Digging the dirt : the archaeological imagination / Jennifer Wallace.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wallace, Jennifer.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Archaeology--Philosophy.

Archaeology.

Physical Description:

220 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

London : Duckworth, 2004.

Summary:

When Jennifer Wallace travelled round Greece as a student, hiking through olive groves to hunt out the stones of old temples and lost cities, she became fascinated by archaeology. It was magical. It was absurd. Give an archaeologist a few rocks and, like a master storyteller, he could bring another world to life. From the plain of Troy to the Titanic, from Stonehenge to Ground Zero, Digging the Dirt explores the sites that have exerted the strongest pull on the public imagination. Some, where bones are indistinguishable from dust, have driven archaeologists to despair. Others haunt poets with memories of loss and romance. All reveal the relevance of archaeology to our deepest cultural anxieties. Passionate and intelligent, Digging the Dirt engages with the work of philosophers and writers who have been stirred by the life below the ground, while never losing sight of the pressing demands of archaeologists today. In a world of postmodern spin, Wallace calls for a renewed sense of the poetics of depth and shows how excavation can play a vital role in bringing powerful political forces to account.

Contents:

1. The Poetics of Depth 11

2. Romancing Stones: The Archaeological Landscape 27

3. Unearthing Bodies: The Disruption of History 53

4. Fulfilling Desires: Erotic Excavation 79

5. Fundamentalism: Digging our Trojan Origins 101

6. Rock Bottom: Digging and Despair 129

7. Holy Ground: Archaeology and the Sacred 153

8. Postmodern Archaeology: Trashing Our Future 179.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0715632787

OCLC:

56416909