Dug to Death: A Tale of Archaeological Method and Mayhem (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Dr Hannah Green - heroine of Praetzellis's textbook-as-novel "Death by Theory" - has really got into trouble this time. The archaelogist has been asked to manage the contract archaeology project at a historic site in New Zealand when the regular archaeological staff of University of Invercargill abruptly dies off. On the scene, Hannah discovers she needs to teach her team about research design, survey methods, archival research, professional ethics, curation and field safety, if they are to complete the contract before Mr Wallace levels the site in favour of a golf course. This textbook-as-novel introduces students to the hows and whys of field methodology in an entertaining but informative way.

Product Details

• Paperback: 248 pages
• Publisher: AltaMira Press; illustrated edition edition (October 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0759104077
• ISBN-13: 978-0759104075
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #391,938 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Laugh and Learn, October 29, 2003

By A Customer

A comic novel-archaeology text book. This is even better than Death By Theory, his first book that we read semester at UCB. Its funnier and has many more of his strange illustrations.
The subject is archeological field methods and it's set on a historic period site in New Zealand thats staffed by a bunch of weird and wild characters. I'm guessing that its the only archeology methods book that has a Yiddish glossary. Would make a good intro archaeology text.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome, November 8, 2004

By	Joe Mcgough "Joner" (Rohnert Park, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a hilarious intro to archeology novel/text. Just killed me! i would recomend this to anyone who would like a good insight into the process of an archaeological dig.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable Introduction, January 23, 2009

By	James Tauber (Charlotte, NC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This author was recommended to me by a classmate to enhance the required text for a class. First and foremost this is a textbook. All of the theories, methods and processes for basic archaeology are presented as well as their history, context and reasons for selection. However, Adrian Praetzellis, goes beyond the dry presentation of the facts and creates an integrated application of the processes a field archaeologist utilize. The story is quaint but does provide a good vehicle for presenting the information to a new student. The author also shows how classroom processes fail when they meet up with the real world. I recommend this to anyone who is beginning Archaeology as a field of study.