Overview

Australian archaeology has been involved in a great enterprise over the last sixty years, uncovering the deep past of a desert continent and the history of its first people. This book is a guide to the catchphrases of the discipline. It is a meditation on science and place, culture and politics, deep time and the Dreaming and it is steeped in an appreciation of good writing and a well-turned phrase. Woven in amongst these quotations is the story of how, as a nation, we are coming to terms with ancient Australia. The entries are drawn from letters and journals, histories and poems, newspapers and novels. Each has been chosen because it is a pithy summation of an issue. Combined, they map the development of the field and encourage a dialogue between science and the humanities. Reviewed here in the Australian Book Review

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9781922235749

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Reviews

The editors show the diverse and storied influences on the history and practice of archaeology in Australia, from Deuteronomy to Gough Whitlam. Black-and-white photographs of archaeologists, Aboriginal peoples, and Australian landscapes accompany and contextualise the quotations, earthing them and illustrating a handful of archaeological encounters. A pint-sized collection that punches well above its weight, this collection is a must-have for active and armchair adventurers alike. - Ruth A Morgan, Australian Review of Books October 2015

Author Information

Billy Griffiths is a Sydney-based writer and historian. He is the author of The China Breakthrough: Whitlam in the Middle Kingdom, 1971 (Monash University Publishing, 2012). Mike Smith AM is a veteran desert archaeologist who learnt his trade in Australian archaeology’s ‘decades of discovery’. He is an emeritus research fellow at the National Museum of Australia and the author of The Archaeology of Australia’s Deserts (Cambridge University Press, 2013).

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