Reviews

The Lost Tomb: And Other Real-Life Stories of Bones, Burials, and Murder by Douglas Preston

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jelenar620's review against another edition

informative slow-paced

3.5

Collection of articles relaying information about a few murders but mostly archeological tales and mysteries. Interesting for those who love anthropology and archeology and it's tales of controversy, misbehavior, and unsolved dilemmas. Slow read.

whathillarygraceread's review against another edition

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informative slow-paced

I am not going to star this one because I have such mixed feelings. This book is a collection of Preston's articles throughout his career for a number of publications. While the topics of every article are interesting, there's some I wouldn't have included because they contain really outdated - and sometimes offensive - language and ideas (e.g. the word 'Anasazi' is no longer used to describe the ancestral Pueblo people who lived in the early Southwest because that word means 'ancient enemy' in Dine (Navajo language)). On the other hand, there is at least one article written in the late 70s that espouses some pretty progressive thinking about the repatriation of indigenous remains from museums. Having a little bit more knowledge about how indigenous communities and their ancestors have been treated in the southwest made me wonder what other biases are contained in the articles on topics covered in the book that I know less about.