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'Archaeology: An Introduction - The History, Principles and Methods of Modern Archaeology'
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288 pages, Paperback
First published March 28, 1983
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
October 19, 2008
You really have to be something of an archaeology geek for Kevin Greene's Introduction: The History, Priciples and Methods of Modern Archaeology to be for you.
This is not a slick book for general consumption. It is a deceptively long textbook and basic introduction to many of the issues facing archaeology throughout its long life from antiquarianism to today. It is very much for the archaeology beginner, but if you contain even a touch of interest in the subject, Greene's book should deepen your interest and give you a decent grounding in history, excavation, dating, archaeological science and a taste of how theory is coming to dominate the field.
The strongest aspect of Greene's book is the way in which he reminds us that there are few "true" answers in archaeology. Archaeology is a field that offers us artefacts without complete contexts, and the contexts we are able to generate for the artefacts, no matter how accurate they may be, are always tainted by our own biases and our present. Even radiocarbon dating, one of the great strengths of modern archaeology has a margin of error that makes perfect dating impossible.
Greene crafts a solid argument that this "imperfection" in archaeology is one of its greatest attributes, giving archaeology an exciting, mutable quality that other disciplines could benefit from.
He also strips away the recent antiquarian romanticism of Indiana Jones' grave robbing adventures, and delivers beginners with the truth about archaeology as a career -- it can be tedious and boring. Archaeology, as Greene rightly explains is often totally cerebral work. It can include the counting of thousands of kernels of pollen. It can include the meticulous cleaning of bones and remains. It can include the slow uncovering of artefacts with small shovels and brushes before undergoing a slow and equally meticulous process of preservation. It can include local politics, national politics and a constant struggle for money and against money. It can include endless hours of thinking and reading and considering. And it is a field that is shrinking as the world's finite artefacts are destroyed or gathered.
But if the reader is still interested in archaeology after all this, Greene provides the most extensive "further reading" list I have seen for quite sometime. Whatever catches your fancy, Greene's got books for you to read. And read them I will.
If there is any weakness in Greene's book it is his assumption that his readers inherently understand the lingo of archaeology -- most of his readers will be beginners, after all. He fails to provide a glossary, and quite often the terminology is indecipherable from the context of a paragraph or section.
Still, this is no reason to avoid Greene. Just grab yourself a good dictionary and you should be fine.
This is not a slick book for general consumption. It is a deceptively long textbook and basic introduction to many of the issues facing archaeology throughout its long life from antiquarianism to today. It is very much for the archaeology beginner, but if you contain even a touch of interest in the subject, Greene's book should deepen your interest and give you a decent grounding in history, excavation, dating, archaeological science and a taste of how theory is coming to dominate the field.
The strongest aspect of Greene's book is the way in which he reminds us that there are few "true" answers in archaeology. Archaeology is a field that offers us artefacts without complete contexts, and the contexts we are able to generate for the artefacts, no matter how accurate they may be, are always tainted by our own biases and our present. Even radiocarbon dating, one of the great strengths of modern archaeology has a margin of error that makes perfect dating impossible.
Greene crafts a solid argument that this "imperfection" in archaeology is one of its greatest attributes, giving archaeology an exciting, mutable quality that other disciplines could benefit from.
He also strips away the recent antiquarian romanticism of Indiana Jones' grave robbing adventures, and delivers beginners with the truth about archaeology as a career -- it can be tedious and boring. Archaeology, as Greene rightly explains is often totally cerebral work. It can include the counting of thousands of kernels of pollen. It can include the meticulous cleaning of bones and remains. It can include the slow uncovering of artefacts with small shovels and brushes before undergoing a slow and equally meticulous process of preservation. It can include local politics, national politics and a constant struggle for money and against money. It can include endless hours of thinking and reading and considering. And it is a field that is shrinking as the world's finite artefacts are destroyed or gathered.
But if the reader is still interested in archaeology after all this, Greene provides the most extensive "further reading" list I have seen for quite sometime. Whatever catches your fancy, Greene's got books for you to read. And read them I will.
If there is any weakness in Greene's book it is his assumption that his readers inherently understand the lingo of archaeology -- most of his readers will be beginners, after all. He fails to provide a glossary, and quite often the terminology is indecipherable from the context of a paragraph or section.
Still, this is no reason to avoid Greene. Just grab yourself a good dictionary and you should be fine.
September 27, 2012
This book gets a bum rap. Many reviewers are disappointed that it is not a field manual that teaches you how to do archaeology. The textbook takes a historical approach to the field of archaeology and covers the evolution of methods. It is well footnoted and there are further reading recommendations to the field manuals, lab manuals, and theoretical works that would fill the education in archaeology. It is appropriate for use at the undergraduate lower division level in an introductory course. The book is written for a British audience with most examples pulled from the archaeology of Roman Britain, but does also reference continental and American contributions to the field. The final chapter does effectively deal with the current 21st Century theoretical debates in the field laying out current controversies, so that someone considering working in the field can figure out in which camp they fit (which will be of extreme importance in choosing a PhD program in the future).
March 13, 2013
A very well rounded introduction to the theory and practise of archaeology. It provides an overall view of the history of archaeology as a field and a deeper look into how to work with archaeology. The only thing I felt was a little lacking at times were the deeper insights, but that's probably because I use this book for a University course on archaeology, and compared to that class, this bok is a little superficial
April 2, 2014
A very good and well rounded read. Not so much for the casual reader, but more suited for undergraduate reading.
January 13, 2020
A very good textbook introducing the history, main ideas, and key methodologies of archaeology. This particular edition is now somewhat out of date, but the latest edition (written with Tom Moore) is excellent, up to date, and highly recommended.
October 16, 2012
An introductory textbook that somewhat suffers in terms of its scope when compared with Archaeology: Theories, Methods and Practice.
June 24, 2018
As it say on tin, introduction to archaeology don't expect too much but it is, on the other hand, a solid introduction to archaeology
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews