologists who work in the New World of the Americas.
Yet Johnson was determined to get the whole picture. She learned about bog bodies, Native American methods of harvesting bone grease, forensic archaeology, and jade “pig dragon” sculptures from the Goddess Temple in northeastern China. At conferences she chatted with experts on ancient alcoholic beverages (Uncorking the Past by Patrick E. McGovern), debated the historical authenticity of Jean Auel’s Earth’s Children series (starting with The Clan of the Cave Bear), and toured Machu Picchu with UNESCO delegates in Peru. A female archaeologist also gave her a sneak peek into the Explorers Club in Manhattan — where women were only admitted in 1981!
Underwater archaeology is where it’s at nowadays, apparently, and in one of the key chapters of the book Kathy Abbass introduces Johnson to marine archaeology taking place in Newport, Rhode Island, a hotspot for Revolutionary War shipwrecks. Fishkill, New York also proved to be a surprisingly good Revolutionary-era site, with a soldiers’ graveyard that has more than once been under threat from developers.
The book is not all about centuries-old history, though. It’s just as much about what we value today, and what we will commit to saving. One of the most intriguing sections of the book is about modern war zones. A group of archaeologists had the brilliant idea of issuing American soldiers with playing cards featuring Iraqi and Afghan archaeological treasures. By collecting them all, and putting them together to form a bigger photo, they might absorb the message that they are in a land of ancient traditions with riches worth preserving. “These sites have survived thousands of years; will they survive you?” went the provocative slogan.
“Good archaeology fills in the blanks of history. It tells the losers’ story. It teases out the history that falls between cracks,” Connelly told Johnson. Sometimes, sadly, it seems archaeologists are the losers at risk of falling between the cracks. This year Forbes magazine named archaeology the #1 worst college major, “based on high initial unemployment rates and low initial earnings.” The husband-and-wife team with whom Johnson worked in the Caribbean struggled to find jobs when they moved to England. It took two years for Grant Gilmore to get a six-month contract, and two and a half years in total for him to get his dream job — a dispiriting 300 job applications later. Johnson sums it up with this sobering sentence: “Jo and Grant were in thrall to a profession that couldn’t sustain them.” Indeed, none of the archaeology graduates I know personally are working in their field.
But if Johnson paints an overall somewhat depressing picture of archaeology today — it’s a difficult field to break into or make a living from, and governments and ordinary people are not always supportive of digs that stand in the way of development — she makes a case for how relevant and essential the work still is. As she asked herself of one enthusiastic archaeologist she met while exploring Deadwood, South Dakota,
What was archaeology to him? It was the opposite of killing things. It was trying to will life back into stuff that had been forgotten and buried for thousands or millions of years. It was not about shards and pieces of bone or treasure; it was about kneeling down in the elements, paying very close attention, and trying to locate a spark of the human life that had once touched that spot there.
Now that’s a noble aim.
I highly recommend this book, for armchair travelers and professionals alike.
(This review originally appeared at Bookkaholic.)
December 20, 2014
Marilyn Johnson has achieved the unthinkable. Given the opportunity to meet cutting-edge and trend-setting archeologists, observe and take part in their work, and journey to some of the most promising digs and stimulating gatherings in the field, she has produced a shallow, vapid, and downright annoying book. She spends next to no time on the archeologists' scientific methods or the ongoing debates which their work promises to change or enrich. Just when a chapter starts to get interesting, Johnson either switches to another subject completely or descends into pointless and tedious autobiography.
She lingers on personal descriptions of her interviewees with something like awe. Can you believe a graduate student or professor might have a tattoo or piercing, or wear t-shirts instead of tweed? What a wacky world this is! Ridiculous. These individuals are uncovering our collective past, teaching us about our common humanity, and Johnson obsesses over their haircuts. And she seems to think that their plight - underfunded research, fierce competition for positions - is an archeology-specific one, when in fact it's common to all of the academy.
I don't know if she paints herself as clueless for possible comedic relief, but I wasn't laughing. I felt insulted by her continual amazement that people might actually follow their intellectual calling, choose to make personal sacrifices in one area of their lives to follow professional pursuits that yield lasting rewards in another, or - gasp of surprise - find the past to be as real and important as the present. Had Johnson never met a single scholar? Historian? Educator? Like, ever?
Or, for that matter, anyone who loves what he/she does?
This subject and these individuals deserve far better. I'll know to avoid Johnson's books in the future.
She lingers on personal descriptions of her interviewees with something like awe. Can you believe a graduate student or professor might have a tattoo or piercing, or wear t-shirts instead of tweed? What a wacky world this is! Ridiculous. These individuals are uncovering our collective past, teaching us about our common humanity, and Johnson obsesses over their haircuts. And she seems to think that their plight - underfunded research, fierce competition for positions - is an archeology-specific one, when in fact it's common to all of the academy.
I don't know if she paints herself as clueless for possible comedic relief, but I wasn't laughing. I felt insulted by her continual amazement that people might actually follow their intellectual calling, choose to make personal sacrifices in one area of their lives to follow professional pursuits that yield lasting rewards in another, or - gasp of surprise - find the past to be as real and important as the present. Had Johnson never met a single scholar? Historian? Educator? Like, ever?
Or, for that matter, anyone who loves what he/she does?
This subject and these individuals deserve far better. I'll know to avoid Johnson's books in the future.
December 9, 2016
It was nice to read a book about archaeology after a long time , but while it was nice to go down memory lane , this was not a book about actual archaeology but the experiences the author has after interviewing a couple of archaeologists, while is good that an author is generating interest in the field of archaeology, I feel like this book perpetuated the myth of the adventurer archaeologist and and the same time can be depressing in its economic escape regarding the archaeologists interviewed. It gives a couple of real insights into the career but then gets lost in it's own hype . 3 stars just because I loved hearing archaeological jargon again.
November 21, 2014
If you know absolutely nothing—and I do mean absolutely nothing—about archaeology, this book might be for you. This is especially true if you are more interested in learning about Marilyn Johnson than you are in learning about archaeology. And, if you enjoy reading the phrase "Indiana Jones" over and over and over again, you will love this book.
If, however, you are looking for a lively, engaging narrative of contemporary archaeology, you might want to consider Ian Hodder's The Leopard's Tale.
If, however, you are looking for a lively, engaging narrative of contemporary archaeology, you might want to consider Ian Hodder's The Leopard's Tale.
November 3, 2014
This work of nonfiction is terrific for someone like I am, someone who thinks archaeology sounds interesting from afar, wants to play in the dirt, but doesn't want the actual hard work and the detailed tedium that are involved. Better to just sit back and read this book than do any real work.
The author interviews, works with, and writes about several different archaeologists, and isn't afraid to get her hands dirty. This book could have been incredibly boring, but it was not. She kept it lively throughout, and with a certain amount of humor. The book starts with:
“No dinosaurs appear in these pages. If you are looking for scientists who study dinosaurs, you want to pick up a book about paleontologists.”
It's obvious from that tongue-in-cheek beginning that this book is written for the curious, the layperson. But don't be fooled. Unless you are already schooled in archaeology, there is much to be learned here.
It covers scientists who specialize in all different periods of history and prehistory, their personalities, their quirks. And especially the difficulty of making a living as an archaeologist, the battles to protect sites from development, the red tape, and the passionate dedication of the people who overcome the negatives. All written quite engagingly.
“And this is what happens when you strike up a conversation with an archaeologist. Soon you are talking about bone grease...or pointy-headed babies...or pig dragons.”
How can you not want to read about that?
I was given an uncorrected proof of this book for review.
The author interviews, works with, and writes about several different archaeologists, and isn't afraid to get her hands dirty. This book could have been incredibly boring, but it was not. She kept it lively throughout, and with a certain amount of humor. The book starts with:
“No dinosaurs appear in these pages. If you are looking for scientists who study dinosaurs, you want to pick up a book about paleontologists.”
It's obvious from that tongue-in-cheek beginning that this book is written for the curious, the layperson. But don't be fooled. Unless you are already schooled in archaeology, there is much to be learned here.
It covers scientists who specialize in all different periods of history and prehistory, their personalities, their quirks. And especially the difficulty of making a living as an archaeologist, the battles to protect sites from development, the red tape, and the passionate dedication of the people who overcome the negatives. All written quite engagingly.
“And this is what happens when you strike up a conversation with an archaeologist. Soon you are talking about bone grease...or pointy-headed babies...or pig dragons.”
How can you not want to read about that?
I was given an uncorrected proof of this book for review.
December 10, 2014
This is a book about the lives of archeologists. The summary seemed quite promising and the reviews looked positive. But the actual book was sorely disappointing. It's more like a talk show than a collection of essays. It jumps from person to person, without in-depth discussions of anything - be it places, problems, or people. About halfway into the book, I decided it was not worth my time. I could not recall learning anything of value about the scientific methods employed by the archeologists, compelling archeological mysteries, or specific technological innovations that lay at the heart of some of the success stories. Despite the claim that the book tells you about the work archeologists do, it doesn't focus on the science they do or the problems they have dedicated their lives to solve. The author is more interested in the day to day lives of these people. She has clearly tried to write a book focused on feeling not on learning. It is a book aimed at getting readers to empathize with the hard-work, low-reward careers of most archeologists, not on elucidating their major scientific contributions.
November 17, 2014
Being an archaeologist for the past 25 years, I know why I got into the business. This book interested me because it discussed how others got into archaeology, while discussing how archaeologists do what they do and why its important. Good book for anybody who ever wanted to be an archaeologist as a kid.
January 17, 2022
Trigger warnings: colonialism, death, war, animal death, 9/11.
I've been interested in this book for a couple of years now, and I feel like listening to the audiobook was the right choice because it genuinely was like being told a story or listening to a long form podcast. Essentially, the author is intrigued by archaeology and sets out to find out more by volunteering on excavations and meeting with various professionals to talk about their experiences.
And as someone with an archaeology degree who gave up on her dreams of a career because the money was garbage and the opportunities were slim, this was a pretty great overview of archaeological life. I will say that it's very American-focused, partly because the author is American and partly because she mostly talked to and worked with American archaeologists, even when their area of study is elsewhere in the world.
It's also very much focused on historical archaeology, which isn't something I minded at all because my focus was always historical archaeology. And Johnson makes note at one point of the dichotomy between historical archaeology and prehistoric archaeology, saying something about how buildings always trump dirt. I mean, that was certainly true for me, but I wonder how different this book would have been if she'd talked to archaeologists from elsewhere in the world - especially Europe and Asia, where prehistoric archaeology can absolutely still include buildings.
Essentially, it was a very new world interpretation of archaeology and while I personally found in interesting - and appreciated her including salvage, forensic and maritime archaeology as disciplines - I really would have liked there to have been a broader discussion of archaeology overall. But, like, for a layperson, it's probably absolutely fine.
I've been interested in this book for a couple of years now, and I feel like listening to the audiobook was the right choice because it genuinely was like being told a story or listening to a long form podcast. Essentially, the author is intrigued by archaeology and sets out to find out more by volunteering on excavations and meeting with various professionals to talk about their experiences.
And as someone with an archaeology degree who gave up on her dreams of a career because the money was garbage and the opportunities were slim, this was a pretty great overview of archaeological life. I will say that it's very American-focused, partly because the author is American and partly because she mostly talked to and worked with American archaeologists, even when their area of study is elsewhere in the world.
It's also very much focused on historical archaeology, which isn't something I minded at all because my focus was always historical archaeology. And Johnson makes note at one point of the dichotomy between historical archaeology and prehistoric archaeology, saying something about how buildings always trump dirt. I mean, that was certainly true for me, but I wonder how different this book would have been if she'd talked to archaeologists from elsewhere in the world - especially Europe and Asia, where prehistoric archaeology can absolutely still include buildings.
Essentially, it was a very new world interpretation of archaeology and while I personally found in interesting - and appreciated her including salvage, forensic and maritime archaeology as disciplines - I really would have liked there to have been a broader discussion of archaeology overall. But, like, for a layperson, it's probably absolutely fine.
January 15, 2018
This was really interesting. Johnson was occasionally repetitive (I get that archaeologists aren't paid much, you can stop saying that) but overall I thought this was an insightful look into a fascinating profession. The book does a good job of covering many different kinds of archaeology, though it was fairly US-centered.
At first I didn't like the audiobook reader's voice, but it grew on me. As a plus, I now know the correct pronunciation of "neanderthal."
At first I didn't like the audiobook reader's voice, but it grew on me. As a plus, I now know the correct pronunciation of "neanderthal."
May 28, 2024
Indiana Jones may be the modern-day patron saint of archaeologists (Harrison Ford is even on the board of directors of the Archaeological Institute of America) but there are no such swashbuckling adventures in these pages. The heroes of Marilyn Johnson's book are thoroughly unacknowledged, unrewarded toilers in dirt and dust, frequently both frustrated and frustrating. And yet I found this book riveting, and I hardly put it down.
Being an archaeologist is about as far from a glamorous career as it is possible to get - it barely pays a minimum wage, there is almost no job security, and there is as much heartbreak as success. Most archaeologists face a never-ending battle to protect and preserve the sites they excavate, assuming they are even successful in getting funding to break ground in the first place, and wage a constant war against developments that threaten to eradicate important historic sites. It's back-breaking, thankless work, and many toil their entire careers without a 'big discovery' to crow about. And yet the men and women all featured in this book share a common theme - passion for their work, for the history they uncover, and the lives that they catch fleeting glimpses of along the way.
Johnson explores the reality of life as an archaeologist, whether it's as dig supervisor, university lecturer, museum curator, author and public speaker, liaison with the armed forces, forensic anthropologist or even enthusiastic amateur. She visits historic centres and digs in the Caribbean, Peru, Cyprus, America, taking part in their excavations and learning what it's really like to be an archaeologist and all the curious places they tend to crop up. It all makes for a thoroughly enjoyable, entertaining and enlightening read. This book is very much a love letter to the profession, and I'm sure anyone with even the slightest interest in history or archaeologist will enjoy it as much as I did - and might learn a few things too! I know what channel flakes are now, for a start!
Having read this I'm quite keen to turn my eye to Marilyn Johnson's other books - particularly, 'This Book Is Overdue', her take on a profession very dear to my own heart, librarians!
Being an archaeologist is about as far from a glamorous career as it is possible to get - it barely pays a minimum wage, there is almost no job security, and there is as much heartbreak as success. Most archaeologists face a never-ending battle to protect and preserve the sites they excavate, assuming they are even successful in getting funding to break ground in the first place, and wage a constant war against developments that threaten to eradicate important historic sites. It's back-breaking, thankless work, and many toil their entire careers without a 'big discovery' to crow about. And yet the men and women all featured in this book share a common theme - passion for their work, for the history they uncover, and the lives that they catch fleeting glimpses of along the way.
Johnson explores the reality of life as an archaeologist, whether it's as dig supervisor, university lecturer, museum curator, author and public speaker, liaison with the armed forces, forensic anthropologist or even enthusiastic amateur. She visits historic centres and digs in the Caribbean, Peru, Cyprus, America, taking part in their excavations and learning what it's really like to be an archaeologist and all the curious places they tend to crop up. It all makes for a thoroughly enjoyable, entertaining and enlightening read. This book is very much a love letter to the profession, and I'm sure anyone with even the slightest interest in history or archaeologist will enjoy it as much as I did - and might learn a few things too! I know what channel flakes are now, for a start!
Having read this I'm quite keen to turn my eye to Marilyn Johnson's other books - particularly, 'This Book Is Overdue', her take on a profession very dear to my own heart, librarians!
December 28, 2014
I’d heard good things about this book before picking it up and wasn’t disappointed. The title is perfect since there is so much about archeology that is seductive to the average person: we are intrigued by them, the treasures they find and seek; the places they visit. Indiana Jones remains our handsome ideal of the profession. (There’s actually a portion of the book that discusses how fondly modern archeologists view Jones/Harrison Ford.) When I was growing up, there was a Civil War battlefield right around the corner from our school. It wasn’t unusual to sit in class with cannons booming right over the near ridge. This afforded us valuable learning opportunities, especially in junior high. One such opportunity was when my teacher drove us down to a cemetery downtown where Smithsonian archeologists were digging up recently discovered unmarked graves of soldiers. I was starry-eyed. They let us help. We sifted through layers of dirt and found shell casings and uniform buttons. It was one of the highlights of my education thus far. I was completely fascinated. This book is similarly fascinating, but with a giant dose of realism: archeology is hard. The ratio of hard work to payoff isn’t the best, but accustomed to heartbreak, they power through and rarely stop to dwell on the fact that, for example, a construction company recently razed an important site and began to lay foundations for condos. If there’s one thing you can take away from this book, it’s that archeologists do incredibly important work and they are often thwarted or prohibited from doing it. The profession is also critically underfunded (many of the most important and senior names are chronically broke) and the resulting job shortage means it’s becoming ever more difficult to recruit a new generation of scientists. I really enjoyed this book and if you have even a passing interest in history or archeology, I’m sure you’ll love it too.
September 16, 2016
Author Marilyn Johnson set out on a big journey to document the Life of an Archaeologist. She met many people, attended a few conventions, and she traveled the world! She learned about archaeology on the fly, so if any readers are interested in the "science" of archaeology, it is not here. This is a primer, a conversational piece. It is intended to demonstrate why Archaeology "matters" by giving a sort of celebrity status to its practitioners and advocates.
Marilyn Johnson writes chapters on the following topics:
— "bog bodies"
— professors who flaunt their geekiness in front of equally geeky undergraduates,
— war zones
— cities
— sunken ships
— Caribbean islands
— and one of the most unpredictable territories . . . Upstate New York
During one fun chapter, the author goes out West, and views the gravesites of "Bill and Jane, the wild and calamitous."
Johnson notes how many archaeologists inhabit a peculiar mental space: an "intersection of yesterday and nowhere". . ."in the thrall of another time." And she adds a caution statement for amateurs: "You may think there's nothing there, but there's never nothing there."
So we should all be careful where we walk.
Marilyn Johnson writes chapters on the following topics:
— "bog bodies"
— professors who flaunt their geekiness in front of equally geeky undergraduates,
— war zones
— cities
— sunken ships
— Caribbean islands
— and one of the most unpredictable territories . . . Upstate New York
During one fun chapter, the author goes out West, and views the gravesites of "Bill and Jane, the wild and calamitous."
Johnson notes how many archaeologists inhabit a peculiar mental space: an "intersection of yesterday and nowhere". . ."in the thrall of another time." And she adds a caution statement for amateurs: "You may think there's nothing there, but there's never nothing there."
So we should all be careful where we walk.
November 23, 2014
I was so looking forward to this book. I've always had an interest in this subject and took a couple of classes in college a million years ago. Yet even with my very limited knowledge, this book did not give me anything new. Yes, the author did travel to some amazing places and take part in some phenomenal digs. There were some interesting and humorous anecdotes. It's well written and reads like fiction. It flows seamlessly. Yet the majority of the book is bemoaning the life of the archaeologist. She writes on and on about the poor pay and much of the book seems to revolve around the politics of academia...funding, grants, paperwork. There is quite a bit about the lives of the archaeologists she meets and as you can imagine, they are interesting people. The book just wasn't what I expected. I think I expected more about the artifacts and excavations.
November 28, 2015
A series of essentially long magazine articles tied together by the theme of the lives and careers of "archaeologists" (interpreted in the broadest possible sense) comprise this "golly, gee whiz" treatment of a fascinating discipline and the people whose vocation it has become. The book, while profiling some interesting projects and people, is shallow and poorly written. It is also sexist in that the women profiled have their body types, clothing choices (especially shoes), and makeup techniques analyzed in as much detail as their field methods. It amazes me that a writer could spend as much time researching her subject as Johnson obviously did and yet produce such a jejune and superficial book. Having known and worked with many archaeologists over the years, I can guarantee that their intellectual lives and innovative field techniques are far more interesting than how they can get dressed up for a social event or what they have to drink while chatting with the author. She does include a bibliography of sorts for those of her readers who might actually want to learn something meaningful about the subject. The book's most valuable contribution is the emphasis on how poorly funded is the work of archaeologists and how bleak the employment prospects are for new graduates of anthropology and archaeology (at least in their chosen fields of study). The low point of the book is the multi-page summary of the plots of Jean Auel's "Earth's Children" series (i.e., The Clan of the Cave Bear, etc.). Suitable for reading on long train trips at night when the dining car is closed and fellow passengers share no common languages.
September 15, 2014
Marilyn Johnson interviewed, and worked with, a variety of archaeologists in order to create an entertaining look at the field. Whether it was a cultural resource management firm, a group of specialists from a conference, or a DoD civilian archaeologist working to teach cultural sensitivity to soldiers deploying around the world, each had an interesting tale to tell.
In other words, Johnson takes us into the real world of archaeology, far from the flash and excitement of Indiana Jones. The hours are long, the pay is low, and the jobs are few. Yet, these dedicated scientists continue to do the work because they feel that it has chosen them somehow.
While entertaining, this book still shows the rough and unglamorous reality of an important field. Well worth reading.
In other words, Johnson takes us into the real world of archaeology, far from the flash and excitement of Indiana Jones. The hours are long, the pay is low, and the jobs are few. Yet, these dedicated scientists continue to do the work because they feel that it has chosen them somehow.
While entertaining, this book still shows the rough and unglamorous reality of an important field. Well worth reading.
September 28, 2014
Many a librarian knows Marilyn from her book on our profession, THIS BOOK IS OVERDUE. As in that title, Marilyn takes us into many different aspects of a profession, this time archaeology, with the same skill, curiosity, and respect. Her skill at sharing her adventures and the adventures of her subjects is fantastic: engaging, readable, and leaving the reader hunting for more information. This is not meant to be an overview of anything and everything to do with the field of archaeology, but rather a look at some of the people and work that make this profession a labor of love and the object of fascination.
October 10, 2014
“Johnson takes a fascinating look at the field of archeology, profiling a number of archaeologists at work. She visits sites as diverse as an army base, Rhode Island, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean and Peru, but the best part of this book is learning about the archaeologists and their passions. A fun, interesting read that may cause an uptick in field school applications.”
Jenna Persick, Chester County Library, Exton, PA
Jenna Persick, Chester County Library, Exton, PA
September 5, 2018
Rather interesting look at archaelogy and the people who practice that academic discipline.
Only problem for me was too much of the book looked at areas that I have no interest in, so I couldn't get enthused about.
Only problem for me was too much of the book looked at areas that I have no interest in, so I couldn't get enthused about.
Read
November 16, 2014For better or for worse, the study of archaeology will forever evoke images of a sweaty Harrison Ford in his iconic leather jacket and fedora battling Nazis, snakes, and other bad guys for all sorts of unusual and often valuable historical artifacts. However, what Indiana Jones does in the field is practically a cakewalk compared to the daily battles modern archaeologists must fight. Lives in Ruins brings the focus away from the idea of swashbuckling archaeology and presents the field of study as it truly is.
As Ms. Johnson discovers during her research and as she humorously presents to readers, true archaeology is backbreaking work. Often, it means working in subpar conditions, fighting against time, weather, curiosity, greed, politics, and a severe lack of funding. Indeed, this lack of money is the common theme throughout the book. In fact, almost all of her research subjects do not earn a living wage. There are almost no permanent jobs, and funding for expeditions and for storage of the finds is quickly running dry. The story Ms. Johnson tells over and over is that no one will ever make money working in the field of archaeology.
While this may seem like a rather depressing thread about which to read, what Ms. Johnson does so well is capture the dedication and passion these scientists have for their chosen profession. Each scientist she interviews exhibits a fierce pride in their area of expertise and a complete unwillingness to walk away to move to a more lucrative field. They thrive under the stress and strain of such work and do so with smiles on their faces. Theirs is truly a labor of love.
They may work under the most dire of situations, but all of Ms. Johnson’s subjects maintain an amazing sense of humor about those self-same situations. Each one recognizes the endless work and time limits nature places on artifacts. They understand that luck is as much a part of a career-making find as it is perseverance and skill. They use humor to repeatedly pick themselves up after each disappointment. This is something about which Ms. Johnson is quick to capitalize. She injects her own sense of fun and humor into her reporting, layering it on to the individual quirks of her subjects to create a book that is much more hopeful than one might think given the immense odds that come with archaeology.
Lives in Ruins dispels the myth created by Steven Spielberg all those years ago, but one finishes the book with the understanding that the archaeologists of today are the true heroes of this tale. For, they work because they love it. They love it so much in fact that they are willing to put up with the scarcity of resources and political battles and flirt dangerously close to the poverty line for most of their lives in order to fulfill their dreams. It is as powerful an example as one will ever get of working for love and not for money.
As Ms. Johnson discovers during her research and as she humorously presents to readers, true archaeology is backbreaking work. Often, it means working in subpar conditions, fighting against time, weather, curiosity, greed, politics, and a severe lack of funding. Indeed, this lack of money is the common theme throughout the book. In fact, almost all of her research subjects do not earn a living wage. There are almost no permanent jobs, and funding for expeditions and for storage of the finds is quickly running dry. The story Ms. Johnson tells over and over is that no one will ever make money working in the field of archaeology.
While this may seem like a rather depressing thread about which to read, what Ms. Johnson does so well is capture the dedication and passion these scientists have for their chosen profession. Each scientist she interviews exhibits a fierce pride in their area of expertise and a complete unwillingness to walk away to move to a more lucrative field. They thrive under the stress and strain of such work and do so with smiles on their faces. Theirs is truly a labor of love.
They may work under the most dire of situations, but all of Ms. Johnson’s subjects maintain an amazing sense of humor about those self-same situations. Each one recognizes the endless work and time limits nature places on artifacts. They understand that luck is as much a part of a career-making find as it is perseverance and skill. They use humor to repeatedly pick themselves up after each disappointment. This is something about which Ms. Johnson is quick to capitalize. She injects her own sense of fun and humor into her reporting, layering it on to the individual quirks of her subjects to create a book that is much more hopeful than one might think given the immense odds that come with archaeology.
Lives in Ruins dispels the myth created by Steven Spielberg all those years ago, but one finishes the book with the understanding that the archaeologists of today are the true heroes of this tale. For, they work because they love it. They love it so much in fact that they are willing to put up with the scarcity of resources and political battles and flirt dangerously close to the poverty line for most of their lives in order to fulfill their dreams. It is as powerful an example as one will ever get of working for love and not for money.
July 30, 2015
This book was alright. I think I might have enjoyed it more if archaeology was still just a passing interest of mine, and not something I have a full degree in. Most of the things that Johnson covers as far as archaeology goes are pretty basic, straightforward things that are covered in undergraduate archaeology courses. And even then, she covers them in the quickest way possible, I felt like there was very little depth to anything she was really saying. It jumped from topic to topic quickly, and focused heavily on Johnson's own experiences/interactions with the archaeologists and less on the actual work being done. I did appreciate her continued emphasis on the state of the job market in archaeology, as well as the abysmal pay that most archaeologists receive. I thought it made the balance a little more even, after her continued romanticization of archaeologists and the work they do, but the fact that the field of archaeology is underfunded should come as a surprise to no one. The bibliography was also incredibly solid, I actually ended up adding a few of the books to my own to-read shelf. She clearly did her research, and talked with a lot of different types of archaeologists, and I think she was genuinely interested in what was going on in the field. Despite that, her observations remained just that, observations. Despite her apparent efforts to submerge herself into the field of archaeology, I never got the impression that she was anything more than just someone tagging along to talk to the archaeologists. So in the end, this was a book with a good premise, and a disappointing execution. It's probably good if you have no real background in archaeology, but for those more involved in the field it's not really worth it.
April 15, 2016
20150913 ◊ This book was a huge disappointment. I mean come on: how could you mess up a journalistic investigation into the lives of some of the most creative, passionate, adventurous, and arguably lunatic professionals out there? Oh, I'll tell you how.
By informing the reader that you will not be burdening them with any of that nasty science-y stuff.
By talking more about yourself than your subjects.
By focusing more on footwear than fieldwork.
This book reads like an over-long expose on archaeologists written for Cosmopolitan.
To be fair, I had just finished Svante Pääbo's magnificent book on the history and study of ancient DNA, and his groundbreaking work decoding the Neandertal genome. It's full of science, drama, illumination, and heart. I appreciated that a world-renowned scientist took the time to carefully explain scientific processes to the general public; even though I will never fully understand everything he discussed, I came away from the book knowing more than I did before. Lives in Ruins, by contrast, assumes that the reader is ignorant, and would like to stay that way. This is both a shame and an opportunity wasted.
Two stars instead of one because the author did put a lot of work into researching her subjects. There's a good balance of topics throughout the book: she went on fieldwork excursions, talked with archivists as well as those who work in CRM, discussed the difficulty of making a living as an archaeologist, let alone snagging one of the few coveted professorships available in academia these days. I'd give her an E for Effort, just not Execution.
By informing the reader that you will not be burdening them with any of that nasty science-y stuff.
By talking more about yourself than your subjects.
By focusing more on footwear than fieldwork.
This book reads like an over-long expose on archaeologists written for Cosmopolitan.
To be fair, I had just finished Svante Pääbo's magnificent book on the history and study of ancient DNA, and his groundbreaking work decoding the Neandertal genome. It's full of science, drama, illumination, and heart. I appreciated that a world-renowned scientist took the time to carefully explain scientific processes to the general public; even though I will never fully understand everything he discussed, I came away from the book knowing more than I did before. Lives in Ruins, by contrast, assumes that the reader is ignorant, and would like to stay that way. This is both a shame and an opportunity wasted.
Two stars instead of one because the author did put a lot of work into researching her subjects. There's a good balance of topics throughout the book: she went on fieldwork excursions, talked with archivists as well as those who work in CRM, discussed the difficulty of making a living as an archaeologist, let alone snagging one of the few coveted professorships available in academia these days. I'd give her an E for Effort, just not Execution.
May 14, 2016
What a fun and fascinating book this is, from its delightfully punny title to its meditative, yet offbeat ending. If you ever wondered how much the lives of real archaeologists might resemble that of Indiana Jones, here's your answer -- not much, but still filled with enough adventure to keep an audience amazed.
I read one of Marilyn Johnson's prior works, "The Dead Beat," a lively book about obituary writers, and loved it so much I gave copies to other people as gifts. I didn't know if this one could live up to that high standard, but it does indeed.
The one difference is that "The Dead Beat" is a breezy read, while this one rewards a reader who takes it at a slower pace. Johnson really (ahem) digs into the wide variety of ways an archaeologist can explore past lives and cultures, as well as how hard it can be to scramble around trying to make a living at their chosen profession. Johnson isn't the kind of reporter who hangs back and observes things, either. She throws herself into archaeological work too, giving the reader a good surrogate to tell us just what it's really like down in the trenches.
She jumps from one profile subject to another, in a way that at can at first seem random, but by the end you see the pattern, as if you were in a plane flying over the desert and seeing the vast designs left by some long-ago civilization. Anyone who is at all interested in this subject needs to read this book, and savor it.
I read one of Marilyn Johnson's prior works, "The Dead Beat," a lively book about obituary writers, and loved it so much I gave copies to other people as gifts. I didn't know if this one could live up to that high standard, but it does indeed.
The one difference is that "The Dead Beat" is a breezy read, while this one rewards a reader who takes it at a slower pace. Johnson really (ahem) digs into the wide variety of ways an archaeologist can explore past lives and cultures, as well as how hard it can be to scramble around trying to make a living at their chosen profession. Johnson isn't the kind of reporter who hangs back and observes things, either. She throws herself into archaeological work too, giving the reader a good surrogate to tell us just what it's really like down in the trenches.
She jumps from one profile subject to another, in a way that at can at first seem random, but by the end you see the pattern, as if you were in a plane flying over the desert and seeing the vast designs left by some long-ago civilization. Anyone who is at all interested in this subject needs to read this book, and savor it.
September 25, 2015
Very enjoyable and informative book about the struggles and delights of an incredible variety of archeologists! I have to admit, my favorite is the one who is researching and remaking ancient alcoholic beverages. I already bought some "Midas Touch". Seriously, this is an excellent book. I had no idea the many uses to which archeological exploration can be put.
December 14, 2014
Fantastic book if you are at all interested in archaeology. The author visits a number of digs and meets with all kinds of characters. Great sense of humour as well as some fascinating tidbits of info and snippets of beautiful language. I wanted more!
Read
April 13, 2019DNF. I was expecting something with more substance,too much nonsense about the clothing and haircuts of the archaeologists, it seems a shame that the writer had the opportunity to travel and participate in digs with such incredible people yet only thought to observe such trivial things.
December 29, 2014
This just confirmed everything I want to do in life, this book is amazing.
Read
November 24, 2014Really enjoying this book!
April 30, 2015
Excellent. Entertaining and informative.
June 12, 2015
Like many people out there, I once dreamed of becoming an archaeologist. I’m not sure what led to that wish, but I have a feeling it coalesced out of all the history and mythology books my mother was buying for me during my elementary school years. They were often lavishly illustrated affairs, featuring exquisite photographs of artefacts and the places the artefacts were found; as a child with a very active imagination, it wasn’t difficult to imagine what it would be like if I could actually hold the artefacts depicted. From there, it wasn’t a very long leap to wanting to travel around the world digging into tombs for gold and potsherds—or at least staying here in the Philippines, spelunking into ancient caves to recover mummies hundreds of years old.
But as with many childhood dreams, this particular one died once I was old enough to realise a few important things. First, archaeology is difficult to do in the Philippines. My ancestors didn’t build in durable materials like stone or clay; they built mostly in wood, which means that the odds of finding ancient stone structures like Angkor Wat or Borobodur are practically impossible. Second, if I wanted to do archaeology at more exotic locations—like, say, Greece or Egypt—I’d have to travel abroad to study in universities that actually taught the relevant courses. Third, even if I did go abroad and study the relevant courses, the odds of me being able to join an expedition were slim to none; the odds of starting my own were practically nil. Fourth, even if I did manage to join an expedition, I’d simply be putting myself in harm’s way: disease and injury were just the beginning of a whole host of dangers that awaited an archaeologist, and after two bouts of dengue and one bout of typhoid I was tired of hospitals.
Despite deciding not to pursue archaeology as a career (much to the relief of my parents, I’m sure), I remain interested in the doings of those who actually chose to go into that particular vocation. As a fan of history I’m always interested in the latest archaeological discoveries, and now that the Internet has become a widespread and nearly-ubiquitous technology, it’s become even easier to track down and follow blogs and websites that are about, and are maintained by, archaeologists or those studying to be archaeologists. They can’t talk about every single thing they do at their job, of course, but it’s enough to look over their shoulders (in a manner of speaking) and see what life could have been like for me under very different circumstances.
In her latest book Lives in Ruins: Archaeologists and the Seductive Lure of Human Rubble, Marilyn Johnson looks over the shoulders of notable archaeologists in an attempt to understand what it is they do, and why they do it. However, unlike myself, she has access to resources and to people that permit her to go to meet the actual archaeologists themselves, and to work alongside them at digs all around the world.
The first thing Johnson does is dispel a common error some people might hold in their minds, doing so with one sentence: “No dinosaurs appear in these pages.” With those six words she dispels any notion that archaeology and palaeontology are the same: both involve bones, but palaeontology tends to involve animals; archaeology tends to involve people. (They do, however, rub elbows a little bit when talking about early human ancestors.)
Johnson then goes on to dispel any notion that this book will involve treasure—well, it does, but the treasure discussed isn’t necessarily gold and jewels, as Johnson points out in this quote:
To the archaeologist, treasure is something that was buried that has been brought to light, a pebble of information around which the narrative of history now needs to bend.
While no one denies that finding gold and jewels is wonderful (not least because of the public interest—and therefore funding—it can generate), archaeologists are more interested in less glamorous things: potsherds and broken glass, crumbling walls and postholes without posts. It can be a specifically-shaped flake of flint, or it can be a single coin unearthed in just the right place, at just the right time. And with science and technology advancing every day, it’s become easier to find, study, document, and preserve archaeological discoveries both old and new.
However, it isn’t all sunshine and roses, as Johnson is quick to remind the reader:
Technological advances account for some of archaeology’s boom, but war, commercial development, violent weather, and warming temperatures—change and destruction—are doing their part to lay bare the layers of the past. The world is mutating faster than archaeologists can keep up.
Yet, as their sites multiply and their profession expands, archaeologists find themselves in the same predicament as other cultural memory workers: with too little support for the hard work of salvaging and making sense of our past.
It is the above that Johnson confronts, again and again, as she travels around the world, meeting archaeologists, talking to them, and in some instances working alongside them. It is their unbending determination to continue doing what they love the most, no matter what the odds, that connects all the archaeologists Johnson spends time with and writes about in the book. Some of the stories are happy: for instance, in the chapter titled “Extreme Beverages: Taking beer seriously”, Johnson meets and talks to Patrick McGovern, an archaeologist who did research into ancient beverages: research that led to the publication of his book Uncorking the Past: The Quest for Wine, Beer, and Other Alcoholic Beverages, and from there to his collaborations with Dogfish Head Brewery to recreate ancient alcoholic beverages for the delectation of a new, 21st century audience, This has led to McGovern’s superstar status, not only amongst his peers, but amongst laypeople too.
McGovern’s story, though, is a rare example of someone who was at the right place, the right time, looking at the right thing, and asking the right kinds of questions. Many of the other archaeologists are living, walking examples of the kind of steel and determination it takes to be an archaeologist—and, more importantly, to stay an archaeologist. My favourites are the stories of Sarah Milledge Nelson (featured in the chapter titled “Pig Dragons: How to pick up an archaeologist”), Kathy Abbass (whose story is told in the chapter “Underwater Mysteries: Slow archaeology, deep archaeology”), and Joan Connelly (the central figure of the chapters “Explorers Clubs: Classics of the ancient world and Hollywood” and “Field School Redux: The earth-whisperers”). These women are class acts in their own right, working against not just the usual rigours of archaeology but also the deeply-ingrained sexism of the field: Nelson, in particular, has written books about gender in archaeology and has repeatedly called for more archaeological research into the place of women in history. Johnson summarises Nelson’s endeavours in the field thusly:
Nelson made it clear that the hardest battles she had to fight were the ones for the respect of her male colleagues. “My archaeological writings presume that what women did in the past is recoverable and interesting,” she wrote.
… To some extent, the archaeologists find what they’re looking for, and if you never look for evidence of powerful women, even if the hills and valleys are full of queens and warriors, they’ll be invisible.
That last part sent a shiver down my spine, because most of my life I’d been told in school and by the media that women in power were “rare”, as if they were unicorns. Earlier this year I read Kara Cooney’s Hatshepsut biography, titled The Woman Who Would be King, and it was thrilling to read a book written by a woman about another woman who wielded power successfully, only to have her accomplishments either swept under the rug, dismissed as “unimportant”, or attributed to others—and these done both by the people of her own time, and by Egyptologists in the 20th and 21st centuries. Cooney’s book felt incredible to read because Hatshepsut was the rare example of a woman who wielded power, and wielded it well: an example more women could look up to.
But what if Hatshepsut isn’t as rare as I, and many others, assume her to be? What if there were other women who were as great as Hatshepsut, but whose names and stories are unknown because someone hasn’t thought to look for them? As Nelson said: if archaeologists aren’t looking for something specific, if they aren’t tuning their minds to look for specific details, then how can they expect to find anything? All the stories in the book bear this out: Nelson went looking for goddess cults in ancient China, and she found them. Abbass went looking for the Endeavour, and found it. Connelly went looking for a temple on an island in the Adriatic, and found it. On and on and on, archaeologists find things because they’re looking for them in the first place. If archaeologists could simply recalibrate the way they think, then perhaps more “pebble[s] of information around which the narrative of history now needs to bend” could be brought to light.
Now, while all the stories are wonderfully told, and are held together by the common thread of perseverance, indomitable physical health, and sheer mulishness necessary to living the life of an archaeologist, I do find a slight issue with Johnson’s overall narrative. Within the chapters themselves, the narrative is very cohesive and flows very well; Johnson certainly knows how to tell a story. However, the movement from one chapter to the next can be less than smooth: unless the two chapters are connected somehow (as in the case with the chapters dealing with Joan Connelly), the reader hits something that feels like a narrative bump in the road as Johnson goes from, say, fields school on a Caribbean island, to an archaeology conference in a major US city. It doesn’t take very long to settle into the new story, of course (Johnson’s eminently readable voice ensures that the sense of being jarred doesn’t last very long), but it’s still there, and still noticeable.
Overall, Lives in Ruins: Archaeologists and the Seductive Lure of Human Rubble is pure delight for anyone who’s ever wanted to be an archaeologist. Johnson tackles the joys and sorrows of being an archaeologist, but more importantly, she shows just how important it is. Historians write history, but archaeologists prove them right or wrong—and, more importantly, keep them honest. It’s a great deal of responsibility to place on the shoulders of a profession that’s underpaid and treated with a lot less grace than its practitioners deserve, but as Johnson’s book shows, bottomless curiosity and the drive to find answers will keep the best archaeologists going, come what may.
But as with many childhood dreams, this particular one died once I was old enough to realise a few important things. First, archaeology is difficult to do in the Philippines. My ancestors didn’t build in durable materials like stone or clay; they built mostly in wood, which means that the odds of finding ancient stone structures like Angkor Wat or Borobodur are practically impossible. Second, if I wanted to do archaeology at more exotic locations—like, say, Greece or Egypt—I’d have to travel abroad to study in universities that actually taught the relevant courses. Third, even if I did go abroad and study the relevant courses, the odds of me being able to join an expedition were slim to none; the odds of starting my own were practically nil. Fourth, even if I did manage to join an expedition, I’d simply be putting myself in harm’s way: disease and injury were just the beginning of a whole host of dangers that awaited an archaeologist, and after two bouts of dengue and one bout of typhoid I was tired of hospitals.
Despite deciding not to pursue archaeology as a career (much to the relief of my parents, I’m sure), I remain interested in the doings of those who actually chose to go into that particular vocation. As a fan of history I’m always interested in the latest archaeological discoveries, and now that the Internet has become a widespread and nearly-ubiquitous technology, it’s become even easier to track down and follow blogs and websites that are about, and are maintained by, archaeologists or those studying to be archaeologists. They can’t talk about every single thing they do at their job, of course, but it’s enough to look over their shoulders (in a manner of speaking) and see what life could have been like for me under very different circumstances.
In her latest book Lives in Ruins: Archaeologists and the Seductive Lure of Human Rubble, Marilyn Johnson looks over the shoulders of notable archaeologists in an attempt to understand what it is they do, and why they do it. However, unlike myself, she has access to resources and to people that permit her to go to meet the actual archaeologists themselves, and to work alongside them at digs all around the world.
The first thing Johnson does is dispel a common error some people might hold in their minds, doing so with one sentence: “No dinosaurs appear in these pages.” With those six words she dispels any notion that archaeology and palaeontology are the same: both involve bones, but palaeontology tends to involve animals; archaeology tends to involve people. (They do, however, rub elbows a little bit when talking about early human ancestors.)
Johnson then goes on to dispel any notion that this book will involve treasure—well, it does, but the treasure discussed isn’t necessarily gold and jewels, as Johnson points out in this quote:
To the archaeologist, treasure is something that was buried that has been brought to light, a pebble of information around which the narrative of history now needs to bend.
While no one denies that finding gold and jewels is wonderful (not least because of the public interest—and therefore funding—it can generate), archaeologists are more interested in less glamorous things: potsherds and broken glass, crumbling walls and postholes without posts. It can be a specifically-shaped flake of flint, or it can be a single coin unearthed in just the right place, at just the right time. And with science and technology advancing every day, it’s become easier to find, study, document, and preserve archaeological discoveries both old and new.
However, it isn’t all sunshine and roses, as Johnson is quick to remind the reader:
Technological advances account for some of archaeology’s boom, but war, commercial development, violent weather, and warming temperatures—change and destruction—are doing their part to lay bare the layers of the past. The world is mutating faster than archaeologists can keep up.
Yet, as their sites multiply and their profession expands, archaeologists find themselves in the same predicament as other cultural memory workers: with too little support for the hard work of salvaging and making sense of our past.
It is the above that Johnson confronts, again and again, as she travels around the world, meeting archaeologists, talking to them, and in some instances working alongside them. It is their unbending determination to continue doing what they love the most, no matter what the odds, that connects all the archaeologists Johnson spends time with and writes about in the book. Some of the stories are happy: for instance, in the chapter titled “Extreme Beverages: Taking beer seriously”, Johnson meets and talks to Patrick McGovern, an archaeologist who did research into ancient beverages: research that led to the publication of his book Uncorking the Past: The Quest for Wine, Beer, and Other Alcoholic Beverages, and from there to his collaborations with Dogfish Head Brewery to recreate ancient alcoholic beverages for the delectation of a new, 21st century audience, This has led to McGovern’s superstar status, not only amongst his peers, but amongst laypeople too.
McGovern’s story, though, is a rare example of someone who was at the right place, the right time, looking at the right thing, and asking the right kinds of questions. Many of the other archaeologists are living, walking examples of the kind of steel and determination it takes to be an archaeologist—and, more importantly, to stay an archaeologist. My favourites are the stories of Sarah Milledge Nelson (featured in the chapter titled “Pig Dragons: How to pick up an archaeologist”), Kathy Abbass (whose story is told in the chapter “Underwater Mysteries: Slow archaeology, deep archaeology”), and Joan Connelly (the central figure of the chapters “Explorers Clubs: Classics of the ancient world and Hollywood” and “Field School Redux: The earth-whisperers”). These women are class acts in their own right, working against not just the usual rigours of archaeology but also the deeply-ingrained sexism of the field: Nelson, in particular, has written books about gender in archaeology and has repeatedly called for more archaeological research into the place of women in history. Johnson summarises Nelson’s endeavours in the field thusly:
Nelson made it clear that the hardest battles she had to fight were the ones for the respect of her male colleagues. “My archaeological writings presume that what women did in the past is recoverable and interesting,” she wrote.
… To some extent, the archaeologists find what they’re looking for, and if you never look for evidence of powerful women, even if the hills and valleys are full of queens and warriors, they’ll be invisible.
That last part sent a shiver down my spine, because most of my life I’d been told in school and by the media that women in power were “rare”, as if they were unicorns. Earlier this year I read Kara Cooney’s Hatshepsut biography, titled The Woman Who Would be King, and it was thrilling to read a book written by a woman about another woman who wielded power successfully, only to have her accomplishments either swept under the rug, dismissed as “unimportant”, or attributed to others—and these done both by the people of her own time, and by Egyptologists in the 20th and 21st centuries. Cooney’s book felt incredible to read because Hatshepsut was the rare example of a woman who wielded power, and wielded it well: an example more women could look up to.
But what if Hatshepsut isn’t as rare as I, and many others, assume her to be? What if there were other women who were as great as Hatshepsut, but whose names and stories are unknown because someone hasn’t thought to look for them? As Nelson said: if archaeologists aren’t looking for something specific, if they aren’t tuning their minds to look for specific details, then how can they expect to find anything? All the stories in the book bear this out: Nelson went looking for goddess cults in ancient China, and she found them. Abbass went looking for the Endeavour, and found it. Connelly went looking for a temple on an island in the Adriatic, and found it. On and on and on, archaeologists find things because they’re looking for them in the first place. If archaeologists could simply recalibrate the way they think, then perhaps more “pebble[s] of information around which the narrative of history now needs to bend” could be brought to light.
Now, while all the stories are wonderfully told, and are held together by the common thread of perseverance, indomitable physical health, and sheer mulishness necessary to living the life of an archaeologist, I do find a slight issue with Johnson’s overall narrative. Within the chapters themselves, the narrative is very cohesive and flows very well; Johnson certainly knows how to tell a story. However, the movement from one chapter to the next can be less than smooth: unless the two chapters are connected somehow (as in the case with the chapters dealing with Joan Connelly), the reader hits something that feels like a narrative bump in the road as Johnson goes from, say, fields school on a Caribbean island, to an archaeology conference in a major US city. It doesn’t take very long to settle into the new story, of course (Johnson’s eminently readable voice ensures that the sense of being jarred doesn’t last very long), but it’s still there, and still noticeable.
Overall, Lives in Ruins: Archaeologists and the Seductive Lure of Human Rubble is pure delight for anyone who’s ever wanted to be an archaeologist. Johnson tackles the joys and sorrows of being an archaeologist, but more importantly, she shows just how important it is. Historians write history, but archaeologists prove them right or wrong—and, more importantly, keep them honest. It’s a great deal of responsibility to place on the shoulders of a profession that’s underpaid and treated with a lot less grace than its practitioners deserve, but as Johnson’s book shows, bottomless curiosity and the drive to find answers will keep the best archaeologists going, come what may.
October 27, 2022
Being fully aware that I am not utterly qualified to write a review for this book, I still write.
Marilyn Johnson accompanies experienced archaeologists on their digs to their fieldwork and becomes privy to their personal thoughts on the profession. She then writes about it with charming wit, honesty, and appreciation.
I haven't read enough books on archaeology or archaeologists (I haven't read any before this) to say that this is one of the best books. Still, I will put my neck out to recommend this book to those interested in archaeology or writing.
The way the author drew me into a world I was unaware of nor interested in took my breath away. Not to mention the passion evident in every story. I recommend this book to those who wonder why people work on seemingly impossible projects with little or no remuneration.
The book takes us through the stories of septuagenarian and octogenarian men and women who have spent their entire lives obtaining grants and permissions that would allow them to study an area they were interested in. Some archaeologists work underwater, on remote islands, and even under the city rubble. Not to mention the young graduate students who pay to toil under the sun or underneath the ground. Their passion pulls them through the hard days and nights, and it is a passion you see in the writing.
Marilyn Johnson accompanies experienced archaeologists on their digs to their fieldwork and becomes privy to their personal thoughts on the profession. She then writes about it with charming wit, honesty, and appreciation.
I haven't read enough books on archaeology or archaeologists (I haven't read any before this) to say that this is one of the best books. Still, I will put my neck out to recommend this book to those interested in archaeology or writing.
The way the author drew me into a world I was unaware of nor interested in took my breath away. Not to mention the passion evident in every story. I recommend this book to those who wonder why people work on seemingly impossible projects with little or no remuneration.
The book takes us through the stories of septuagenarian and octogenarian men and women who have spent their entire lives obtaining grants and permissions that would allow them to study an area they were interested in. Some archaeologists work underwater, on remote islands, and even under the city rubble. Not to mention the young graduate students who pay to toil under the sun or underneath the ground. Their passion pulls them through the hard days and nights, and it is a passion you see in the writing.
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