Customer Reviews

Search for Ancient Americans [VHS]

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This is an excellent video, still very useful and very pertinent, although it was filmed in 1988. This video provides a wide & exciting educational view of Americanist Archaeology. This is a great film for an introductory archaeology course or for anyone curious about archaeology. This was a wonderful documentary that shows several specific examples of archaeological research projects. The makers of the video did an excellent job, picking some of the most exciting and incredible archaeological finds that have captured the imagination and interest of both archaeologists and the general public.

Unlike most archaeology documentaries, this one covers a variety of kinds of analysis (field, lab, experimental reconstruction) and kinds of cultures being studied (sites of ancient Pleistocene hunter-gatherers are shown, as well as more recent "complex" urban horticulturalists.) Likewise, a variety of researchers are interviewed, each with subtly different opinions and approaches to the study of the past.

It is a shame that this particular volume of the Infinite Voyage is out of print. This video, along with "Ancient Treasures from the Deep" (a video from a different production series, about underwater archaeology in the Mediterranean) are the two videos I feel are the best introductions to archaeology. This particular video can be viewed as a single documentary, OR as a set of smaller documentaries (each particular site, as presented in this video, can pretty much stand alone). Also, this video has & will continue to have, particularly valuable historical interest since it provides footage of several pivotal excavations (such as that of an unusual and spectacular Clovis site known as the Ritchie-Roberts site of Washington State).

This is a film that I feel strongly positive about -- enough to search the auction sites on a weekly basis for the past 8 months just to try to find an old copy of this out of print video to purchase. I feel strongly enough to continue to search for this video, and urge anyone with an interest in archaeology to [purchase this video]. ... .