2020-06-04
A very readable book written in a very entertaining manner that gives a great general overview of archaeology without laboring over the history of archaeology (cf, antiquarians) like most archaeology books do.
It also does a great job of briefly covering key modern movements such as New Archaeology and Processual Archaeology without getting bogged down in details, as well as criticisms of colonialism. A little over-sensitive when it comes to feminist approaches, methinks, but otherwise a good tour of key pointers.
One negative is that there’s not much on practical archaeology, but it does a good job of covering the most recent trends, especially non-invasive approaches.
There’s a great sense of humor underlying much of the writing, so I’m looking forward to reading more from Paul Bahn.
Rating: 5/5