THE DISCOVERY OF THE PAST

by Alain Schapp

No society on earth has been without curiosity about its past, a trait that yields folklore and history. Alain Schnapp, a professor of archaeology at the University of Paris, looks at an allied curiosity: that about the things of a people's past. In this comprehensive, heavily illustrated history of early European archaeology, he looks at Greek and Roman ideas about what was to them antiquity; examines the first inklings of scientific archaeology in the Renaissance; and delves into the formation of the first professional archaeological societies in the 18th and 19th centuries. Schnapp writes with a keen eye for the telling anecdote, recounting, for instance, a German scholar's refuting a commonly held view that ancient burial urns had grown in potato fields by spontaneous generation. Schnapp makes occasional detours into archaeology on other continents, too.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Archaeology

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

Reviews

[Raphaela Folia]

Το βιβλίο το διάβασα στα αγγλικά αλλά με μεγάλη ευχαριστήση.. επεξηγηματικό χωρίς να σε κουράζει

[V]

This book is about the history of archeology as a science. It starts from the first recorded histories of people digging up the past to see what came before them and what value to put on those objects.
There are many illustrations and frustrations along the way.
Alain Schnapp does a good job of covering such a large subject with so many differing opinions and interests along the way. There are many opinions of why things were found - like pots 'growing' from the ground, arrow heads being leftovers of lightning bolts from the gods, etc.
It was amazing how many things that are commonly held beliefs now took so long to be accepted like different religions to accept the timescale in the bible was not correct for dating objects - nothing was able to over 6,000 years of age or stratigraphy showed layers from different times - the lower things in the ground are older than those above it.
I would recommend this book for anyone with more than a passing interest in archeology - and not just the finds, but the history of the profession itself.