Fantastic Archaeology: The Wild Side of North American Prehistory

By Stephen Williams

Book Overview

The landscape of the nineteenth century, Williams asserts, is dotted with fakes, frauds, and humbugs whose fantastic claims of purported findings would make even P. T. Barnum blush. In Fantastic Archaeology, Williams takes them all on with gusto--illuminating, debunking, and instructing on the modes, methods, manners, and manifestations of American archaeology through the past two centuries. The author begins his walk on the wild side of North American archaeology with a fascinating introduction to the continent's real past. Then, acting as detective, he answers the questions, Who Found It? Who Done It? Who Twisted the Facts? From solemn old professionals like Samuel Haven to eccentric "odd fishes" like Constantine Rafinesque, from brash "free thinkers" like Harold S. Gladwin to stoic strategists like A. V. Kidder, Williams enthusiastically portrays them all. The big issues are here, too: the quest for the first Americans, the transoceanic search for links to distant civilizations, and the meaning of ancient writings. From monstrous stone giants to mysterious messages from the past, right up to the real story of America's archaeological past, the author unearths a wondrous tale that will amaze, delight, and inform professional and general readers alike.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0812282388
• ISBN13: 9780812282382
• Release Date: January 1991
• Publisher: Univ of Pennsylvania Pr
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 1.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.5" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

Entertaining and informative

The book is entertaining, enlightening, and an eye-opening deconstruction of many outlandish claims. It reveals how junk science is sometimes used to attempt to rewrite the past. A must-read for anyone interested in valid history.

Excellent!

An excellent introduction to the history of American archaeology, starting from the decidedly crackpot side. This book fascinated me because the first half took place in my home state -- Ohio -- and involved sites within easy driving distance! I had no idea the lengths to which people would go in order to "prove" one theory or another.

An excellent book on pseudoarcheaology

This is a great book on the area of pseudoarchaeology in North America. It is one of only 2-3 on this subject, and with the various wild claims of prehistory, such books need to be read. I do wish the author would do an updated edition, as it is a little dated.