Dan Mouers query of the 15th Jan wrt historical archaeology textbooks has
prompted a request of my own. As a non-(North American)historical
archaeologist (my own specialism is medieval Britain) I have tuned in to
the histarch list for some time (by accident, originally, but I decided
to stay) and would like to delve a little deeper into the mysteries of
the subject. Can anyone recommend a decent textbook(s) that I can begin
with, or perhaps a comprehensive review article? To date all I have
stumbled across is a general book on Martin's Hundred by Hume and a couple
of articles which discuss the general issue of relationships between
documentary history and archaeological history. Thanks in advance.
 
On an unrelated subject, the first episode in a new series of the Time
 Team (a popular British archaeology programme) was shown over here the
other day. The basic idea behind it is that a team comprising
archaeologists, archivists, etc have a limited amount of time to
investigate a site of archaeological interest in the hope of contributing
something to our understanding of the site. This first episode was based
at an early colony in Maryland (can't remeber the name-was it
Williamsburg?). I was just wondering if it had been screened in the
states, and if so, whether anone has any reactions to it. One of the more
interesting features of the programme was that the discrepancy in
archaeological tactics utilised by American and British archaeologists was
emphasised. For example, much was made of the fact that the American team
insisted on sieving all deposits excavated, a practise rarely seen on
British sites of the historical period (C5 to C20). On the other hand, the
British team made extensive use of geophysics, a technique which the
programme implied was not widely used on your side of the Atlantic. Were
these observations representative of US archaeology generally or has the
programme given a false impression?
 
Cheers for now, and thanks for your thoughts.
Tim Eaton (university of Reading, Berkshire, England).-