Archaeologists and the Seductive Lure of Human Rubble
by Marilyn Johnson
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Readers' rating:
Published Nov 2014
288 pages
Genre: History, Current Affairs and Religion
Publication Information
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.
"Starred Review. Many archaeologists credit Indiana Jones with sparking their passion, and Johnson may well inspire a new generation to take up this calling." - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. An engrossing examination of how archaeologists re-create much of human history, piece by painstaking piece." - Kirkus
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Marilyn Johnson wrote The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs, and the Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries after writing obituaries for Katharine Hepburn, Princess Diana, Jackie Onassis, Johnny Cash, Bob Hope, and Marlon Brando for Life and other magazines. She has been a staff writer for Life and an editor for Esquire. Her articles and poetry have appeared in many publications. She lives in Briarcliff, New York, and is working on a book about librarians and archivists in the digital age.
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