THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF SAN FRANCISCO

Since most books on archaeology concentrate on the regions in the Middle East or on the Mediterranean, this one, simply by the proximity of the locale, should arouse a special interest in American readers. Familiarity with the area is a bonus in relating the distant past to the present and in grasping the reality of the methods of archaelogy. The book is strongest in the explanations of methodology and most readable in the descriptions of the actual work of the archaelogists. The text bogs down, however, in the presentation of the finds. Presumably following his thesis in Modern Discoveries in Archaeology (1962) that the science of archaeology is a process in a dynamic recreation of history, the author introduces each of the the three major time periods with dramatized portrayals of the societies. These little tableaux, which are humanized with dialogue, thoughts, and emotions, are stilted in style and the divisions between fact and fiction are left unnoted. The remainder of the material, which is quite factual, is given a brief runthrough in slightly expanded sentence outline form.