Writing Worth Reading
Writing Worth Reading
Critically acclaimed and accessible survey of the history of Archaeology thinking in the 20th century, by an author with 2 decades of experience in the field.
Why is Bruce Trigger's "A History of Archaeological Thought" a good introduction to the development of archeological theory.
Trigger had one of those wonderful comprehensive minds who see synoptically backwards and forwards. He was a Marxist, and this is a Marxist account of the history and self-understanding of archaeology. It is still today acknowledged as one of the best general introductions to the subject and the history of the profession and what it thinks it's doing. It’s not perfect, he’s very respectful to some aspects of soviet archaeology which perhaps he shouldn’t have been. However a Marxist point of view in archaeology is usually extraordinarily useful; it is about cultural evolution and not just concerned with pots and typologies and taxonomies; it asks what does this material assemblage of culture tell us about what sort of society this was?
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The history of archeology is a surprising bloody affair. Neal Ascherson, journalist, author and editor of the journal Public Archeology, explains why.
