on 12/12/01 7:10 PM, Pat Reynolds at [log in to unmask] wrote:

> In message <[log in to unmask]>, Automatic digest processor
> <[log in to unmask]> writes
>> I believe Pat is talking about Ursula Leguin, who wrote a series of thought
>> provoking tales using anthropological concepts with alien planets and races
>> as the backdrop.
> Yes, indeed.  I picked _Rocannon's World_ because it's a retelling of an
> older story (I won't say where from, as that's a spoiler).  Suzette
> Elgin has an even closer link to historical archaeology than being the
> daughter of an anthropologist: she actually _is_ an anthropologist (of
> the linguistic sub-species).
> 
> Elgin's work, naturally, focusses on language rather than material
> culture (although she's got a great depiction of the role of material
> culture in passive resistance).  Material culture is often overlooked at
> any more sophisticated level than that of 'us' or 'them' poking
> curiously at the shiny box with the flashy lights.

Oh well, as long as the discussion's gently drifting away from the initial
cultural contact in fiction towards archaeology and science fiction
specifically....

Next semester, La Trobe University is running a course on "Representations
of Archaeology", and Susan Lawrence and David Frankel (who are actually
running the course) have asked me to give the Archaeology and Science
Fiction lecture.

Here's my reading list for that week.  It's a little incomplete right now,
as you'll see, and those entries marked with an * are books where I took the
biblio data off the web (I've read them, but don't own them), so I can't
vouch for total accuracy in those cases.  A couple of these are on Anita
Cohen-Williams' archaeology in fiction list, but not all of them. No, I'm
not expecting the students to get through all of these...  And incidentally,
Pat was quite right to point out that _War of the Worlds_ is an allegory on
European Colonialism.

Archaeology and Science Fiction reading list:

Benford, Gregory. 2001. Artifact. London, Orbit.
[Boston University archaeologists (but not, alas, Mary Beaudry) discover an
artifact of great power during excavations of a bronze-age Mycenean village
- Anita has this on her list, but she has it under ordinary fiction rather
than science fiction]

* Bova, Ben. 1990. As On a Darkling Plain. London, Mandarin.
[Spaceship crew exploring one of Saturn's moons inexplicably finds
Neanderthals living on Titan. Crew contains a member who is explicitly a
'xenoarchaeologist', if I remember correctly.]

Dick, Philip. 1994. Galactic Pot-Healer. New York, Vintage.
[Pottery specialist is called upon to assist the raising of the sunken
cathedral Heldscalla on Plowman's Planet. Deeply surreal - in fact downright
weird - even for Dick, but does give a taste of utter alienness that's
lacking from most 'xenoarchaeology']

* Miller, Walter M. Jr. (1997) "Fiat Homo", in A Canticle for Leibowitz. New
York, Bantam Spectra.
[In a mediaeval-flavoured post-nuclear holocaust future, a novice from the
Abbey of the blessed Leibowitz finds some important artifacts in a
long-buried fallout shelter]

Pohl, Frederik. "Merchants of Venus"
[Accidentally left the Gardner Dozois-edited collection I have this in at
home today. Damn - so don't have full biblio details to hand. A resident of
Venus makes his living taking tourists to dig into the ancient tunnels of
the mysterious Heechee. Good taste of the potential problems of trying to
excavate in an extreme non-terrestrial climate - though strictly speaking
the characters are treasure hunters rather than archaeologists].

Smith, Cordwainer. "Alpha Ralpha Boulevard" in J.A. Mann (ed.), The
Rediscovery of Man; the Complete Short Fiction of Cordwainer Smith.
Framingham, MA, NEFSA Press. PP 375-399
[Not directly archaeological, but its exploration of the mythic power of a
created vision of the ancient past (in this story largely the French)
involves themes that are central to archaeological interpretation]

Silverberg, Robert. "Sailing to Byzantium"
[My copy's in the same Dozois collection as "Merchants of Venus" (see
above).  In the 50th century, a small group of characters travels between
the recreated cities of the ancient past, including Mohenjo-Daro, Chang-An,
and Ptolomaic Alexandria]

* Silverberg, Robert. 1998. "The Seventh Shrine" in R. Silverberg (ed.)
Legends Part 1. New York, Harper & Row.
[On the giant planet of Majipoor, strange events unfold during the
excavations at the mighty, abandoned aboriginal city of Velalisier]

Vance, Jack. 2000. "Fader's Waft" (second part of Rhialto the Marvellous),
in Tales of the Dying Earth (compilation). London, Gollancz/Millenium. PP
609-700.
[Comparatively minor reference this, but an important plot point explicitly
revolves around the laws of stratigraphy during the excavation that takes up
chapter 15].

And finally....
From April next year, you'll be able to get:

Russell, M. (ed.) 2002. Archaeology and Science Fiction. Oxford, Oxbow Books
Contents include: Are we perceived to be what we say we are? (John Gale);
The celluloid archaeologist - an X-rated exposé (Steven Membury);
Archaeology and Star Trek: exploring the past in the future (Lynette
Russell); `The Myth Makers': archaeology in Doctor Who (Brian Boyd); `No
more heroes any more': the dangerous world of the pop culture archaeologist
(Miles Russell); A novel prehistory (Julia Murphy); Imaginary places, real
monuments: field monuments of Lancre, Terry Pratchett's Discworld (Martin
Brown); `Under old earth': material culture, identity and history in the
work of Cordwainer Smith (Alasdair Brooks); The explanation (Philip Rahtz);
A quick sketch of the enterprise: graphic reconstruction of the future (John
Hodgson); Past futures or present pasts (Rob Haslam); Towards an LSMR and
MSMR (Lunar and Martian Sites and Monuments Records): recording planetary
spacecraft landing sites as archaeological monuments of the future (Greg
Fewer); The case for exo-archaeology (Vicky Walsh); Archaeology and the
extraterrestrial: Blair Cuspids, Martian monuments and beyond the infinite
(Keith Matthews). (Oxbow Books, April 2002)

Alasdair



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dr. Alasdair Brooks
Department of Archaeology
La Trobe University
Plenty Road
Bundoora VIC 3083
Australia
Phone - 03 9479 3269
E-mail - [log in to unmask]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"The buffalo tastes the same
on both sides of the border"
Sitting Bull