Books

Books : reviews

Nicholas David, Jonathan Driver.
The Next Archaeology Workbook.
University of Pennsylvania Press. 1989

The Next Archaeology Workbook is a rare example of a textbook that both instructs and delights. Like its predecessor, The Archaeology Workbook (by Steve Daniels and Nicholas David), this volume features exercises that allow students to use their knowledge of archaeological method and theory to deal with fictitious scenarios and data sets. Nicholas David and Jonathan Driver offer all new inventive and often witty problems that pose the same questions being tackled by archaeologists in the field today.

As in “real” archaeology, the data provided are often scanty, poorly reported, and misinterpreted. Students must use careful judgment in coming to conclusions about various problems in diverse settings around the world—North and South America, the Near East, Europe, Africa, the Pacific, and the mysterious Gonbwanaland. The authors cover a wide range of topics, including culture history, trade and warfare, stratigraphy, ritual behavior, site formation processes, paleoenvironments, the origins of agriculture, research design, ethnoarchaeology, and the ethics of archaeological research.

The exercises in The Next Archaeology Workbook are sure to provoke lively classroom debate and discussion. It will be invaluable as an aid in teaching archaeology to advanced undergraduates or beginning graduate students.