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Uncovering the Past: A History of Archaeology, by William H. Stiebing
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When one hears the words "archaeology" or "archaeologist," often what comes to mind is an image of a romantic figure: Indiana Jones exploring exotic places in search of treasure and adventure. Indeed, novels, movies, and many popular accounts of archaeological discoveries have made this concept widespread. Tales of abandoned cities, ruined temples, primeval monuments, or mysterious ancient tombs tend to kindle the urge for adventure, exploration, or treasure hunting that seems to lie beneath the surface of even the most timid and conventional individuals. Today, however, archaeologists seek knowledge rather than objects that are intrinsically valuable. Their ultimate goal is to sweep aside the mists in which time has enveloped the past, helping us to understand vanished peoples and cultures.
In Uncovering the Past, William H. Stiebing, Jr. offers an absorbing nontechnical history of archaeology, tracing the study of ancient material culture from its beginnings in the Renaissance through its development into the sophisticated modern discipline we know today. The first study to focus on archaeology as a discipline, Stiebing has organized this concise history into the four stages of archaeological development. The first two stages (1450-1860 and 1860-1925), known as the "heroic age," focus on the exploits of colorful, dynamic excavators who have made their mark on history and our imaginations. We read accounts of Giovanni Belzoni and the removal of the seven-ton colossus of Ramesses II, which was dragged by wooden platform and transported by boat from Egypt to London; we witness the clergyman John Peters's skirmish with Arab tribesmen, who surrounded his excavation site and finally pillaged and burned his camp; and Heinrich Schliemann's quest to prove the authenticity of Homer's Iliad by searching for ancient Troy along the Turkish coast. And we watch as archaeology comes of age as an academic discipline, employing stratigraphical excavation techniques, typographical sequence dating, and stratigraphically based pottery chronology--laying the foundation for universal archaeological activity. The third phase (1925-1960) marked the era of "Modern Archaeology," a time when, using the now generally accepted stratigraphical method of excavation, scholars were able to synthesize data to define individual cultures and trace their development through time. This period saw a greater use of scientific instruments and procedures to locate, date, and interpret remains, such as aerial photography, metal detectors, and most importantly, carbon-14 dating and tree-ring chronology. Lastly, Stiebing discusses the fourth phase of development (1960-present) which introduced a greater desire and need for a more complete understanding of ancient cultures, including their ecology, and attempts to explain why certain cultural phenomena occurred. He goes on to examine the greater emphasis on a cultural revolutionary approach, coupled with technological advances in robotics and computers over the last decade and a half and their commonplace role in modern archaeology.
With over eighty photographs, illustrations, and maps, this vivid history is an outstanding introduction to the intriguing field of archaeology, chronicling the development of this former pastime of dilettantes into a rigorous science.
- Sales Rank: #1262846 in Books
- Published on: 1994-12-08
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.06" h x .94" w x 6.06" l, .95 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 320 pages
From Publishers Weekly
Stiebing's concise, wonderfully vivid, engrossing history conveys a sense of archeology as a great collective adventure by which humanity retrieves its past. Heinrich Schliemann's excavation of the Troy of Homer's Iliad, Arthur Evans's reconstruction of Minoan Crete, John Stephens's discovery of Mayan pyramids in Mexico and Austen Layard's remarkably swift location of Assyrian palaces are a few of the many phenomenal exploits recounted in a narrative that emphasizes advances in archeological techniques and methods. Stiebing, a professor of archeology at the University of New Orleans, reviews the mystery of immense prehistoric mounds in the Ohio Valley. His chronicle also encompasses India's carved cave temples at Ellora, advanced medieval cities of sub-Saharan Africa, finds in China, Indonesia and Cambodia, and underwater archeology. Stiebing dispassionately reviews the controversy surrounding the "new archeology," which uses computers and statistics in its quest to discover the laws of cultural dynamics. Illustrated.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Profusely illustrated and with the usual chronology and reading suggestions appended, this volume is useful chiefly as an overview for students of the comparatively new discipline of archaeology. Steibing (history, Univ. of New Orleans) organizes his work into four evolutionary phases that extend through the "heroic age" of archaeology (1450-1925), discussed from a geographical/cultural perspective, to the close of World War I up to the present, which ushers in the beginnings of systemization and scientific method as a review of the various new methodologies. While many volumes exist on the finds of specific sites or on a specific excavation technique, this study focuses on the development of archaeology as a discipline, tracing the milestones in the evolution of systematic excavation. Do not expect here the wealth of titillating, arcane cultural details common to archaeological works. As such, it is more of a Cook's Tour and not very meaty, but it will serve.
- Jo-Ann D. Suleiman. SANAD Support Technologies, Rockville, Md.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
"This is an excellent survey of the history of archaeology. The excitement of the early discoveries comes through."--Professor Kathleen Fuller, Johnson County Community College
"A compelling, systematic depiction of the evolution of the field."--Science News
"This is a great book for supplement to the often boring intro text. it gives an enjoyable history of the field. it is well-written and user friendly to young students. I am very impressed."--Sharon Steadman, Hamilton College
"This is a wonderful book for a survey history of archaeology course. It is written at a level for undergraduate's to enjoy, and it is fairly comprehensive of the subject."--Matthew R. Goodrum, Indiana University
"Steibing's concise, wonderfully vivid, engrossing history conveys a sense of archaeology as a great collective adventure by which humanity retrieves its past."--Publishers Weekly
"His fast-paced narrative sustains archaeology's aura of romance and adventure while also revealing its more methodical and scholarly aspects....A well-organized and thorougly enjoyable history of one of the more alluring sciences."--Booklist
"Profusely illustrated....The chief advantage of this volume is its usefulness as an overview for students of the comparatively new discipline of archaeology."--Library Journal
"There has never been a general history written about the field of archaeology that is both comprehensive and accessible to the general reader. Uncovering the Past fills this niche admirably....Stiebing gives lively accounts....Will entertain, inform and delight the reader."--Natural Science Book Club
"Well written. Meets a need not fulfilled for a general intro. course."--Dr. Bruce Cresson, Boston University
"A good . . . history of the field and major discoveries."--John J. Shea, State University of New York at Stony Brook
Most helpful customer reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful.
An excellent starting point.
By Amazon Customer
Finally! A readable, fun archaeology book!
As a university student of anthropology and archaeology with of course certain peculiar specializations and interests all my own, I often found myself lacking in a truly readable account of archaeology and its history in the general sense, though various lectures had tried to assemble such a survey (without success). 'Uncovering the Past' provides this account admirably, covers achaeological development over the entire globe, including western Europe, the ancient Near East, Egyptology, Aegean archaeology, the Far East, Africa and the Americas and Mesoamerica.
If you're interested in archaeology at all, whether at the academic level or purely for your own personal entertainment, I think this book provides an excellent starting point without all of the tedium that arises when one attempts to see the 'big picture' or acquire some sense of the general historical foundations of the field by treading through endless detailed site publications from various time periods or even summary accounts of any geographical region.
To put it another way: sit down and spend an afternoon reading it cover to cover, you'll enjoy it!
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Hackneyed
By HH
This is a very conventional treatment of archaeology -- conventional both in methodology and in subject matter. Stiebing's book certainly breaks no new methodological ground; indeed, he is hardly concerned to reflect on the historiography of his discipline, or the quite significant discussions about the role of such historiography in building the archaeology of the 1990s. Stiebing seems completely unconcerned about these and other matters (particularly those connected to the further development of archaeological theory) that touch on issues that must now be part of any historical analysis of archaeology. Archaeology for Stiebing must be uncomplicated -- to go out and "uncover" the past, a task at which we are getting steadily better by the application of scientific methods and approaches. This kind of "soft-core positivism" gives the book an anachronistic feel, which is reinforced by the fact that this history of archaeology is (in the main) a history of Euro-American archaeology, with a bit of material from Asia and Africa thrown in to make up the weight. No history of archaeology in Australia or the Pacific is included, nor discussion of whole fields such as historical archaeology, and there is certainly little sense of connection between archaeological practice and the societies that have provided the context for all that activity.
The defense for this type of lopsided treatment stems from the assumption that students of classical antiquity, and American students of classical antiquity in particular, will find such a treatment more "relevant" to their interests. No one should dismiss this defense lightly, but it does tend to reinforce conventional intellectual frameworks rather than to provide the groundwork for change. If there is anything that characterizes both processual and post-processual archaeology over the last 30 years, it is the general ignorance of the history of archaeology among their respective protagonists. This ignorance has had some pernicious consequences -- the over-inflated claims for "theoretical" or methodological novelty, and the lack of a sense of the importance of an archaeological perspective on the past being the most obvious of them. This is a heavy burden for a book like this to bear, and it is probably the strongest defense for Stiebing's treatment of his subject. While it would be marvelous if histories of archaeology were conceived as contributions to these more fundamental debates, it is nonetheless true that Stiebing has made no great claims for this book and in doing so has produced a good-natured retelling of a now well-known story, spiced up with some original observations on antiquarians from the 17th and 18th centuries.
Most of what you would expect to find is here. Long chapters on Egypt, the Near East, the Aegean, and Italy form the foundation of the first part. This part (unfortunately called "Archaeology's 'Heroic Age"') covers in 227 pages the birth of prehistoric archaeology (one of the weaker chapters in the volume); the archaeology of the New World, the Far East, and Sub-Saharan Africa; and the development of archaeology under water as well. Part 2 of the volume ("Modern Archaeology") takes us from 1925 to the present in 29 pages. This is by far the weaker part of the book; indeed, the coverage is so brief and slight that it really is difficult to see why it has been included. To state that this section is both parochial and naive is understatement. So much for the creation of world prehistory, or indeed the notion of archaeology as a complex intellectual structure spanning a vast array of social and cultural contexts. Still, Stiebing manages to gloss a phenomenal amount of material into this pathetically inadequate space. He also provides an appendix, "Major Events and Discoveries in the History of Archaeology:' which begins in 1446 and ends in 1991.
In my view, the problems with part 2 of the book and the general methodological naivete that permeates the whole enterprise have the same source. Surely there is more to learn from the history of archaeology than cautionary tales, a sense of humility, or a catalog of wrong and right turnings; but then this may be wholly irrelevant for Stiebing's audience. I wish I could be confident that it is not.
3 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
A perfect overview and starting point!
By A Customer
This book was understandable since it lacked scientific jargon. It was still in depth and expository without containing too many confusing statements that so many other archeological books heavily rely upon. The text was arranged in an organized way and covered a very wide topic area. This book was interesting from beginning to end and the various pictures added the pugnancy of the book's texts tremendously. My ONLY criticism of this book is the mention of biblical topics somewhat frequently and the over use of the word 'antiquites'! Yet, it gave a flavor of different ancient worlds and explained archeology quite nicely. Overall it was a very good read.
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