Drawing on the Past

What is it like to be an archaeologist and to "do" archaeology? Through whimsical watercolors, drawings, fascinating marginalia, and humorous anecdotes, Naomi F. Miller illustrates the life of a field archaeologist, illuminating her story with charming art that she has done mostly in her spare time on digs. She begins with how she became an archaeologist and an archaeobotanist. She uses the artwork she has done over the past 30 years to recount her experiences on excavations from Malyan, Iran, to Gordion, Turkey, to Euphrates projects in Turkey and Syria, and to Anau, Turkmenistan Iran. Packed into the text are many anecdotes along with an astonishing amount of information about archaeology. The text answers the questions most lay people ask about archaeology--how do you find sites, how do you know where to dig, who pays for the excavation--and much more. The artist evokes both the life and landscapes she has experienced as an archaeologist. Neither a dry textbook nor a romanticized view of the field, this book integrates text and pictures to give an entertaining yet informative view of life on a dig.

Naomi F. Miller is Senior Research Scientist at the Museum Applied Science Center for Archaeology (MASCA) in the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. She has written many articles and archaeobotanical reports and coedited The Archaeology of Garden and Field, also available from the University of Pennsylvania Press.