Archaeological Obsidian Studies: Method and Theory (Advances in Archaeological and Museum Science) Review

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(More customer reviews)It is good to see that archaeological science is alive and well. Given the wave of post-processualism that is ever so popular, Plenum Press should be thanked for publishing no-nonsense archaeological method books like these.
The big gives a nice overview of the state of archaeological obsidian studies. In part due to advances in analytical equipment, in part given the fact we know a lot more than the late 1970s, this is an excellent sequel to ADVANCES IN OBSIDIAN GLASS STUDIES.
The book contains a nice overview of obsidian studies from an analytical perspective and a geographic perspective. Techniques such as x-ray fluorescence, neutron activation analysis, and proton induced x-ray emission are nicely introduced to the reader. The state of obsidian studies is reviewed for most of the Old and New World. The only regions that seem to be missing are Japan and the Near East. The chapter by Glascock et al. is a nice overview of some common multivariate statistical techniques used by archaeologists.
A fantastic book for archaeological scientists, geologists, or anyone else interested in obsidian studies.

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The use of obsidian archaeometry has expanded dramatically inthe last 20 years, due partly to technological advances and partly torecognition by archaeologists that archaeometrists provide much moreinformation than mere measurement. Since the mid-70s, however, no bookhas appeared to document the latest advances. ArchaeologicalObsidian Studies, the only volume of its kind in print,corrects this situation by presenting the current state of thescience, from volcanic glass geochemistry to hydration analysis.Archaeologists, museum professionals, geologists, materialsscientists, and students will find this volume to be an indispensableguide to modern archaeometric theory and methodology, both in the laband in the field.

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A Land Between: Owens Valley, California (Center Books on Space, Place, and Time) Review

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(More customer reviews)Rebecca Fish Ewan's A Land Between is an engaging, informative, scholarly, and highly recommended title which examines the idea of how people's preconceptions of California's Owens Valley influenced their decisions about managing the land. Primary sources, oral histories and research provide a perspective on the land and residents of Owens Valley, examining its natural history, human occupation, and use over the decades. A unique and intriguing study.

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Buffalo Days: Stories from J. Wright Mooar (Texas Heritage Series) Review

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(More customer reviews)Good personal reminiscence. Very good end notes. Certainly not politicaly correct but a very good view of the prevaling mind set of the nineteenth century buffalo hide trade.

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"Because he has been criticized as a destroyer, a ruthless killer, and wastrel of a great game resource of a Nation, the buffalo hunter appeals to the bar of history for his vindication. . . . Within four years we opened up a vast empire to settlement, and put the Indians forever out of Texas."J. Wright Mooar tells the story of the buffalo hunter, from the hunter's perspective, in this first-person account published more than seventy years ago in several installments in Holland's, The Magazine of the South. Mooar was more than eighty years old when he sat down with Methodist minister/educator James Winford Hunt and recounted his years as a buffalo hunter.He describes how buffalo hunting became a huge business that thrived for less than a decade in the 1870s and makes the case that the buffalo hunter, more than anyone else, opened the way for white settlement by eradicating the Indians' source of food."Buffalo hunting was a business and not a sport. It required capital, management, and a lot of hard work. Magazine writers and others who claim that the killing of the buffalo was a national calamity and was accomplished by vandals simply expose their ignorance, and I resent such an unjust judgment upon us."If it had not been for the work of the buffalo hunters, the wild bison would still graze where Amarillo now is, and the red man would still reign supreme over the pampas of the Panhandle of Texas."Any one of the families killed and homes destroyed by the Indians would have been worth more to Texas and to civilization than all the millions of buffalo that ever roamed from the Pecos River on the south to the Platte River on the north.""Here is an odyssey of hairbreadth escapes from death with wild Indians, wilder white men, and thundering herds of wild buffalo," writes J. W. Hunt, founding president of Abilene's McMurry College (now University), in his introduction.Illustrated by Texas folklore artist Granville Bruce, the stories of J. Wright Mooar make for lively reading and continuing debate.

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Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan (Cambridge Library Collection - Archaeology) (Volume 2) Review

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(More customer reviews)And real full strength Catherwood illustrations.
Unlike some of the recent re-edited editions of Stevens' and Catherwood's work, this Dover Publications edition Volume One of the two volume "Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan presents dense, complex, and revealing insights into a brilliant writer's impressions of travel in nascent Central American countries.
Regarding his charge to enter into diplomatic relations with the governments of these countries, Stephens reports, "I was not able to find one..."
In following Stephens eccentric and sometimes high-handed travels through these unsettled societies, we are by contrast in his ruminations given glimpses of the political and social climate in the United States at that time - a commercially predatory, exuberantly expansionist, segregated society. Despite the biases of his times, Stephens is always adaptable to the ways of his hosts.
Although not great in number, Catherwood's illustrations of the stelae at Copan are truly great. His revealing comments on the difficulty of adapting his Western perception enough to capture the scenes even with the help of his camera lucida - tell us just how unusual the sculptural forms were.
As a team - Stephen's enthusiasm and wry humor and Catherwood's sublime skill and dogged persistence - consistently produced great and discerning works of scientific and historical value.
It should be illegal for anyone to edit or abridge these books.

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