<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating Insights into the Ice Age
Review: Once started, I couldn't put this book down. Though occasionally somewhat technical at times, one need not be formally trained as an archaeologist to read and enjoy this book. Instead, this book makes a reader really want to be an archaeologist if not one already. The result of a symposium on the subject of the Ice Age peoples of the Rocky Mountains, it covers a pleasing array of subjects, beginning with an excellent overview by Christy Turner II on sites in what is now eastern Russia and their connection with the peoples of the Rockies, then other authors continue with detailed discussions especially of Ice Age sites in Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado, as well as mention of sites in New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas (okay, so the Rockies aren't in Oklahoma or Texas, but the sites mentioned have a connection, anyway).The volume closes with my favorite topic in this field: an extraordinary and fascinating chapter by James Benedict about Ice Age sites in the Front Range high country of the Colorado Rockies. The nice photographs of the landscape included in Benedict's article depict some scenes that have changed only slightly since the Ice Age, some other scenes perhaps a great deal, demonstrating that this is a rugged, dynamic, and difficult area to explore; most of the sites in Benedict's discussion are presently located in the Indian Peaks wilderness area. One readily imagines it would have been quite a formidable place during the Ice Age, yet people certainly passed through this region anyway, probably on a regular basis. Dennis Stanford and Jane Day arranged the articles well and, though each chapter has its own unique author, each flows easily from one topic to the next. It is an outstanding compilation, and will hopefully be followed sometime soon with another representing the latest research in this field.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating Insights into the Ice Age
Review: Once started, I couldn't put this book down. Though occasionally somewhat technical at times, one need not be formally trained as an archaeologist to read and enjoy this book. Instead, this book makes a reader really want to be an archaeologist if not one already. The result of a symposium on the subject of the Ice Age peoples of the Rocky Mountains, it covers a pleasing array of subjects, beginning with an excellent overview by Christy Turner II on sites in what is now eastern Russia and their connection with the peoples of the Rockies, then other authors continue with detailed discussions especially of Ice Age sites in Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado, as well as mention of sites in New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas (okay, so the Rockies aren't in Oklahoma or Texas, but the sites mentioned have a connection, anyway). The volume closes with my favorite topic in this field: an extraordinary and fascinating chapter by James Benedict about Ice Age sites in the Front Range high country of the Colorado Rockies. The nice photographs of the landscape included in Benedict's article depict some scenes that have changed only slightly since the Ice Age, some other scenes perhaps a great deal, demonstrating that this is a rugged, dynamic, and difficult area to explore; most of the sites in Benedict's discussion are presently located in the Indian Peaks wilderness area. One readily imagines it would have been quite a formidable place during the Ice Age, yet people certainly passed through this region anyway, probably on a regular basis. Dennis Stanford and Jane Day arranged the articles well and, though each chapter has its own unique author, each flows easily from one topic to the next. It is an outstanding compilation, and will hopefully be followed sometime soon with another representing the latest research in this field.
<< 1 >>
| 
