Litsy

The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World | David W. Anthony

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The Horse, the Wheel, the Language, by David W. Anthony (2007)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A thorough exploration of the evidence in favour of the Kurgan hypothesis of Indo-European origins.

Review: This did a great job in filling in the pieces for me in where this area of study has been at this century.It offers a detailed defense of the Kurgan hypothesis through a mixture of linguistic and archaeological evidence. Cont.

Mattsbookaday That said, in this thoroughness it got awfully repetitive, knocking it down a bit for me. It‘s also now 17 years old, so we‘ll have to see how it stands up to the new release on the topic.

Bookish Pair: For a new title on the subject I‘m excited to read, Proto by Laura Spinney 3d

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Robotswithpersonality

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

so-so

Feeling a little weird about this one...
At first you've got the 'archaeology is nifty, here's some nifty archaeology!' Like a 'series of articles interviewing different archaeologists' feel, kind of chatty pop science narration vibes.
Then: uh oh, but it's really hard to get a decent paying job, or funding, or legal protection for sites, often at the mercy of private developers, and then there's identifying human remains from historical wars 1/?

Robotswithpersonality 2/? and current crimes and protecting heritage sites from current wars and...veering a little too close to true crime for my taste.

If the idea was to ease the reader in with the adventurous bits and move into harder hitting topics, I don't think the progression landed, because the writing tone continues to feel fairly light. 2w

Robotswithpersonality 3/? The ending chapter on world heritage emphasizes some important points, but despite visiting new sites and talking to new people, it does feel like a repeat of concerns already expressed, with the possible exception of introducing contemporary historical archaeology and on a separate note: American archaeologists stealing the spotlight from a Peruvian archaeologist, I appreciated the call out of appropriation. 2w

Robotswithpersonality 4/? Despite the uneven tone, the book focuses in on several important issues:

Of particular interest to me was the contrast in funding between active digging and preservation of archives - the idea that what was previously discovered could still be lost to time because there's not enough money to either catalogue what has been found or keep the storage space necessary to house it, and yet there isn't enough funds to employ all archaeologists in 2w

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Robotswithpersonality 5/? digging or teaching/research positions either, says something dismal about how the position is viewed by the governments determining funding.

I can appreciate that various professional archaeologists are softening on amateur efforts that are not just well-intentioned but conscientious, but similar to all the appreciable volunteer efforts, and the using salvage law because conservation law hasn't caught up, these work-arounds point out that 2w

Robotswithpersonality 6/? the legislation and the funding is lacking.

One final point on funding that was not addressed by Johnson: one of the chapters in this book felt awfully close to military propaganda, especially in relation to talking up the amount of money the American Department of Defence spends on archaeology, in harsh contrast to the earlier discussions about all the ways archaeologists and archaeology groups have lost or depleted funding, 2w

Robotswithpersonality 7/? almost like the military is getting a way bigger budget than sciences and so can afford to throw some of that to archaeologists...🤨...this book was written in 2014, but the news suggests this problem has only gotten worse in the U.S.

Some additional positives?
2w

Robotswithpersonality 8/? I did like seeing the multiple instances featured of archaeologists mentioning the growing emphasis on the intelligence of ancient man, ancient civilizations, especially indigenous populations, fighting against racist ideas of the past.

In a similar vein, there is frequent acknowledgement of the strides women have taken in the profession, always in opposition to patriarchal bastions, the old ideas about allowing women into the schools or 2w

Robotswithpersonality 9/? into the field. 🙄

It's obvious that Johnson admires archaeologists' devotion in the face of so many obstacles, it does invite investigation, to know what provokes such stubborn perseverance, but it's clear in her conclusion that it's not a particular site or hypothesis that draws them in, as much as it is the passion for the field in general, looking into the history of humans. 2w

Robotswithpersonality 10/? There is another book by Marilyn Johnson on by TBR, but I admit, I'm second guessing it after this reading experience. I think I could have stuck with any one archaeologist she introduced and had a more engaging time in a book written in their own words. Will have to see if there are memoirs, something a little less dry than grey literature, by any of the professionals in question, getting their perspective first hand, and not bouncing around 2w

Robotswithpersonality 11/11 quite as much.

⚠️ Description of butchering an animal, mention of SA, misogyny 2w

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Robotswithpersonality

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

He made a friend! 🥹♥️🦙

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Robotswithpersonality

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

Unique NYE plans. ☺️🥂

7 likes

Robotswithpersonality

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

Preservation and conservation: keep the history found from being lost. 👏🏻

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Robotswithpersonality

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

Whew, again I say 😮‍💨

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Robotswithpersonality

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

😮‍💨

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Robotswithpersonality

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

“To some extent, archaeologists find what they're looking for, and if you never look for evidence of powerful women, even if the hills and valleys are full of queens and warriors, they'll be invisible.“ 👸🏿👸🏽👸🏾👸🏻🙌🏻

7 likes

Robotswithpersonality

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