Any such list should include Ivor Noel Hume's A Guide to Artifacts of Colonial America.  Yes it is slighted dated and geared towards artifacts as the title states, but my copy has numerous notes in the margins updating his information and dates based on recent findings.  Too many student don't know artifacts and go to grad school without having a strong background in artifact identification.  I also really like his Martin's Hundred which I found engaging and expands the way student think about how to intrepid a site.

Bill Liebeknecht, RPA
Hunter Research, Inc.

-----Original Message-----
From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Anna Agbe-Davies
Sent: Thursday, October 16, 2014 10:47 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: "the one [other] book I can't do without"

Hello HistArchers,

I'm building a new course (undergrad historical archaeology) for next year and I thought this might make an interesting topic for conversation, so after consulting the syllabi on the SHA webpage, I'm
wondering:

What is the one book (besides In Small Things Forgotten--which is pretty much ubiquitous) that you like best for teaching an undergraduate course in historical archaeology? And, even more crucially, why?

I'll go first.  For me, there's no book like Uncommon Ground for the clarity and unfussiness of the writing, the balance between text and artifact data in the argument, and the clear social message of the entire project.

(Then again, I use it every year for another class, so I'm going to resist my impulse to include it on this syllabus, too!)

Happy Thursday, all,

Anna

--
Anna S. Agbe-Davies, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Anthropology
UNC-Chapel Hill
CB # 3115 / 301 Alumni Building
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3115

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