Reviews

Tikal: An Illustrated History of the Ancient Maya Capital

By John Montgomery (Hippocrene Book,2001; 294 pgs.,illus.,$15 paper; 718-454-2366)

Art historian John Montgomery has produced a very readable history of the great Maya city of Tikal in the Petén rainforest of Guatemala. Drawing on published sources, he has assembled valuable information on the economy and politics as well as the architecture, rulers, and people of this great city.

Archaeological Perspectives on the American Civil War

Edited by Clarence R.Geier and Stephen R.Potter (University Press of Florida,2001; 432 pgs.,illus., $55 cloth; 800-226-3822)

Archaeology has finally taken up the American Civil War, and in a big way. Studies of the physical evidence of the war bring new information and new insights to perhaps the most written-about event in the history of mankind. Historical archaeology is a relatively new discipline in the United States; it’s a multi-discipline field that seeks to combine history, anthropology, and archaeology in order to understand the past. So what can this new approach tell us about a conflict that has produced tens of thousands of volumes? Plenty, it turns out.

Editors Geier and Potter have assembled 18 essays for this volume, dividing them into three basic areas of study. “Tactics and the Conduct of Battle” explores the fighting. Making abundant use of new technology, modern archaeologists are able to recreate the course of battles by the physical remains of war. From the siege of Atlanta to bloody Antietam, archaeology gives us new dimensions of great battles.

“The Home Front and Military Life” explores military support institutions like prisons and hospitals. An examination of domestic life includes the lives of slaves and whites from the North and South, and tells us of the travails of civilians in the path of war.

Four chapters discuss the new methods and techniques of Civil War archaeology. Integrated technology is now able to plot the course of battles. High-tech metal detectors locate spent ordnance, which is plotted by satellite locating devises. All this data is then churned by a computer to produce pictures of the battles. Most battles are fought in a fog of confusion. Too often the confusion is reflected in the first-hand accounts. But the physical evidence of battle tells a different story, one devoid of panic and emotion. It’s an exciting new tool for scholars of America’s greatest conflict. Ruins and Rivals: The Making of Southwest Archaeology

By James E.Snead (University of Arizona Press,2001; 290 pgs., illus.,$35 cloth; 800-426-3797)

As the 19th century came to a close, Victorian America found a new fascination with the West, and in particular the ancient ruins of the Southwest and the native peoples descended from them. Eastern centers of wealth were building huge new museums and were in need of spectacular collections to fill them. In the Southwest, new institutions were being formed to capture the local heritage and protect it from outsiders. And a market was developing for ancient Southwestern artifacts, attracting relic collectors of myriad stripes.

These three forces were bound to come in conflict as the emerging science of archaeology sought to understand the ancient cultures of the Southwest. Snead shows how competition for status and prestige shaped modern Southwestern archaeology. The Eastern “museum men” were initially the allies of the early relic hunters, more concerned with trophies from Chaco Canyon, Mesa Verde, and Bandelier than knowledge. But before long, some of those Easterners were becoming Southwestern professional archaeologists.

It was a time and place where legends in archaeology were made: Frederick Ward Putnam of the Peabody in Boston; Nels Nelson of the American Museum in New York; Edgar Lee Hewitt of Santa Fe; Frederick Hyde; and, of course, Richard Weatherill, the cowboy who discovered Mesa Verde. Ruins and Rivals captures the flavor of digs and discoveries, scholars and scoundrels. —Mark Michel