Lives in Ruins: Archaeologists and the Seductive Lure of Human Rubble

Marilyn Johnson

Lives in Ruins: Archaeologists and the Seductive Lure of Human Rubble
Format
Hardback
Publisher
HarperCollins Publishers Inc
Country
United States
Published
20 October 2014
Pages
288
ISBN
9780062127181

Lives in Ruins: Archaeologists and the Seductive Lure of Human Rubble

Marilyn Johnson

Jump into a battered Indiana Jones-style Jeep with the intrepid Marilyn Johnson and head down bone-rattling roads in search of those who dig up the past. Johnson, the author of two acclaimed books about quirky subcultures - The Dead Beat (about obituary writers) and This Book Is Overdue! (about librarians) - brings her irrepressible wit and curiosity to bear on yet another strange world, that of archaeologists. Who chooses to work in ruins? What’s the allure of sifting through layers of dirt under a hot sun? Why do archaeologists care so passionately about what’s dead and buried - and why should we?

Johnson tracks archaeologists around the globe from the Caribbean to the Mediterranean, from Newport, Rhode Island to Machu Picchu. She digs alongside experts on an eighteenth-century sugar plantation and in a first-century temple to Apollo.

She hunts for bodies with forensics archaeologists in the vast and creepy Pine Barrens of New Jersey, drinks beer with an archaeologist of ancient beverages, and makes stone tools like a caveman. By turns amusing and profound, Lives in Ruins and its wild cast of characters find new ways to consider what is worth salvaging from our past.

Archaeologists are driven by the love of history and the race to secure its evidence ahead of floods and bombs, looters and thieves, and before the bulldozers move in. Why spend your life in ruins? To uncover our hidden stories before they disappear.

This item is not currently in-stock. It can be ordered online and is expected to ship in approx 4 weeks

Our stock data is updated periodically, and availability may change throughout the day for in-demand items. Please call the relevant shop for the most current stock information. Prices are subject to change without notice.

Sign in or become a Readings Member to add this title to a wishlist.