“Archeology” is a short fiction story written by Jennifer Egan relaying her dreams and aspirations as a child and how they change through adolescence and early adulthood as she learns more about herself and forms her identity.
As a child, Egan desires to be a surgeon, then in adolescent years discovers a particular aversion to blood and switches her pursuits to archeology, as that field is very popular at the time. Many pivotal discoveries made the press in the early seventies and inspired her young mind with visions of adventure in exotic places. She tells of her youthful naivety, when during her senior year in high school, she wrote to several prestigious graduate programs offering her services to their archeology digs, thinking that she could get paid to explore in the upcoming summer. A reality check comes though, in the form of the single reply letter she receives enlightening her that graduate students pay them to go on digs and she is nowhere near adequate for the position. Still not giving up on her dream, Egan uses her hard earned money to pay for participation in a far less illustrious excavation venture for three weeks in Kampsville, Illinois. The pitifully small town is far removed from the extraordinary places she envisioned exploring and investigating through the years. The dig itself is anticlimactic to her preconceived notions of archeology in that she is allotted only one square metre of earth and not allowed to dig or even sit down. She has to squat down and painstakingly scrape away the soil with a scalpel in the sweltering summer sun. She sticks it out though, and completes her three week stint in Illinois, resigned to the fact that the life of an archeologist, just as that of a surgeon, was not her preferre...
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...l with many of the realities of the profession. Egan’s excitement for life and discovery are evident and as I said before contagious; she makes you want to get out and pursue your own dreams. I suppose if one had no dreams or ambitions, this story would not have much meaning. That would be tragically sad.
When researching for another paper, I found a quote from Karen Ravn, on
ThinkExist.com, that I feel perfectly and eloquently exemplifies what this story said to me-
“Only as high as I can reach can I grow,
only as far as I seek I can go,
only as deep as I look I can see,
Only as much as I dream can I be.”
The author effectively delivers a message of important truths through a humorous look at her own personal experience. I really enjoyed this story and would recommend others to read it. I now am interested in reading more of Jennifer Egan’s work.
Moundville has been the focus of a large amount of archaeological interest due to its impressive earthworks. Clarence B. Moore produced well-publicized works. During his time in Moundville in 1905 and 1906, Moore pierced the mounds with “trial holes,” finding numerous burials and related artifacts. Unlike many treasure hunters, Moore donated the majority of his find...
The Cone Gatherers written by Robin Jenkins covers many topics. The two topics I shall mainly focus on are the eventual insanity of Duror the gamekeeper and also his evil towards Calum and Neil, the two cone gatherers. As I read the book, I discovered that Duror was an evil and disturbed human being who was driven to insanity by his hate towards the cone-gatherers.
...l of her journey, she always tried, sometimes successfully and sometimes not, but she did try to move on. She also learned forgiveness, to others and to herself. Her story is incredibly insightful to the realities of the world. Her problems were none too out of the ordinary; death, infidelity, drugs, scandal- at least one of those is in everyone's life. She admits, “I’d done a lot of dumb and dangerous things in my life…”(Strayed 94). The way she handled certain situations was not the best, but that is what made her life a learning process and more importantly that is the story that has inspired so many lives today.
2. Brothwell, Don R., (1963) Digging up Bones, the Excavation, Treatment and Study of Human Skeletal Remain’s. London British Museum of Natural History.
"Human Antiquity" by Feder and Park presents an overview of the fossil evidence of our evolutionary history, the current theories of species assignment, and the current theories of the driving forces behind the speciation of our family tree, for the most part. They do not go into great detail about the rationale behind the separation of all these fossils into separate species, other than to say that they are different or “different enough”. This makes it difficult for me to assess for myself exactly what it is that separates Homo rudolfensis from Homo habilis, for example. They do say that the majority of these categories are based on skeletal morphology, usually from specific traits seen in skulls. Which, as we have learned from Prost’s study in skeletal growth and development in his book "Who were the Neanderthals?", does not necessarily reflect genetic heritage and may just be examples of variation within a range of normal. This indicates, to me at least, that the task at hand is to determine exactly which traits are the synapomorphies we can use to distinguish separation. We must be sure that the synapomorphies we observe really are synapomorphies, the result of traits passed down genetically from a common ancestor. If the appearance of an adult skull is an indirect result of brain growth, then we must reassess the way we evaluate morphology in fossils. This is not as easy a task as looking at an object and seeing how it is different, but this should not come as a big surprise as the more we look at nature the more we find it is rarely “easy” to look at.
Archaeology has a way of inspiring images of exotic times of long ago. Curiosity about the past has excited the hearts and minds of mankind for centuries. Oscar Wilde, a poet and archaeologist, said “[Archaeology] was a means by which they could touch the dry dust of antiquity into the very breath and beauty of life, and fill the new wine of romanticism forms that had been old and outworn” (p54). It’s easy for us to fantasize about a time much different than our own, and often we choose not to see the injustice and inequalities that existed. For the scope of this exposition, the focus will not be on the mysteries of the ancient world. Instead, it will be aimed at the economical inequalities of gender and class in the ancient society, and how archaeological evidence found in Mayan architecture, diet, and burial sites is used to detect these inequalities.
The Neandertals lived between 30,000 and 150,000 years ago in Europe, the Near and Middle East, and in Western Asia. Compared to our other human ancestors, much more is known about Neandertals due to a larger fossil record, of which several hundred fossils have been found. Despite this, the question of how the Neandertals met their end is still prominent in their field of paleoanthropology today. In Twilight of the Neandertals by Kate Wong, several theories of how the Neandertals might have met their end are addressed, and the role of the early Homo sapiens in the demise of the Neandertals is speculated.
Therefore, it’s difficult to start a conversation between geologists, archaeologists and historians. It’s vital to narrow the research prospects in these fields but also I think there needs to be more scientific discourse between different fields that affect each other in one way or another. The human historical paradigm is grounded in the research of archaeology. However, Hancock debates that the field of geology has more to teach humans about our history than we think. He debates that around 15,000 to 8,000 BC, during the last ice age, an unprecedented world-wide cataclysm was overlooked that led to the extinction of countless species, including the megafauna (Hancock
Diane Urban, for instance, was one of the many people who were trapped inside this horror. She “was comforting a woman propped against a wall, her legs virtually amputated” (96). Flynn and Dwyer appeal to the reader’s ethical conscience and emotions by providing a story of a victim who went through many tragedies. Causing readers to feel empathy for the victims. In addition, you began to put yourself in their shoes and wonder what you would do.
• This experience made her very secluded and reserved. She thought a lot about suicide but found comfort in writing. She became an observer rather than a participator in everyday life.
In The Houses of History, many different schools of historical thought are presented and light in shed on what exactly it means to be those different types of historians. Not all historians think the same way or approach history from the same perspective, but some similar groups of thought have converged together and have formed the various types of historians that will be presented, such as empiricists, psychohistorians, oral historians, and gender historians. All of these groups can approach the same event or concept and look at them in an entirely different way simply due to the way the historical approach they are accustomed to views things.
But in her pursuit of supernatural artifacts, go here she must. So begins the next adventure for the iconic archaeologist.
Agatha Christie had many influences in her writing varying from her home life, to her family to even World War 1, in her stories a big influence came from a popular hobby that was sparking interest in … time period among society which was Archaeology….
writes her stories with the intent to shock her readers into seeing the truth behind human
Archeology is the study of human behavior, development and origin and it provides a better understanding of man’s past. Some individuals are very excited to participate in this area of study. Archeology is a way to learn about the history the Earth that includes human civilizations and geological changes. While exploring the world, archeologist use different methods to find the answers to many of humanities questions. To have a better understand of the field of archeology, one needs to know the educational and skills required, career opportunities, and the future of archeology.