CONQUISTADORS WITHOUT SWORDS

This is a collection of firsthand records by forty-two New World archeologists and each selection is preceded by an interpretation as long, at least, as the selection itself. Collectively the introductions and narratives form a cohesive study of American archaeology, an archaeology distinct from that of the Old World with its own heroes and its own specific problems. ""Side by side with the digger of trenches and 'plunderer' of graves there loom the airborne surveyor; the aqua-lunged diver; the meticulous analyst of the physical evidence from bones, plants and ceramics, as well as the anthropological field worker and the desk bound scholar who draws novel conclusions from motley data."" This is the story of all of them, of their discoveries ranging from Greenland to Patagonia. There's not a speck of dust on a single bone--it's well written and exciting and a fine successor to The Treasures of Time and Testaments of Time.