Superb Account of the Archaeology of Little Bighorn
shoes review Uncovering History Archaeological Investigations Bighorn
Prior to the late-20th century, the history -- in the form of artifacts, etc. -- unearthed by archaeologists was referred to as "the testimony of the spade." With the development of sophisticated modern electronic equipment, however, this should today more correctly be called "the testimony of the metal detector" (not to short change GPS, ground penetrating radar, the laboratory microscope and other advanced technology that are now the common tools of the trade). Yet, as revealed in world-renowned archaeologist Douglas D. Scott's superb new book, the most important development in modern archaeology is the systematic, rigorously applied, painstakingly-detailed methodology that has succeeded in advancing the process of 'uncovering history' far beyond mere 'souvenir collecting.' Using all the tools of modern forensic science, today's archaeologists are really 'battlefield detectives' who treat historical battle sites essentially as 'crime scenes' whose 'clues' in the form of artifacts must be carefully discovered, logged, examined, analyzed and collated with other clues and evidence to reveal what took place.
Scott, who knows the ground at Little Bighorn better than anyone today, has written an outstanding examination of 130 years of archaeological investigation at one of the most famous battle sites in American history -- the June 25, 1876 Battle of Little Bighorn, aka 'Custer's Last Stand.' This is not a detailed, blow by blow account of the battle itself -- as Scott notes early in the book, there are countless excellent books on the battle already written -- but Uncovering History is the essential 'history of the history of Little Bighorn' the story of how our knowledge of what happened has been informed and reshaped by the work of battlefield archaeologists, as well as how that hard but absolutely necessary work is done and what it tells us. I highly recommend this outstanding book.
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Prior to the late-20th century, the history -- in the form of artifacts, etc. -- unearthed by archaeologists was referred to as "the testimony of the spade." With the development of sophisticated modern electronic equipment, however, this should today more correctly be called "the testimony of the metal detector" (not to short change GPS, ground penetrating radar, the laboratory microscope and other advanced technology that are now the common tools of the trade). Yet, as revealed in world-renowned archaeologist Douglas D. Scott's superb new book, the most important development in modern archaeology is the systematic, rigorously applied, painstakingly-detailed methodology that has succeeded in advancing the process of 'uncovering history' far beyond mere 'souvenir collecting.' Using all the tools of modern forensic science, today's archaeologists are really 'battlefield detectives' who treat historical battle sites essentially as 'crime scenes' whose 'clues' in the form of artifacts must be carefully discovered, logged, examined, analyzed and collated with other clues and evidence to reveal what took place.
Scott, who knows the ground at Little Bighorn better than anyone today, has written an outstanding examination of 130 years of archaeological investigation at one of the most famous battle sites in American history -- the June 25, 1876 Battle of Little Bighorn, aka 'Custer's Last Stand.' This is not a detailed, blow by blow account of the battle itself -- as Scott notes early in the book, there are countless excellent books on the battle already written -- but Uncovering History is the essential 'history of the history of Little Bighorn' the story of how our knowledge of what happened has been informed and reshaped by the work of battlefield archaeologists, as well as how that hard but absolutely necessary work is done and what it tells us. I highly recommend this outstanding book.