Archaeology: The Widening Debate

This handsome, hardback volume of 18 papers is billed, in the introduction, as "a celebration by archaeologists world-wide of the strengths, the energies and sheer intellectual excitement of their discipline" produced to celebrate the centenary of the British Academy, Britain's premier humanities funding source. There is a danger of both parochialism and self-indulgence in such an endeavour, and in some cases, we have seen these topics, treated in much the same way by the same authors, elsewhere. However there are some gems, such as Rhys Jones' last account of Australian archaeology, written when he knew he was dying of cancer and encapsulating a lifetime's experience. Contents: Archaeology and the British Academy (Barry Cunliffe); Parallel tracks in yime: Human evolution and archaeology (Robert Foley); Genetics and language in contemporary archaeology (Colin Renfrew); Archaeological theory (Ian Hodder); Yamal to Greenland: Global connections in circumpolar archaeology (Colin Renfrew); North America and Mesoamerica (George Cowgill, Michelle Hegmon and George Milner); South America: In the garden of the forking paths (Gustavo Politis); Theatrum Oceani: Themes and arguments concerning the prehistory of Australia and the Pacific (Rhys Jones and Matthew Spriggs); South and Southeast Asia (K Paddaya and Peter Belwood); Eurasia east of the Urals (C F W Higham); Western Eurasia (A F Harding); The first civilisations in the Middle East (Nicholas Postgate); The Mediterranean (Anna Maria Bietti Sestieri, Alberto Cazzella and Alain Schnapp); Timeless time: Africa and the world (Martin Hall); Marriages of true minds: Archaeology with texts (Martin Carver); Into the black hole: Archaeology 2001 and beyond ...(William Rathje, Vincent Lamotta and William Longacre); Archaeology, heritage and interpretation (Nick Merriman); Computing futures: Visions of the Past (Robin Boast).