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Sins of the shovel : looting, murder, and the evolution of American archaeology / Rachel Morgan.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Chicago, IL : The University of Chicago Press, 2023Copyright date: ©2023Description: viii, 319 pages : illustrations ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780226822389
  • 0226822389
Subject(s):
Contents:
Prologue -- A palace in the sky -- The robber baron -- All the world's a fair -- Toward the grand gulch -- Whence and whither -- Bonito, 1895 -- Cacao and turquoise -- Return to the grand gulch -- The trade -- Digging deeper -- Death by committee -- Anni horribiles -- All's fair...St. Louis, 1904 --An act for the preservation of American antiquities -- The race for the rainbow bridge -- On the borderland of hell -- Where the red rocks run under -- Back to the gulch, again -- New deal, new archaeology -- From potsherds to process -- The grand gulch under fire -- People without names -- Repatriation -- The past -- Epilogue -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index.
Summary: "Rachel Morgan's frank and incisive history begins with Richard Wetherill's "discovery" of Mesa Verde in Colorado in 1888. Subsequent expeditions by amateurs, looters, and budding professional archaeologists abetted the devastation of Indigenous sites throughout the Southwest. These expeditions became the proving grounds for different conceptions of what archaeology should be and how it should be practiced. Ultimately, revulsion at the work of nineteenth-century explorers led to more rigorous and ethical norms, as well as federal regulation, but the core issues of how we ought best to engage with the evidence and people of the past remain live ones today. Morgan, an archaeologist, knows well the field's history of racism and unethical behavior, and she is both unsparing and even-handed in assessing what happened in the Southwest and how it informs relations among people-and with the planet-today"-- Provided by publisher.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Shelving location Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Dr. James Carlson Library NonFiction New 970.0049 M849 Available 33111011102056
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction New 970.0049 M849 Available 33111011215312
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

An incisive history of early American archaeology--from reckless looting to professional science--and the field's unfinished efforts to make amends today, told "with passion, indignation, and a dash of suspense" ( New York Times) .



American archaeology was forever scarred by an 1893 business proposition between cowboy-turned-excavator Richard Wetherill and socialites-turned-antiquarians Fred and Talbot Hyde. Wetherill had stumbled upon Mesa Verde's spectacular cliff dwellings and started selling artifacts, but with the Hydes' money behind him, well--there's no telling what they might discover. Thus begins the Hyde Exploring Expedition, a nine-year venture into Utah's Grand Gulch and New Mexico's Chaco Canyon that--coupled with other less-restrained looters--so devastates Indigenous cultural sites across the American Southwest that Congress passes first-of-their-kind regulations to stop the carnage. As the money dries up, tensions rise, and a once-profitable enterprise disintegrates, setting the stage for a tragic murder.



Sins of the Shovel is a story of adventure and business gone wrong and how archaeologists today grapple with this complex heritage. Through the story of the Hyde Exploring Expedition, practicing archaeologist Rachel Morgan uncovers the uncomfortable links between commodity culture, contemporary ethics, and the broader political forces that perpetuate destructive behavior today. The result is an unsparing and even-handed assessment of American archaeology's sins, past and present, and how the field is working toward atonement.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Prologue -- A palace in the sky -- The robber baron -- All the world's a fair -- Toward the grand gulch -- Whence and whither -- Bonito, 1895 -- Cacao and turquoise -- Return to the grand gulch -- The trade -- Digging deeper -- Death by committee -- Anni horribiles -- All's fair...St. Louis, 1904 --An act for the preservation of American antiquities -- The race for the rainbow bridge -- On the borderland of hell -- Where the red rocks run under -- Back to the gulch, again -- New deal, new archaeology -- From potsherds to process -- The grand gulch under fire -- People without names -- Repatriation -- The past -- Epilogue -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index.

"Rachel Morgan's frank and incisive history begins with Richard Wetherill's "discovery" of Mesa Verde in Colorado in 1888. Subsequent expeditions by amateurs, looters, and budding professional archaeologists abetted the devastation of Indigenous sites throughout the Southwest. These expeditions became the proving grounds for different conceptions of what archaeology should be and how it should be practiced. Ultimately, revulsion at the work of nineteenth-century explorers led to more rigorous and ethical norms, as well as federal regulation, but the core issues of how we ought best to engage with the evidence and people of the past remain live ones today. Morgan, an archaeologist, knows well the field's history of racism and unethical behavior, and she is both unsparing and even-handed in assessing what happened in the Southwest and how it informs relations among people-and with the planet-today"-- Provided by publisher.

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