Iain Walker tops the list of historical archaeologists I wish I had met
(followed by Pinky Harrington) despite the fact I normally stay clear of
clay pipes leaving them for sad obsessives- sorry Smoke and Dave Higgins
(sorry I love you really). Anyway there would be no room to put all those
pipe catalogues. However, I when I visited a pipe making establishment
amongst the coal tips of the darkest Meuse valley (S. Belgium) I found Iain
had been there before. There is some wonderful stuff in the erly issues of
Historical Archaeology and Post-med Arch well written and thoughtful before
the technocrats of one school or another come to the fore - I know I shall
be dismissed as a sad old fogey but I don't give a monkey's *** Best buys I
ever made was getting  complete sets of HA, PMA NEHA and all those Stan
South conference volumes.

And I think the Virginia City saloon was it Nevada- it should have been R
for Ronald Jones by the way.


paul courtney
Leicester

Uk




----- Original Message -----
From: "George L. Miller" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, March 24, 2004 2:41 PM
Subject: Comments on Taylor's A Study of Archaeology


The discussion on Walter Taylor's Study of Archaeology brought to mind some
of the observations that Iain Walker made on this publication that was the
lead article of the first volume of Historical Archaeology, which following
the documentation on the founding of the SHA in Dallas in 1967 (Walker
1967:23-34).  This article was reprinted in Schuyler's reader that was
produced by Baywood Publishing Company (Schuyler 1978:208-215).  Iain was
not one to mince words or hold back on his opinions.  This is part of what
he said about Taylor's Study of Archaeology:

            Taylor sounds like a propounder of theory and abstract logic,
      and his work appears to be a laborious compendium - almost a delirium
      of sources - more of analysis than synthesis and without the benefit
      of personal practical archaeological experience.  It took this reader
      half a dozen attempts at reading Taylor's turgid epic before he came
      to the conclusion that Taylor appears to be advocating a movement
      away from what this writer thinks is still the basic outlook of
      American archaeology.  However, he still feels so what.  As the work
      stands, it is an undigested collection of largely unorganized and
      wholly unedited thoughts written in rank bad English.  Obscure
      writing indicates confused thinking and this work was presented in
      this form to Harvard University as a Ph.D. thesis.  It is shocking
      that it was not sent back for reorganization and rewriting.  In very
      few works does the knowledge contained repay multiple reading and
      translation into English by a busy person, and Taylor's Study of
      Archaeology is not one of them.  (Walker 1967:29-31).


References cited

Schuyler, Robert L., editor
      1978  Historical Archaeology: A Guide to Substantive and Theoretical
            Contributions.   Baywood Publishing Co. Inc.  Farmingdale, New
            York.

Iain C. Walker
      1967  Historical Archaeology - Methods and Principles.  Historical
            Archaeology Volume 1:23-34.

George L. Miller
URS Corporation
561 Cedar Lane
Florence, New Jersey 08518
=