2020-06-16
Archaeology magazine contributing editor Bahn serves up a richly illustrated grand tour of the world’s iconic sites.
The current popular interest in archaeology, writes the author, speaks to a couple of things: As evidenced by the proliferation of genealogy websites and DNA tests for origins, people have a fascination with the past, and “answering really big questions such as the origins of archaeology can also be tremendous fun.” The text is full of lightly worn scholarship, and while it focuses on well-known places from Mohenjo Daro to Machu Picchu, there are plenty of places that don’t always figure in the standard texts. The Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump in Alberta is one such venue, a place that hugs the flank of the Rockies and was used for millennia as a place where Paleo-Indians and their later descendants drove herds of bison to their deaths. Chaco Canyon, another North American site, has been the subject of academic argument for generations, and Bahn notes that many archaeologists “now believe that the canyon was perhaps not continuously occupied, but rather it served as a center for when far-flung Chacoan communities temporarily came together for ceremonial, religious, and trading purposes.” Curiously, he does not add that many other archaeologists have a contrary view. Curiously, too, he places Teotihuacan, Monte Albán, Tenochtitlan, Chichén Itzá, and Palenque—all, along with several other sites he describes, located in Mexico—in South America. Machu Picchu indisputably is in South America, as are many places Bahn covers that don’t get much attention, such as Chan Chan and Chavín de Huántar, also in Peru. Strangely, Easter Island, which Bahn eloquently describes, is the last site in the book, following Australian locales instead of being tied to South America (after all, it belongs to Chile). Organizational matters aside, the text is generally well written, the coverage is global, and the color photographs are stunning.
Good reading for the armchair or aspiring archaeologist of the house.
