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archytas's review against another edition
4.0
A book on this topic feels like it should have been written years ago, although I doubt it would have been as good if it had. Griffiths does a great job of telling the history of Australian archeology - interspersing explanations of changing techniques and learnings with personality sketches that always stay respectful and affectionate. As an amateur who tries to keep up with developments in archeology, this was a relief to read, putting many jigsaw pieces together and spelling out some of the main differences in the field.
It is inevitably a white Australian view of the topic. Griffiths succeeds at showing how the field got going (keeping with the upbeat tone, Griffiths eschews discussing the intense theft period of 'archeology') with total disregard for seeking permission from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people for work on their land, with their sacred and other sites, and grew into a modern discipline with more respectful protocols, discussing the debates along the way. He covers some of the worst behaviour of archeologists with sensitivity, and a capacity to understand the complexity of ways that ignorance can play out, while not minimising the impact.
It is a history of archeology, not of Australian deep time. Griffiths covers the main consensus and debates, but relatively briefly and as part of the other story. Nevertheless, it is the most readable summary available in book form, and provides a basis to understand science reporting on the topic much better. He has an easy conversational style that is pleasant without being too cute.
My biggest beef with the book was the scant coverage - two sentences - given to genetic evidence for age of arrival of peoples. Fairly enough, part of Griffiths intent is to draw attention to the richness beyond a number - that Australian art of 10,000 years ago is spectacular in its sophistication, and more then three times older than the pyramids or Stonehenge - and refocus on debates such as how much, when and how, cultures changed. Nevertheless, it is one of the biggest cross-disciplinary schisms that historical geneticists mostly argue for a pre-50,000 arrival date for Aboriginal peoples, based on clock timing of Denisovan DNA, while archeologists support a 65,000 year date based on rock dated settlement signs. Both groups argue - correctly - that there are unreliabilities in the others' dating, and acknowledging and discussing the issue would have been worthwhile.
Otherwise, however, this is a great primer on how Europeans came to appreciate that our continent is home to the oldest culture outside of Africa - possibly anywhere - which is also unusually interconnected by trade and culture. The world has a lot to learn about the relative peace of the Australian continent over many millennia, and the evidence for longstanding interaction without colonisation. I would like more books like this!
It is inevitably a white Australian view of the topic. Griffiths succeeds at showing how the field got going (keeping with the upbeat tone, Griffiths eschews discussing the intense theft period of 'archeology') with total disregard for seeking permission from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people for work on their land, with their sacred and other sites, and grew into a modern discipline with more respectful protocols, discussing the debates along the way. He covers some of the worst behaviour of archeologists with sensitivity, and a capacity to understand the complexity of ways that ignorance can play out, while not minimising the impact.
It is a history of archeology, not of Australian deep time. Griffiths covers the main consensus and debates, but relatively briefly and as part of the other story. Nevertheless, it is the most readable summary available in book form, and provides a basis to understand science reporting on the topic much better. He has an easy conversational style that is pleasant without being too cute.
My biggest beef with the book was the scant coverage - two sentences - given to genetic evidence for age of arrival of peoples. Fairly enough, part of Griffiths intent is to draw attention to the richness beyond a number - that Australian art of 10,000 years ago is spectacular in its sophistication, and more then three times older than the pyramids or Stonehenge - and refocus on debates such as how much, when and how, cultures changed. Nevertheless, it is one of the biggest cross-disciplinary schisms that historical geneticists mostly argue for a pre-50,000 arrival date for Aboriginal peoples, based on clock timing of Denisovan DNA, while archeologists support a 65,000 year date based on rock dated settlement signs. Both groups argue - correctly - that there are unreliabilities in the others' dating, and acknowledging and discussing the issue would have been worthwhile.
Otherwise, however, this is a great primer on how Europeans came to appreciate that our continent is home to the oldest culture outside of Africa - possibly anywhere - which is also unusually interconnected by trade and culture. The world has a lot to learn about the relative peace of the Australian continent over many millennia, and the evidence for longstanding interaction without colonisation. I would like more books like this!
sharon4d046's review
4.0
Puts archaeology into the broader cultural and political context - informative.
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