Archaeology Magazine - May/June 1979 - 68

thousandsof years of humanoccupation,
these writersare limitedto a "barebones"
presentation.WaldoR. Wedel'ssectionon
the prehistoricGreat Plainsis informative
and readswell,and James B.Griffindoes a
very crediblejob of summarizingNortheastern and Midwestern archaeology.
Anothergood chapter is that of John D.
Muller,whomanagesto makesense ofthe
terminological
tanglethat oftenpasses for
Easternarchaeology.
WilliamD. Lipe'sanalysisof Southwestern archaeologyis excellentas far as it
goes; unfortunately,what Lipe calls the
"Southwest"is nothingmorethanthe upper
half of the Southwest.Except for a few
wordson Casas Grandes,the lowerpartof
this regionis dismissed(page328):". . . in
partdueto lackofresearchinthisarea, and
in partto the failureof mostSouthwesternists, includingthe author,to becomesufficientlyinformedabout the workthat has
been done."Inpointoffact,there has been
a great deal of research and publication
on the Mexicanportionof the Southwest.
PerhapsLipewillextendhiscoverageinthe
next editionof this volume.
IfLipeignoresthe southernportionofthe
Southwest,T. PatrickCulbert,in an otherwisesuperiorpaper,ignoreshugesections
of Mesoamerica.To Culbert,Mesoamerica
mainlymeans the eastern Olmecoidcultures, the Mayaand the peoplesof central
Mexico.He says littleor nothingof the vigorous Mesoamerican cultures of north
Mexicoor of the richenigmaticculturesof
west Mexico.Culbert,incidentally,
is evolutionary in his approach, and believes
Mesoamericancivilization
to be largelya
nativeAmericanphenomenon.
CentralAmericanarchaeologyis almost
totallyleftout.ThomasF. Lynchdiscusses
the Palaeoindian material in South
America.MichaelE. Moseleytakes on the
formidabletask of synthesizingthirty-five
and BettyJ.
centuriesofAndeancivilization
Meggersand CliffordEvanssurveylowland
SouthAmerica.These three chaptersgive
the reader some idea both of the cultural
and of the manyarchaeological
complexity
problems involved in studying South
America.
The concludingchapter, on Precolumbiantransoceaniccontacts,is byStephenC.
Jett, who is a diffusionistand makes no
bones about it. Jett documents a vast
number of contacts - or supposed
contacts- betweenthe NewWorldand Africa,Asiaand Europe.Hischapter makes
worthwhilereadingforthose sophisticated
inevaluatingthe evidence.However,there
are serious pitfallsfor the casual reader,
because Jett is not alwayswillingto distinguish reasonable possibility from wild
fancy.
The chapter bibliographies
are a useful
partofthisbook.Someare quiteextensive;
the one on the Southwest,forexample,has
around three hundred references. The
are generallyof fairqualmanyillustrations
ity.Thereis an adequateindex,and a glossary of 75 itemswhichmaybe of some use
68

to people with no archaeologicalbackground.The $19.50pricetag forthe rather
poorlymanufacturedpaperbackeditionof
this bookis far too high.
Carroll L. Riley
SouthernIllinoisUniversity
Greek Sculpture and Roman
Taste
by Cornelius Vermeule hi. xii, 137
pages, 100blackand whiteplates, bibliography. University of Michigan Press
AnnArbor,Michigan1977$18.50
This publicationof the twelfthseries of
Thomas Spencer Jerome lectures at the
*
Universityof Michiganand the American
in
in
Academy Rome 1975-76is subtitled
"ThePurposeand settingof Greco-Roman
Art in Italyand the Greek ImperialEast."
Topics discussed are the installationof
sculpture, commercial production of
sculpturefor architecturaldisplay,literary
and archaeological
evidenceforthe display
and regroupingof sculpturein Italyand the
LatinWest,and archaeological
evidencein
Greece, AsiaMinorand the East.
One senses that the talkshave not been
fullyreworkedfor the book:I shouldhave
expectedthe literarysources, inwhichthe
Romans themselves state what art they
likedand howthey used it,to be discussed
firstand morefully.Nomentionis madeof
Jucker'sVomVerhältnis
der Römerzur bildenden Kunstder Griechen,whichcould
supplythe reader withnecessaryinformationthat is lackinghere.Perhapsthe lecture
format,requiringan attractivesuccessionof
slides, did not favorthe most logicalarrangementofthe topics.Withtheirfullcomplementof slides,manyperhaps in color,
the lecturesmayhavebeen entertainingas
wellas informative.
Reductionto the scale
of a moderatelypricedbook leaves many
worksunillustratedand the rest somewhat
drab.
Althoughitmaystillbe feasibleas wellas
desirableto designa lectureseries bothfor
the general publicand for scholars,it has
becomeveryexpensiveto producea book
whichwillserve both purposes. Perhaps
authorsand the press shouldoptforone or
the other ineach case. Thegeneralreader
needs an orderlyintroduction
to the subject
as well as clear style and full,attractive
The scholarcan dispensewith
illustration.
these, if need be, but requiresin compensation full,up-to-datenotes and bibliography, includingreferencesto good, easily
accessible illustrationsof the works discussed. Bothclasses of readerswillderive
muchprofitfromthe widerangeof information in the present book,but bothwillfeel
some frustrationifthey try to go deeper.
Vermeule'smainthesis is that sculpture
in Greco-Roman civilizationwas subordinateto architecturalsettingsas it had
not been in the pre-RomanGreekworld.
The grandiose Roman structures and
spaces required great quantities of
sculpture,and this was providedby a mix-

Archaeology Magazine - May/June 1979

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