“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.
For historians, the colonial period holds many mysteries. In Written in Bone, Sally Walker tells the story of America's earliest settlers in an interesting way, by studying human remains and bones. Sally walker works alongside historians as they uncover the secrets of colonial era gravesites. Written in Bone covers the entire process, from excavating human remains to studying the burial methods and how scientists, historians and archeologists go about this. Readers will be amazed by how much detail these processes uncover, such as gender, race, diets and the lifestyles of many different people. The reader will began to see the colonial era in a new way.
The Europeans changed the land of the home of the Indians, which they renamed New England. In Changes in the Land, Cronon explains all the different aspects in how the Europeans changed the land. Changing by the culture and organization of the Indians lives, the land itself, including the region’s plants and animals. Cronon states, “The shift from Indian to European dominance in New England entailed important changes well known to historians in the ways these peoples organized their lives, but it also involved fundamental reorganizations less well known to historians in the region’s plant and animal communities,” (Cronon, xv). New England went through human development, environmental and ecological change from the Europeans.
writes her stories with the intent to shock her readers into seeing the truth behind human
Every individual has two lives, the life we live, and the life we live after that. Nobody is perfect, but if one works hard enough, he or she can stay away from failure. The Natural is a novel written by Bernard Malamud. It is Malamud’s first novel that initially received mixed reactions but afterwards, it was regarded as an outstanding piece of literature. It is a story about Roy Hobbs who after making mistakes in his life, he returns the bribery money and is left with self-hatred for mistakes he has done. Hobbs was a baseball player who aspired to be famous, but because of his carnal and materialistic desire, his quest for heroism failed, as he was left with nothing. In the modern world, the quest for heroism is a difficult struggle, and this can be seen through the protagonist in The Natural.
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.
Katherine Anne Porter’s stories are brilliant, vivid snapshots of lives, and reveal the foolishness of man. Everyone sees life from their own perspective and bases their actions and thoughts on personal experiences. Some of her characters will never see past their own noses, while others cannot get the courage to change. Reality clashes with dreams in many stories, and can leave disillusionment or despair.
...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.
But in her pursuit of supernatural artifacts, go here she must. So begins the next adventure for the iconic archaeologist.
I had an opportunity to visit the oriental institute museum . During my visit to the museum I was made aware of its location and the importance of it to chicago. The museum housed many exhibits of historical value dating civilization back to the paleolithic period of 2,500,000-100,000 B.C. Below you'll find examples of mans rise through the use of tools and refined skills from cave living to structured living throughout evolution. This is an experience that has grounded me to a new interest in structures that we have devised to become the homes we use today for the rest of my life.
2. Brothwell, Don R., (1963) Digging up Bones, the Excavation, Treatment and Study of Human Skeletal Remain’s. London British Museum of Natural History.
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
Firstly, I liked the way in which the author uses his experiences to relate ...
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….
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.
Films such as Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, Lara Croft Tomb Raider, and The Mummy, feature archaeologists that uncover magnificent finds marveled at for their monetary value or supernatural power. When asked about archaeologists, forty campers from Penn mentioned Indiana Jones. Five campers mentioned the movie Atlantis: The Lost City and four mentioned The Mummy. These were the top pop culture archaeologists that campers were aware of. Not surprisingly, the character of Indiana Jones peppered the camper’s responses, making an appearance in many of the campers’ drawings and descriptions of archaeologists. Figure 33 shows the drawings of camper 42, age nine, from both the beginning and end of the week. The drawings from this camper are some of the most telling, as the camper showed both what he would expect archeologists to look like and his understanding of what an archaeologist looks like in