Engaging Archaeology

25 Case Studies in Research Practice

Stephen W. Silliman

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781119240518, 9781119240501
• eBook ISBN: 9781119240532
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Sciences sociales
• Subtopic: Archéologie

Bringing together 25 case studies from archaeological projects worldwide, Engaging Archaeology candidly explores personal experiences, successes, challenges, and even frustrations from established and senior archaeologists who share invaluable practical advice for students and early-career professionals engaged in planning and carrying out their own archaeological research.

With engaging chapters, such as 'How Not to Write a PhD Thesis on Neolithic Italy' and 'Accidentally Digging Central America's Earliest Village', readers are transported to the desks, digs, and data-labs of the authors, learning the skills, tricks of the trade, and potential pit-falls of archaeological fieldwork and collections research. Case studies collectively span many regions, time periods, issues, methods, and materials. From the pre-Columbian Andes to Viking Age Iceland, North America to the Middle East, Medieval Ireland to remote north Australia, and Europe to Africa and India, Engaging Archaeology is packed with rich, first-hand source material.

Unique and thoughtful, Stephen W. Silliman's guide is an essential course book for early-stage researchers, advanced undergraduates, and new graduate students, as well as those teaching and mentoring. It will also be insightful and enjoyable reading for veteran archaeologists.

1
Engaging Archaeology: An Introduction and a Guide

Stephen W. Silliman

Introduction

This book is about how archaeologists actually do research. Don’t expect the stories to always be clean, pretty, or graceful; but do expect them to be revealing and beneficial. What you are getting here is the real deal, the rare sighting, the “flaws and all” perspective, the backstage pass. The book presents a cadre of mid‐career and senior archaeologists reflecting honestly on major projects in their professional lives that collectively span many regions, periods, and issues. As candid and sometimes gritty reflections, these chapters intentionally diverge from the standard story that one usually encounters in professional publications – elegant research projects devoid of the personal and frequently laid out in a smooth linear sequence of theory‐method‐data‐results‐conclusion. These chapters are about what things worked, or didn’t, in actual archaeological projects. They are about how to engage archaeological research and how to do so in an engaging manner.

Why do the archaeologists featured in this volume want to reveal the often circuitous routes, false starts, bumpy travels, denied funding, and “things they wish they had known” that characterize their projects? Well, some of them probably didn’t and likely preferred to keep such complexities to themselves until I pitched this book idea to them. These “reveals” aren’t for their own edification, as the rough patches and personal takes don’t tend to offer the same glory and intellectual traction as the otherwise cleaned‐up journal articles and successful grant applications do. Rather, they are designed to offer real‐world insights ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Notes on Contributors
• Acknowledgments
• 1 Engaging Archaeology
• Part I: Landscapes, Settlements, and Regions
• Part II: Sites, Households, and Communities
• Part III: Materials, Collections, and Analyses
• Index
• End User License Agreement