Fictional Archaeology Doesn't Need a Thesis Defense
I'm going to increase the frequency of my blog posts, I promise! Right now I'd like to bring up the subject of archaeology in fiction novels. I'm sure every archaeologist has looked for it at one time or another. I just finished reading Pierre Boulle's novel "Planet of the Apes" and noted that archaeology plays a pivotal role in the plot (the discipline plays an important role in the Charleton Heston movie as well, but the two actually vary quite a bit). For the trivia junkies: Boulle's other famous novel is "Bridge Over the River Kwai", which was also made into a highly regarded film.
I found this website by Anita G. Cohen-Williams of Arizona State University: Archaeology in Fiction Bibliography. This appears to be a great place to start looking for quality novels that include archaeology. I use the term 'quality' loosely here, as some of these titles do not strike me as very appealing. In fact, out of this entire list, I think the most intriguing novels are those written by science fiction authors. But that's just me. Browse around, and add some books to your list of "Things to read instead of research for my thesis".
Peter Ackroyd's "First Light" is on this list. I bring this up because this book has been sitting on my shelf for at least a couple of years and I have yet to read it. But now that I know there's archaeology in it, I'll be getting to it right away! Note that the compilation date of the bibliography is 1994. And yet there's no mention of Planet of the Apes! Damn those dirty archaeologists! Some other titles I know about that feature archaeology but are not on the list (or were written after 1994):
Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient (snicker snicker)
Robert Sawyer's Hominids series (excellent)
John Darnton's Neanderthal (could have been worse)
If these didn't make it, there are bound to be more. Can you think of any more? Anyone?
I found this website by Anita G. Cohen-Williams of Arizona State University: Archaeology in Fiction Bibliography. This appears to be a great place to start looking for quality novels that include archaeology. I use the term 'quality' loosely here, as some of these titles do not strike me as very appealing. In fact, out of this entire list, I think the most intriguing novels are those written by science fiction authors. But that's just me. Browse around, and add some books to your list of "Things to read instead of research for my thesis".
Peter Ackroyd's "First Light" is on this list. I bring this up because this book has been sitting on my shelf for at least a couple of years and I have yet to read it. But now that I know there's archaeology in it, I'll be getting to it right away! Note that the compilation date of the bibliography is 1994. And yet there's no mention of Planet of the Apes! Damn those dirty archaeologists! Some other titles I know about that feature archaeology but are not on the list (or were written after 1994):
Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient (snicker snicker)
Robert Sawyer's Hominids series (excellent)
John Darnton's Neanderthal (could have been worse)
If these didn't make it, there are bound to be more. Can you think of any more? Anyone?
posted by Kris at 10:38 PM
1 Comments:
Some degree can really be hard to write thesis because some things are really hard to explain, and be more understandable when it is displayed. Anyway, this would certainly help with thesis writer that deals with the same field as you. Archeology can really be hard but for people who live and breathe archeology can’t have any problem at all.
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