Reddit mentions: The best archaeology books
We found 51 Reddit comments discussing the best archaeology books. We ran sentiment analysis on each of these comments to determine how redditors feel about different products. We found 35 products and ranked them based on the amount of positive reactions they received. Here are the top 20.
1. Archaeology: Theories, Methods and Practice
- Used Book in Good Condition
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Weight | 3.3951188348 Pounds |
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Number of items | 1 |
2. The Isles: A History
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Weight | 3.2 Pounds |
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3. Man After Man: An Anthropology of the Future
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Length | 9 Inches |
Weight | 0.661386786 Pounds |
Width | 0.5 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
4. Memory and the Mediterranean
- Intel Core i7 3610QM 3.3 GHz nVidia GTX680M 4Gb DDR5 VRAM
- 12 GB SO-DIMM (4Gb x 3)
- 500 GB 7200 rpm Hard Drive, 128 GB Solid-State Drive
- 17.3-Inch Screen
- Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
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Release date | October 2001 |
Number of items | 1 |
5. Dogs and People in Social, Working, Economic or Symbolic Interaction (Proceedings of the 9th ICAZ Conference)
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Length | 8.3 Inches |
Weight | 1.25 Pounds |
Width | 0.4 Inches |
Release date | August 2016 |
Number of items | 1 |
6. Archaeology: Theories, Methods, and Practice (Sixth Edition)
Used Book in Good Condition
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Height | 9.1 Inches |
Length | 7.5 Inches |
Weight | 3.25 Pounds |
Width | 1.4 Inches |
Release date | April 2012 |
Number of items | 1 |
7. Principles of Archaeology
Used Book in Good Condition
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Height | 10.8 Inches |
Length | 8.6 Inches |
Weight | 2.69845808688 Pounds |
Width | 0.81 Inches |
8. Archaeology: An Introduction
- Used Book in Good Condition
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Height | 9.75 Inches |
Length | 7.75 Inches |
Weight | 1.653466965 pounds |
Width | 0.75 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
9. Northwest Coast Archaeology As Deep History
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Weight | 0.6 pounds |
Number of items | 1 |
10. Wonders of the Ancient World (Metro Books Edition)
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Weight | 1.75 Pounds |
Number of items | 1 |
11. Gardens and Gardeners of the Ancient World: History, Myth and Archaeology
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Height | 9.6 Inches |
Length | 7.2 Inches |
Weight | 1.9 Pounds |
Width | 0.8 Inches |
Release date | April 2016 |
Number of items | 1 |
12. Bulletin de la Société d'Études Scientifiques de l'Aude, 1898, Vol. 9 (Classic Reprint) (French Edition)
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Length | 5.98424 Inches |
Weight | 1.71078715312 Pounds |
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13. Ancient Lives: An Introduction to Archaeology and Prehistory
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14. Voices in Stone (Komatik series)
- Used Book in Good Condition
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Weight | 1.3 Pounds |
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15. The Bluffer's Guide to Archaeology: Bluff Your Way in Archaeology (Bluffer's Guides (Oval))
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Height | 7 Inches |
Length | 4.5 Inches |
Weight | 0.09479877266 Pounds |
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Number of items | 1 |
16. Myths & Mysteries in Archaeology
- Saucers not included
- Plain Small Tea Glasses (no handles) 6 pcs
- Great way of sipping your Turkish tea
- Famous Pasabahce brand
- NOTE: PACKAGE MAY VARY
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17. The Annals of London
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Length | 8.58266 Inches |
Weight | 3.83163411356 pounds |
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18. Looking for Dilmun
- SMART LISTENING: Smart Listening by Adaptive Sound Control automatically detects your activity such as traveling, walking, and waiting, then adjusts ambient sound settings to you.
- SOUND OPTIONS: With High-Resolution Audio you hear music true to the original recording. Feel immersed in sound with Virtual Surround Sound and adjust settings to hear what is important to you with Ambient Sound Control.
- HI-RES STREAMING: LDAC transmits approximately three times more data (at the maximum transfer rate of 990 kbps) than conventional Bluetoothwireless audio, which allows you to enjoy High-Resolution Audio content in exceptional sound quality
- POWER: Keep the music playing with long battery life and quick charging, giving 70 minutes of play after just 10 minutes of charge
- BUNDLED WITH: Sony SRS-XB2 Portable Wireless Speaker- Capable of Bluetooth and NFC connections this portable speaker will deliver big sound despite its small size.
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Height | 9 Inches |
Length | 6 Inches |
Weight | 2.2 Pounds |
Width | 1.63 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
19. Greater Mesoamerica: The Archaeology of West and Northwest Mexico
- Used Book in Good Condition
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Height | 11 Inches |
Length | 8.5 Inches |
Weight | 1.9 Pounds |
Width | 1 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
20. Archaeology: Theories, Methods and Practice (Fifth Edition)
- Cascading Pole Beans Are Sentinels of the Summer Garden
- Vigorous Vines Twine Effortlessly Up Supports
- Heavy Bearing Climbers Reliably Produce Extended Heavy Harvests
- Delicous Long Gold, Green and Burgundy Pods
- Generous Bounty of Juicy Tender Pods with Sweet and Meaty Bean Flavor
Features:
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Height | 9.0999818 Inches |
Length | 7.499985 Inches |
Weight | 3.3 Pounds |
Width | 1.3999972 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
🎓 Reddit experts on archaeology books
The comments and opinions expressed on this page are written exclusively by redditors. To provide you with the most relevant data, we sourced opinions from the most knowledgeable Reddit users based the total number of upvotes and downvotes received across comments on subreddits where archaeology books are discussed. For your reference and for the sake of transparency, here are the specialists whose opinions mattered the most in our ranking.
Random selection of some of my favorites to help you expand your horizons:
The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan is a great introduction to scientific skepticism.
Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris is a succinct refutation of Christianity as it's generally practiced in the US employing crystal-clear logic.
Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor by Anthony Everitt is the best biography of one of the most interesting men in history, in my personal opinion.
Travels with Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuscinski is a jaw-dropping book on history, journalism, travel, contemporary events, philosophy.
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson is a great tome about... everything. Physics, history, biology, art... Plus he's funny as hell. (Check out his In a Sunburned Country for a side-splitting account of his trip to Australia).
The Annotated Mona Lisa by Carol Strickland is a thorough primer on art history. Get it before going to any major museum (Met, Louvre, Tate Modern, Prado, etc).
Not the Impossible Faith by Richard Carrier is a detailed refutation of the whole 'Christianity could not have survived the early years if it weren't for god's providence' argument.
Six Easy Pieces by Richard Feynman are six of the easier chapters from his '63 Lectures on Physics delivered at CalTech. If you like it and really want to be mind-fucked with science, his QED is a great book on quantum electrodynamics direct from the master.
Lucy's Legacy by Donald Johanson will give you a really great understanding of our family history (homo, australopithecus, ardipithecus, etc). Equally good are Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors by Nicholas Wade and Mapping Human History by Steve Olson, though I personally enjoyed Before the Dawn slightly more.
Memory and the Mediterranean by Fernand Braudel gives you context for all the Bible stories by detailing contemporaneous events from the Levant, Italy, Greece, Egypt, etc.
After the Prophet by Lesley Hazleton is an awesome read if you don't know much about Islam and its early history.
Happy reading!
edit: Also, check out the Reasonable Doubts podcast.
There's quite a few books on zooarchaeology and paleoarch that you might find useful.
Starting off, there's more of a trade-appeal book that might lack more academic, research upmh but should get the overall job done - Domesticated: Evolution in a Man-Made World by Richard Francis.
However, more in the same vein but seems to be a bit more researched is Dogs: Their Fossil Relatives and Evolutionary History by a two experts in the field who have spent almost three decades researching canine evolution. Rather than link wolves to domestic dogs, it traces back for the common ancestor through genetics and fossilized remains.
Then I suggest Dogs: History, Myth, Art, if only because it's pretty and I read it over a break once. Has a lot of illustrations and material evidence of humans depicting dogs throughout the ages. Just kind of fun and relevant.
Now if you want academic papers edited into one volume, there's Dogs and People in Social, Working, Economic or Symbolic Interaction but that doesn't just look at the evolution of dogs through genetics like the first two. Rather, it examines the social place dogs have in human society, and how those roles have shifted depending on culture, location, time, and religious influences. In the same vein as Dogs (above) but not as fun? Definitely more dense and I've only read a few of the selected papers for reference.
Lastly, definitely more broad and applicable to more animals than JUST dogs, there's Care or Neglect? that seems just to be archaeological research into how people cared for animals, nursing them through diseases and injuries. It predominantly features dogs (and horses) though because of their importance to humans.
Steady reading, hope this helps that novel!
Edit: Oh! And if you want even more reads, I know there's quite a bit in Egyptology fields about animal care and remains, some of which focus on dogs and others more on myths. Not quite evolutionary track, like you seem to be asking for, but still of fringe relevance.
The books that I most need are:
Principles of Archaeology
Field Methods in Archaeology
Archaeology: Theories, Methods, and Practice
They are kinda pricey, which is why I haven't been able to get them yet, but nowhere near $100. And used is perfectly fine. I've just been borrowing from the library whenever they are available, so it's not urgent that I get them, but it would be nice to not have to stay in the library for hours, because you can't leave with textbooks. And in case it wasn't obvious, my major is Anthropology with a specialization in Archaeology. I am taking about four archeology classes this semester alone.
Also, if those are way too out of price range, I have a whole wishlist full of learning resources. Anything would help!
Archaeology Learning And Resources Wishlist
Ok, we can look at that for a moment. Before we start though, let's frame the discussion in a more academic light and say: "His views do not correspond with the current consensus of the research community." That way it's not about "right" and "wrong" but about what is "most likely" the correct outcome.
We should begin by noting that Hancock is not trained in history, archaeology or anthropology. Please recognize that this does not make him wrong by default, but it does make his claims more susceptible to criticism by individuals who are trained in those fields.
Wikipedia suggests that works by Fagan, Regal and Greene contain criticisms of Hancock's work. The wiki page on pseudoarchaeology also contains some discussion of Hancock. More importantly however, the wiki page lists characteristics of pseudoarchaeology that we can use to examine the claims that Hancock makes.
Not being my direct area of study, I don't know the location of strong academic resources, but I suspect that if you sent an e-mail to your local university's department of history/archaeology they would be more than happy to point you in the right direction.
I hope that this helps!
Edit: You might also try messaging one of the archaeology folks on the panel of experts for asksocialscience. They may not have checked in, but you might be able to get more direct answers from them.
I think that the best way of answering this is by focusing on the strictly archaeological perspective of the 'historical' Jesus, as opposed to any other spiritual of ideological view-points.
In this case I think it is fairly important to delineate between an archaeological approach and a historical approach, an archaeological one being based on the material evidence and the historical, being based on the written word. As you say, the Jewish people tended to be good at documenting (particularly their own) history and thus the 'Historical Jesus' crops up.
However, what you are asking really is dealing with an 'archaeological Jesus,' and therein lies the complication. As has been mentioned by a previous commenter, there isn't really that much surprise that there isn't any archaeological evidence for Jesus. To take it down to the bare facts, to trace a single individual, a member of (what we could consider) the lower classes, who is not known for his coin-minting or building projects, nor stone masonry, there really isn't very much to work with.
While we could work this in to a discussion of relics and whether these could be counted among the true 'archaeological' remains of a 'historical Jesus' is another issue altogether, as these have had a tendency to be more along the lines of Medieval 'replicas' of what was imagined to be the (for instance) part of the remains of the cross on which Jesus was crucified.
For more research into the subject I'd recommend A Very Short Introduction to Biblical Archaeology and A Very Short Introduction to Jesus both of which will be able to have a far more erudite argument than mine here, and have recommendations for further reading. If you are interested in furthering your knowledge of the archaeological perspective (in a general sense, not related to biblical archaeology) then investigating Renfrew and Bahn's Book, 'Archaeology: Theories, Methods and Practice' would also be good (although if at all possible borrow it from a library as it is a little on the weighty text-book side of research!).
In terms of actual archaeological theory (as in, not methods, techniques and practice) I'd agree absolutely - easily the best text on archaeological theory available, and damned comprehensive too.
Having called the OP lazy above, I will say that if OP is looking more for method and practice (and not theory) then Renfrew and Bahn's Archaeological Theories, Methods and Practice is probably the best overall reader available.
I'd definitely recommend Madonna Moss's "Northwest Coast Archaeology as Deep History". It's fairly recent (2011), is an easy read, and would point you deeper into the literature. It's available as a paperback (despite what Amazon says) or as an e-book, the latter is only 10$ I think.
Also, The Midden, which is the newsletter of the Archaeological Society of BC has recently gone digital and open access. Link..
I've read some good ones. I'll try to list all that I can remember from when I was getting my history degree and ones I've read for fun. I read the Iliad, odyssey, Thucydides, Herodotus. I read a lot of those guys. Unfortunately I don't have very many of my books and I can't remember all the titles. But, I do work in a library and have seen some good ones. Here are some links to some:
https://www.amazon.com/Wonders-Ancient-World-Metro-Books/dp/1435129660/ref=sr_1_18?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1495553357&sr=1-18&keywords=Wonders+of+the+ancient+world
https://www.amazon.com/History-Ancient-World-Earliest-Accounts/dp/039305974X/ref=sr_1_27?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1495553171&sr=1-27&keywords=Ancient+Greece
https://www.amazon.com/Rise-Athens-Worlds-Greatest-Civilization/dp/0812994582/ref=zg_bs_4880_22?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=C0JCVQDM2MA8DDZ43TYV
https://www.amazon.com/SPQR-History-Ancient-Mary-Beard/dp/1631492225/ref=pd_sim_14_33?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1631492225&pd_rd_r=0HRJM2DS4HWZMWWQXP8B&pd_rd_w=OTprV&pd_rd_wg=vT33O&psc=1&refRID=0HRJM2DS4HWZMWWQXP8B
https://www.amazon.com/National-Geographic-Greeks-Illustrated-History/dp/142621670X/ref=zg_bs_4880_43?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=RXBQK8K2K31NX6BE98ME
credit where credit is due: Inspired by this post, which is art from this book.
Hi there, here are some options, have fun!!
Dresses:
one
two
three
four
five
six
seven
eight
Separates:
top one
top two
top three
top four
top five
skirt one
skirt two
skirt three
skirt four
skirt five
Accessories:
one
two
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four
bunch of 'em
Fagan's Ancient Lives is the Archaeology 101 textbook at Arizona State University, where I am completing my degree. I greatly enjoyed it.
https://www.amazon.com/Ancient-Lives-Introduction-Archaeology-Prehistory/dp/1138188794/ref=pd_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=K9JJFHA5QDMBQ0KFZRKK
Arctic archaeology is certainly an interesting thing to study at the moment. A lot of questions are unanswered and there's a hell of a lot of work to be done. So I think that the archaeological community is divided on a lot of issues. There are some that view the people living in the Arctic (at least in Canada and Greenland) as fairly isolated. So they would say that no or little interaction occurred between the Dorset, Norse, and Thule. I am of the thought that we are very much underestimating the size of networks at this time (at least the networks between Arctic peoples). Lots of new archaeological evidence too is pointing to a much more complex situation.
I would say that studying the Arctic is still very much divided into those regions you mentioned. In some ways, it has to do with modern boundaries and in others it does reflect the realities of the past. There is certainly a lot of evidence that shows population movements between Greenland and Canada than there is between Greenland and Siberia. And, indeed Greenlandic Inuit are different from Canadian Inuit. I would say that cultures within those regions certainly interacted with each other and there is some very interesting links that are being drawn between the Saami, Siberian people, and Dorset (the archaeology of shamanism book I linked in my first post talks about this a lot). They certainly did not contact each other but there are some interesting cultural continuities among Arctic groups of different regions. Hell, there is even a case where you get ritually buried walrus skulls in a Norse site in Greenland and a Dorset site in southern Baffin Island (slight differences between the two but still very similar).
Unfortunately, there is no single "go-to" book concerning Arctic history. There is one book called "Prehistory of the Eastern Arctic" (1985) by Moreau Maxwell but it costs a small fortune. I would suggest reading Ancient People of the Arctic and The Last Imaginary Place both by Robert McGhee (a legendary Arctic archaeologist). The latter even goes into Siberian cultures too. They can generally be found fairly cheap and most libraries would have a copy. They are written for a wider audience too so they never get too bogged down in the specifics. There's also Voices in Stone by Peter Schledermann (another fantastic Arctic archaeologist). I've found this book slightly harder to find but the writing is just as strong. The Schledermann book also focuses more on the High Arctic (e.g. Ellesmere Island) since that is where the author did most of his fieldwork.
grab this book: http://www.amazon.com/The-Bluffers-Guide-Archaeology-Guides/dp/1902825470
it'll help you sound like a pro in no time.
Based on the evidence of historians etc. Most experts would concede the evidence for the case of a person named "Jesus" existing justifies the claim. However this says nothing to the claims of his actions, miracles etc.
one audiobook I was listening to Myths and mysteries in archeology was mentioning a letter from a man named Jesus to a man named Jesus about a third man named Jesus... Good book if you get a chance...
A good book that treats Britain (and Ireland) as a frequently-varying collection of nations rather than as a single political entity is The Isles: A History by Norman Davies.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Isles-History-Norman-Davies/dp/0333692837
This is a good overview which also covers a bit of Ireland. British history is almost always conflated with English history which this book avoids.
The name Dilmun in the South-East of the map brought back a memory. Read Looking for Dilmun: The search for a lost civilization A great tale of travel and archaeological research in the Persian Gulf.
This Amazon page offers an "About the Author" section that provides the following information:
A review from Reed Business Information (on the same web page) describes Mr. Richardson as an "historian, writer, lecturer, publisher, and borough politician."
Though the web doesn't seem to reveal much more, you could try seeking further information from Mr. Richardson directly by writing to him through Historical Publications, a publishing house he founded. His e-mail address is available on the company's web site.
Yeah, and it's only $624.26 on Amazon! Get your copy today!
I recommend Norman Davies book The Isles: A History which partly covers this period.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Isles-History-Norman-Davies/dp/0333692837
The earrings are really common in the figures. In fact, I think they were the only culture in Mesoamerica to use multiple earrings rather than ear spools (ancient equivalent of gauges).
Here are some examples,
http://www.archaeology.org/images/ND2013/Tattoos/western-shaft-tomb-tattoo.jpg
http://collections.lacma.org/node/253536
http://collections.lacma.org/node/253548
http://collections.lacma.org/node/253549
http://collections.lacma.org/node/253566
http://collections.lacma.org/node/253588
http://collections.lacma.org/node/179319
http://collections.lacma.org/node/184399
http://collections.lacma.org/node/188689
http://collections.lacma.org/node/253589
http://collections.lacma.org/node/253548
http://collections.lacma.org/node/253616
http://collections.lacma.org/node/237937
http://collections.lacma.org/node/2159024
Also, if you want a book to read, my advisor (Beekman) and his colleague recently put out an edited volume on the shaft tomb peoples
https://www.amazon.com/Shaft-Tombs-Figures-Mexican-Society/dp/0981979998/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481411553&sr=8-1&keywords=shaft+tomb
Here are some other common books
https://www.amazon.com/Shaft-Tomb-Figures-West-Mexico/dp/B002N7KAXA/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1481411553&sr=8-2&keywords=shaft+tomb
https://www.amazon.com/Sculpture-Ancient-West-Mexico-Collection/dp/082631175X/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1481411616&sr=1-4&keywords=west+mexico
https://www.amazon.com/Ancient-West-Mexico-archaeology-past/dp/0865591717/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1481411616&sr=1-5&keywords=west+mexico
https://www.amazon.com/Sculpture-Ancient-West-Mexico-Collection/dp/0875870406/ref=sr_1_31?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1481411647&sr=1-31&keywords=west+mexico
https://www.amazon.com/Heritage-Power-Sculpture-Collection-Metropolitan/dp/030010488X/ref=sr_1_35?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1481411647&sr=1-35&keywords=west+mexico
https://www.amazon.com/Anecdotal-sculpture-ancient-Angeles-Publication/dp/B0006W0TB2/ref=sr_1_55?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1481411676&sr=1-55&keywords=west+mexico
https://www.amazon.com/Greater-Mesoamerica-Archaeology-Northwest-Mexico/dp/0874809509/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1481411791&sr=1-1&keywords=greater+mesoamerica
https://www.amazon.com/Archaeology-West-Northwest-Mesoamerica/dp/0813302013/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1481411822&sr=1-1&keywords=michael+foster+phil+weigand
I don't envy you. The used versions of most of those books on amazon are still more than $80.
This one is less than $10:
http://www.amazon.com/Archaeology-Theories-Methods-Practice-Edition/dp/0500287139/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345575926&sr=8-1&keywords=9780500287132
Goddamn, Man After Man was a cool book. There is some seriously disturbing shit in there.
The giant blobby meat-humans in particular.
I'd never have pictured that as a holiday card, but y'know...it really works!