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Rating: 
Summary: Great stories about things dusty, rotting and just plain old
Review: "The Oxford Companion to Archaeology" is a fitting friend to the recently published "Eyewitness to Discovery," an anthology of first-person archaeological writings, also edited by Brian Fagan. Given the space and range of the subject matter, it seems that any kind of judgmental review would be superfluous. No topic is missed, and everything is written with a depth and clarity that one expects from a book in the Oxford Companion series. There are only two regrets. I would have liked to see illustrations, photos and maps of certain sites, but that is more wishful thinking than constructive criticism. The other problem is that the 29 maps in the back of the book are inadequate. Some sites are listed, some are not. They lack a note indicating what time period they apply to What date does "Early China" map refer to? Or the "Late China?" The sole map of the Roman Empire shows it at its largest, but omits the date of when that was. One might as well review a dictionary. These are just a few of the idle facts and notions gleaned from these pages: * A long-term study of what people throw away has been going on out in Tucson, Arizona, since 1973. It has found that the average U.S. household throws away 10 to 15 percent of its edible solid food, that curbside recycling has conserved about 20 percent of landfill space since it began in 1982, and that paper takes up 40 to 50 percent of landfill space. * Although the wheel was in use in Mesopotamia from about 4,000 B.C., it was not in the Americas, nor in Africa south of the Sahara. * Diseases brought by European explorers may have reduced North American population, estimated at 18 million, (roughly the current population of South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia and North Carolina combined) by up to 80 percent. * Silk was such a lucrative export from China that from the second century on, persons caught attempting to export the technology of silk production could be executed. *That the Great Wall of China is not a continuous wall, but a series of walls, built and rebuilt at different times. The section outside Beijing was reconstructed recently as a tourist attraction. (This account also perpetuates the popular error that the wall is the only human product visible from the moon. Astronaut Alan Bean has written that "the only thing you can see from the moon is a beautiful sphere, mostly white (clouds), some blue (ocean), patches of yellow (deserts), and every once in a while some green vegetation.") * Last but not least, after reading accounts of civilizations that have lasted thousands of years, only to collapse into a heap of dusty ruins and sometimes indecipherable records, it's hard to feel smug about a country with a mere 200 years of history.
Rating:
Summary: Great stories about things dusty, rotting and just plain old
Review: "The Oxford Companion to Archaeology" is a fitting friend to the recently published "Eyewitness to Discovery," an anthology of first-person archaeological writings, also edited by Brian Fagan. Given the space and range of the subject matter, it seems that any kind of judgmental review would be superfluous. No topic is missed, and everything is written with a depth and clarity that one expects from a book in the Oxford Companion series. There are only two regrets. I would have liked to see illustrations, photos and maps of certain sites, but that is more wishful thinking than constructive criticism. The other problem is that the 29 maps in the back of the book are inadequate. Some sites are listed, some are not. They lack a note indicating what time period they apply to What date does "Early China" map refer to? Or the "Late China?" The sole map of the Roman Empire shows it at its largest, but omits the date of when that was. One might as well review a dictionary. These are just a few of the idle facts and notions gleaned from these pages: * A long-term study of what people throw away has been going on out in Tucson, Arizona, since 1973. It has found that the average U.S. household throws away 10 to 15 percent of its edible solid food, that curbside recycling has conserved about 20 percent of landfill space since it began in 1982, and that paper takes up 40 to 50 percent of landfill space. * Although the wheel was in use in Mesopotamia from about 4,000 B.C., it was not in the Americas, nor in Africa south of the Sahara. * Diseases brought by European explorers may have reduced North American population, estimated at 18 million, (roughly the current population of South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia and North Carolina combined) by up to 80 percent. * Silk was such a lucrative export from China that from the second century on, persons caught attempting to export the technology of silk production could be executed. *That the Great Wall of China is not a continuous wall, but a series of walls, built and rebuilt at different times. The section outside Beijing was reconstructed recently as a tourist attraction. (This account also perpetuates the popular error that the wall is the only human product visible from the moon. Astronaut Alan Bean has written that "the only thing you can see from the moon is a beautiful sphere, mostly white (clouds), some blue (ocean), patches of yellow (deserts), and every once in a while some green vegetation.") * Last but not least, after reading accounts of civilizations that have lasted thousands of years, only to collapse into a heap of dusty ruins and sometimes indecipherable records, it's hard to feel smug about a country with a mere 200 years of history.
Rating:
Summary: Past is prologue...
Review: Brian Fagan's 'Oxford Companion to Archaeology' is a wonderful encyclopedic dictionary of archaeology worldwide. In the past century and a half, archaeology has graduated from being the hobby of pith-helmeted explorers in search of the unknown cities and treasure to the scientific and research-oriented study of ancient civilisations. Archaeology takes as its province the entire world, and the history goes back in some parts of the world as far as 15,000 to 20,000 years of human civilisation, and back several million years to the earliest human ancestors.
Fagan marshalled a huge team of contributors -- literally hundreds of contributors and dozens of editors worked together to make this a text majestic in scope. Useful for specialists and non-specialists alike, it draws on background resources from the natural and physical sciences, social sciences and humanities. Fagan and co. have include among the entries here articles on archaeological method, general interpretation, history and discovery. This includes coverage of the history and development of archaeology itself, how archaeology attempts to interpret and explain the past, and how this comes together into a coherent discipline.
This being said, this is not a text book or an introduction (or even more advanced) narrative, but rather is a collection of pieces alphabetically arranged. In addition to the main text, there is an extensive index that includes topics, persons, places, key discoveries, and more, with blind references and cross-references. These cross-references are also listed at the end of entries throughout the text. Many major entries also include suggestions for further readings. At the conclusion of the text, there are dozens of pages of maps and timelines. The maps are not as detailed as one might hope, giving only general features and major sites. The timelines are very good at placing the various developments and cultures side-by-side; for example, the developments of culture in the Indus Valley, the Fertile Crescent, the Nile and the Mayan Yucatan arose independently of each other, but not at the same times (there were thousands of years separating the initial rise of Egyptian cultures and Mayan cultures, for example).
While there are many fascinating entries in the book, perhaps the most unique article (and perhaps unexpected) is 'Popular Culture, the Portrayal of Archaeology in...' -- this discusses archaeology in film (for many, the only exposure to archaeology comes in Indiana Jones films), in fiction, and in science fiction. The article, written by editor Brian Fagan and contributors John Pohl, Shelly Lowenkopf, and Edward James, talks about these developments in interesting methodological and interpretative ways -- Pohl, for example, demonstrates that Indiana Jones' adventures in fact represent 'dismal project planning'. The popular image of archaeology as simply digging something up causes some concern and consternation among professional archaeologists.
Despite the small print (the text is 850 pages long as it is, and a larger font, while desirable, would have likely required the book to be a two-volume edition), the writing is generally lively and interesting, concentrating on accessibility over jargon. Those with strong interest in archaeology will find this very useful; for those with interest in history, cultural studies, religious studies, art history and more will also find this a very helpful guide for background and peripheral development of their subjects. Every continent and every time period is covered -- from the statues at Easter Island to the statue-menhirs of the French Mediterranean; from the Pyramids of Egypt to the pyramids of the Central Americas, from burial mounds in North America to burial finds in China and India, this book covers it all.
A great text!
Rating:
Summary: excellent resource for archaeology student
Review: The multi-disciplinary study of archaeology requires a broad database of knowlegde, and the Oxford Companion offers itself as an excellent resource. Alphabetical entries are provided in subject areas, and especially helpful is a variety of timelines and graphical data, as well as a comprehensive index. Fagan's compilation of entries from renowed social sciences in the Oxford Companion is an essential in my personal library, and is referred to consistently.
Rating:
Summary: excellent resource for archaeology student
Review: The multi-disciplinary study of archaeology requires a broad database of knowlegde, and the Oxford Companion offers itself as an excellent resource. Alphabetical entries are provided in subject areas, and especially helpful is a variety of timelines and graphical data, as well as a comprehensive index. Fagan's compilation of entries from renowed social sciences in the Oxford Companion is an essential in my personal library, and is referred to consistently.
Rating: 
Summary: A tremendous discovery for the arm-chair archeologist
Review: Truly a remarkable work and an excellent source for students and arm-chair archaeologists alike. Short on the hoped-for graphics and illustrations but long on information, the Oxford Companion proves its worth when one is looking for an appropriate overview of various archaeological topics. Just enough cross-referencing to excite one's imagination and more than enough to whet one's appetite to dig even deeper into archaeology and all that is has to teach us.
Rating:
Summary: A tremendous discovery for the arm-chair archeologist
Review: Truly a remarkable work and an excellent source for students and arm-chair archaeologists alike. Short on the hoped-for graphics and illustrations but long on information, the Oxford Companion proves its worth when one is looking for an appropriate overview of various archaeological topics. Just enough cross-referencing to excite one's imagination and more than enough to whet one's appetite to dig even deeper into archaeology and all that is has to teach us.
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