This non-fiction book is a gift from a friend of mine who visited me in Durham just this August. I love how the writer does not delve too deeply into the stoic matters of digging and analyses of remains. Instead, he provides readers with the fun facts of the subject matter, including horrible, gory and sometimes senseless truths which are hard to stomach. Thence the self-declared ‘100% horrible’ label on the cover page.
Beware of one thing though – not only are the facts horrible; the writer himself is horribly corny as well. Cold jokes like this one below can be found on almost every line of every page in the book:
‘Archaeologists are fascinated by food remains in the guts of dead bodies. Maybe they find it hard to work on an empty stomach?’
Overall an easy read that allows for an exciting and fun understanding of the basics of archaeology. Ironically, since it only touches the surface of archaeological issues, more indepth knowledge of digging activities can only be gained through the reading of other more professional (and perhaps less corny) books on archaeology.
