At the risk of going on at length, the following was my introduction to Loren Eiseley, thanks to Mike Trinkley. Women in the audience may want to insert person for man, men and he. This is from the 1950s after all.


?


"A man who has once looked with the archaeological eye will never see quite normally. He will be wounded by what other men call trifles. It is possible to refine the sense of time until an old shoe in the bunch grass or a pile of 19th century bottles in an abandoned mining town tolls in one's head like a hall clock. This is a price one pays for learning to read time from surfaces other than the illustrated dial. It is the melancholy secret of the artifact, the humanly touched thing."
Loren Eislely, The Night Country


 


 

-----Original Message-----
From: Kate and Silas <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Thu, 29 Jan 2009 9:16 am
Subject: Re: quotation collection










One of my favorites is Sir Mortimer Wheeler 



"Dead archaeology is the driest dust that blows." 



from the preface of Archaeology from the Earth 



Also, in reference to "The plow zone is the mist which separates us from the 
Seventeenth Century." ?Garry Wheeler Stone 



It was followed by a crew member saying "Garry, throw some fog in the sifter." 





Silas Hurry 

HSMC 




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robert Keeler" <[log in to unmask]> 
To: [log in to unmask] 
Sent: Wednesday, January 28, 2009 5:39:21 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern 
Subject: Re: quotation collection 

Hi, Kris, 

Some I throw out to students in my classes are: 

"The past is a foreign country. ?They do things differently there." ?L. P. 
Hartley 

"What is past is prologue." ?William Shakespeare (or whomever you think wrote 
all those plays and sonnets) 

"The past is not dead. ?It's not even past." ?William Faulkner 

"Shall we never, never get rid of this past? ?It lies upon the present like a 
giant's dead body." ?Nathanial Hawthorne 

"The distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly 
persistent illusion." ?Albert Einstein 

"The plow zone is the mist which separates us from the Seventeenth Century." 
?Garry Wheeler Stone 

There's another one from Faulkner about the ability of any Southern boy being 
able to conjure at any time the moment from the past just before the beginning 
of Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg. ?I don't recall it exactly, but I'm sure it 
could be easily found. 

Sorry not to include complete citations. ?Sounds like an interesting collection 
to build! 

Best wishes, 

Robert Keeler 

-----Original Message----- 
From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of K. Kris 
Hirst 
Sent: Wednesday, January 28, 2009 2:08 PM 
To: [log in to unmask] 
Subject: Re: quotation collection 

Hi all: 
? 
Forgive my longtime lurker status, things being what they are these days; I 
also apologize for multiple mailings of this post. As some of you might 
know, I have a large stash of archaeology quotations on my website here: 
? 
http://archaeology.about.com/od/quotations/a/quotations.htm 
? 
Mitch Allen has convinced me that a collection of quotations about the past 
and archaeology might make an interesting and useful book for his Left Coast 
Press. I'd like to add more to my collection anything that y'all might 
suggest. I'd need a full citation--but I'm willing to do some searching ?if 
it's a keeper. ? 
? 
So--does anybody have any additional quotes that you've loved and used over 
the years? I'm thinking the kind of stuff that you print out and attach to 
your peg board. If so, send them along! Please pass this on to anyone who 
might be interested. 
? 
Much thanks in advance, 
? 
Kris 


K. Kris Hirst 
Guide to Archaeology 
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