Digging Up a Past

John Mulvaney

• Publisher: University of New South Wales Press
• Year: 2011
• eBook ISBN: 9781742245478
• Edition: 0
• Subtopic: Australian & Oceanian History

Known as a historian, conservationist, leading public intellectual, and, most famously, the "father of Australian archaeology," John Mulvaney is renowned for uncovering the depth of Australian human prehistory. This insightful and illuminating memoir traces Mulvaney's life from his childhood in rural Victoria to his revelatory excavations in central and northern Queensland and his securing of Australia's first World Heritage listings. Digging up the layers of his past and cataloguing the artifacts with the historical rigor and humanity that have defined his remarkable professional life, Mulvaney exposes the personal details of his struggles to have his work recognized and tells the stories of the inspirational people he has met along the way.

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• About the Author
• Dedication
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword by Tom Griffiths
• Acknowledgments
• 1 A country youth
• 2 RAAF service
• 3 History recollected, 1946–51
• 4 An archaeologist abroad, 1951–53
• 5 Dawn of Australian archaeology, 1954–64
• 6 Adventures in archaeology, 1965–69
• 7 Globetrotting
• 8 1971–76 in retrospect
• 9 Museums and heritage
• 10 An English interlude, 1976–77
• 11 A surfeit of committees
• 12 A Harvard year, 1984–85
• 13 A rewarding retirement, 1986–89
• 14 The Australian Academy of the Humanities
• 15 Conferences and travel
• 16 Confrontations
• 17 Years with Jean, 1995–2004
• 18 Coda – archaeological retrospect
• Bibliography
• Index