Customer Reviews

Motel of the Mysteries

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This book was actually a gift from my Mother who knows I enjoy things archaeological and historical. Since she`s more than a trifle eccentric and has a marvelous sense of the absurd, I've a sneaking suspicion she was poking a little fun at me--which is something I probably need once in a while for my own good.

The Motel of the Mysteries is a wonderful send up of the fields of archaeology and history. It's aim is doubtless to entertain, at which it's vastly successful, but over and above that the book makes quite clear what archaeology legitimately can and cannot do. I think it also points out that what is taken as "The Reality" of the past is often as much a function of current cultural biases and of the personal motives of individual researchers as it is of what actually occurred in the past. (This was made quite clear to me when I saw Knossos on Crete for the first time and realized that a great deal of imagination had gone into the reconstruction of the "Minoan" buildings there).

My favorite parts of Motel were Archaeologist Carson's interpretation of the hotel bathroom as the inner sanctum of a religious structure and the subsequent depiction of his assistant--ala Heinrich Schliemann with the Trojan treasure and Leonard Wooley with the Ur III treasure--wearing bathroom accoutrements as religious paraphernalia.

The author also pokes fun at museums and at all of us, when he includes a collection of "Souvenirs and Quality Reproductions" available for sale at the end of the book. My favorite is the coffee set based on the "sacred urn" (toilet). Goodness knows I've purchased my fair share of quality reproductions on my travels throughout the world!

This should be suggested reading for every college history and archeology major and required for those seeking degrees over BA in these fields!

If you are a fan of David Macaulay's books about the contruction of such wonders as a Cathedral, Pyramid, City, Mill, etc ... then you will really enjoy this book about future archaeologists / explorers "discovering" the burried ruins of an American motel room in the 41st century ... and the miss-identification of just about every item found.

I think that this is a book that every archaeologist / historian should read because it perfectly explains the traps that we may fall into when trying to explain the past using present day knowledge and sensibilities.

The events portrayed in this book show the reader just how easy it is to make a mistake ... even when one's best intentions are at stake.

Then again, it is a David Macaulay (always great) and it is funny! Especially the Museum Gift Store items displayed at the end of the book.

David Macaulay is widely known for his writings, which include such works as Cathedral and Pyramid. As a boy, Macaulay was fascinated by simple machinery. Years later, he published many award-winning books, and eventually produced his comic work, Motel of the Mysteries.
Motel is about an historical dig in the distant future. In the year 4022, all the North American continent has been buried under billions of tons of debris from a combined postal error and bad luck which occured in 1985.

Howard Carson, an amateur archaeologist, is running in a marathon, when he crosses the site of an old dig from years past. He falls into an undiscovered, underground room with a door on one side. Finding a DO NOT DISTURB sign on the door, he realizes he has discovered an ancient tomb of the inhabitants of the nation that once existed there.
Gathering a small team of archaeologists and assistants, including his wife, Carson sets to work on the site to uncover the secrets of Usa. After three years of excavation, the site is uncovered fully and Carson begins to understand some of the strange burial practices of the citizens of Usa. Once the work is complete, Carson's findings, including the Sacred Urn and Music Box (a toilet) are displayed in a special Yank museum.
Motel of the Mysteries is a short book, but within its cover lies spellbinding material. With wit, brains, and spectacular illustrations, David Macaulay relates an undeniably witty story of a camel-hump scientist and his fall into the history books.

Macauley's other books, such as CASTLE, show our archeologists' recreations of times past. But what if it's ALL WRONG???

In MOTEL OF THE MYSTERIES, we get a marvelous story of a future archeologist finding, and completely misunderstanding, an ordinary motel room.

Great fun, and you'll never watch a Discover Channel special with quite that credulity again.

Motel of the Mysteries is simply one of the funniest books I have ever seen. And "seen" is the word, as the joy is in the illustrations. A parody of archaeologists' tendency to declare what we "know" about past civilizations based on their artifacts, the book presents the unearthing of a nondescript motel two thousand years after the sudden collapse of Western civilization. The fun is in the labeling of the various elements discovered: a showercap becomes a ceremonial death cap, a dinner tray an offering to the gods, a toilet seat a piece of sacred religious neckwear. Macaulay makes his point and has fun doing it. I pick up this book again and again whenever I'm in the mood for an intelligent chuckle.

Recently, I have come across one of the books that I had a whille back and I was really excited to read it. The book is called Motel of the Mysteries and is written by David MacAulay.

In this book the story starts in the present where the whole intire Northern American Continent is covered with an avalance of junk mail. Instantly killing everyone, there is not much known about the 'Yanks' from then on. That is untill the year 4022 where an amateur archeologist finds himself at the entrance of an ancient 'Usa' burial site.

This book is interesting to read because the reader is left to wonder how much do the 'experts' of today really understand about the ancient civilizations. It is a very cute book and isn't that hard to read so a young reader could enjoy it as well as an older one. Overall I think Motel of the Mysteries is a funny book and should be read by anyone interested in history and humor.

- Cole

Motel of the Mysteries is an about-face for David Macaulay, whose previous books educated readers about fascinating architectural achievements. Motel is a totally different story-line. What remains the same are his illustrations - pen and ink demonstrations of meticulous obsession. Works like Cathedral and Pyramid display the intricacies of history's architectural marvels in astonishing detail. The cover of Cathedral alone is a spectacle. Motel achieves the same level of elaborateness but throws in a monkey wrench with an outrageous story of our civilization's abrupt demise and its discovery thousands of years later.
The illustrations add a witty visual flair to the laugh-out-loud storyline. The language, intended for upper elementary to adult ages, will probably leave younger readers confused, because the humor is above them, and often too advanced. This can make the story funnier in some places, such as an ice bucket being dubbed the Internal Component Enclosure.
The book is as fictional as books can get. The story takes place in 4022 and only in Motel of the Mysteries could a woman possibly believe a toilet seat is a ceremonial headdress worn by the ancient people of Usa.
In the distant future, America has been dead and gone for thousands of years, and historians and paleontologists search frantically for remnants of the ancient civilization Usa (get it?). Howard Carson, an amateur at best, and associate Harriet Burton discover a `burial tomb' of the Usa people. What they really discovered was a late 1900s motel. No suspense, nothing that really defines a story, just the hilarious commentary of stumbling upon this motel.
The "Treasures" section explains in full detail the ceremonial items used in Usa burials. The wacky, absolutely outrageous functions given to each item (such as the toilet seat passed off as a headdress) keep the reader glued until the last page.
Macaulay's style is totally unique. Not only is he far more amusing than most authors, he uses his illustrations to weave his knowledge of architecture into the story. The entire book is something of a spoof on historians today. Maybe the pharoahs of Egypt were really just street peddlers!

This book pokes definite fun at my career but I still love it. It reminds us to be mindful of our conclusions and it's funny to adults and children. I had a prof read it to my class during undergrad and the class was laughing out loud.

The more you know about archaeology, the more you'll laugh at the subtle jokes. The parallels with Howard Carter's discovery of Tutankamen's tomb are hilarious, as is the reference to Schlieman's discovery of Trojan Gold. If you have any friends who are archaeologists, give them this book!

We, a group of teachers, found it hilarious. What a delightful parody of archeology and North American society. This is a great beginning for students to look at other aspects of society that they could satirize. It points out one of the problems with the scientific method. One can prove just about anything one would like, if there exists a preconceived theory. Nicely done.