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UNCOVERING THE PAST
Archaeology
Revisited (Paperback - 3 Apr 2011
Robert D. Morritt
Availability
Archaeology
has made enormous advances over the past 150 years. This book allows us
to look back, to the age of classically trained
archaeologists and gives the reader an overview of prehistoric and Roman Wales from a
Neolithic
chambered tomb and of a tomb to an Iron Age Welsh hillside fort. The addition
of a guide to Roman place names Roman forts and earthworks is included for
identification purposes.
The early exploration of Troy and
Schliemann’s often crude, or haphazard excavation techniques show a  marked
difference in how archaeology was conducted in the shovel and pick era to the
methods conducted in the modern age.
We feel the enthusiasm of Sir
Arthur Evans, attracted to Crete by a purchase at Athens of some seal-stones
found in the island, engraved with hieroglyphic and linear signs differing
from Egyptian and Hittite characters. and
his hope that he might lead to the discovery of a Cretan system of
writing,
The work of Bedrich Hrozný is
discussed How his military
clerical position allowed him time to
decipher the hitherto unknown Hittite language. and led to his
conclusion that Hittite was a member of the Indo-European language.
We attend the (Sir) Leonard
Woolley excavations at Carchemish ( Also used as an clandestine post
by Lawrence and Woolley to observe the Turkas they built the Berlin to Baghad railway (on the eve of World War
I).Woolley later conducted the
excavations at Ur which took over six seasons,(1928-1934) His
team discovered several
'Royal Tombs’ many of them dated to about 2600 B.C.
An overview of the work of Alice Kober on
Linear B scripts which that led its
ecipherment by Michael Ventris shows
how serious academic work can achieve on outstanding success.
Much information is included in regard to
stratigigraphic relationships and excavation and evidence discovered and
archaeological ethics., also the need to identify ancient settlements by
recognising Cropmarks also shadow marks.Finally the author gives many examples
of modern archaeological methods such as Stratigraphic Relationships ,
concepts in excavation, archaeological ethics and other related items.
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