A Distinguished Operator Seriously in Need of a Tame Scholar

John Ray

  • Finding the Walls of Troy: Frank Calvert and Heinrich Schliemann at Hisarlik by Susan Heuck Allen
    California, 409 pp, £27.50, March 1999, ISBN 0 520 20868 4

Archaeologists come in shapes and sizes. Some are more theoretical than others, some are interested in written records and put their faith in them, others distrust texts and despise them. There is a tendency for archaeologists to get priggish about their findings, in many cases in inverse proportion to the glamour of the things they are digging up. Some thump the table about the importance of their coprolites or disintegrating fish bones, and as a result those whose work involves finding solid gold coffins or whole pyramids can be made to feel guilty. Some publish their findings promptly, accepting the risk that they will need to recant some of their opinions, others save everything for retirement, so courting the danger that they will never appear at all.

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