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Reviews
| Dug to Death: A Tale of Archaeological Method and Mayhem. By Adrian Praetzellis, Walnut Creek, Calif.: AltaMira Press, 2003. xiv+230 pp., illus., diags., bibl., glossaries, index. $18.95 pb (ISBN 0-7591-0407-7).
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Adrian Praetzellis has succeeded in doing what many other archaeological writers have attempted and fallen short. In Dug to Death, he has found a way to present archaeology that is educational and truly entertaining at the same time. By presenting serious archaeological concepts and issues in methodology in a fictional format, Praetzellis has developed what may be the most effective way to talk about archaeology to audiences not very familiar with how archaeology really works.
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1
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Dug to Death presents several important archaeological issues and concepts in the form of a mystery novel, similar to Praetzellis's previous book, Death by Theory. The author uses dialogue among characters in the novel to introduce and discuss topics such as safety, research designs, field methods, archaeological context, and budgets. The cast of characters includes Dr. Hannah Greene, the brilliant and straightforward protagonist from Death by Theory; Dr. Howard Bobich, a well-intentioned academician who can't dig his way out of a paper bag; and a cast of other characters that serves to embody some of the real-life situations and people with which archaeologists deal on a day-to-day basis, such as the local historians with whom archaeologists need to consult in order to appreciate the values of the local community.
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2
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The plot revolves around an excavation in New Zealand, where a proposed golf course threatens a locally significant historic site. During the course of the excavation, members of the local university's archaeology department mysteriously meet with unfortunate accidents. Dr. Greene is brought in to run the excavation and promptly discovers that she needs to redesign the project from the ground up. This is a convenient plot point, as it allows Praetzellis to discuss the entire process of an archaeological project, from research design to presentation of results, and relate it to a single archaeological site.
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3
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From the view of a professional archaeologist who deals with much of the same issues as the characters in the book (minus the ghosts, murder victims, and golf pros), this review addresses how the author presents and discusses some of the things this book has to offer to those interested in archaeology, with an eye to an audience of industrial archaeologists.
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4
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First, this book provides an introduction to traditional, "dirt" archaeology. It does not touch on some themes that are more commonplace to industrial archaeology, such as documentation of processes and standing structures. However, as the Society for Industrial Archeology is fortunate to include both people who follow archaeology as an avocation and those who do it as a career, this book may be most valuable to those in the society who want to learn what the grubbier members who discuss excavation and stratigraphy at the annual meetings are really talking about.
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5
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Moreover, many of the concepts discussed by Praetzellis through his characters are as germane to industrial archaeology as they are to the other branches of the subject. In particular, the themes relating to examining the material culture in relation to what the documentary record has to say, and vice versa, are something with which most industrial archaeologists should be familiar. Some of the best industrial archaeology projects are those that have much in common with what Praetzellis stresses as the most important concerns in archaeology: research designs are thorough; methods are tailored to retrieve the data necessary to answer the research questions; and data from examination of industrial processes, artifacts, and sites are used to say something meaningful about the society of which they were a part.
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6
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Dug to Death is an excellent introduction to archaeology, as it allows the reader to experience the whole process of the discipline in relationship to one site. As the book discusses a fictional site and features fictional characters, the author can supply all the necessary details to illustrate the concepts he discusses in the text and to demonstrate the application of the methods he describes. Standard texts can seldom do this, as very few archaeological sites in reality lend themselves as exemplars of the entire process of doing archaeology.
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7
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As a mystery novel, however, the book does not work as well. The plot dealing with the mysterious circumstances involved with the excavation is not sustained throughout the book, often noticeably absent as characters seem much more involved in debating the latest issues in archaeological ethics than in wondering why the department suddenly has a few more job openings. The glossaries (which include archaeological terminology, New Zealand and Yiddish slang, and Maori words) supposedly provide definitions of terms in boldface in the text, but some terms boldfaced in the text do not appear in the glossaries, and sometimes a term is defined the same way in the text as it appears in the glossary, which seems to negate the need for including it in the glossary.
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8
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| These are minor problems, however, with what should be an enjoyable book for archaeologists and non-archaeologists alike. Dug to Death is a fun introduction to the nitty-gritty details of archaeology, presenting a tongue-in-cheek interpretation of the discipline while still managing to communicate what archaeologists do, why they do it that way, and why archaeology itself is important. |
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