Archaeology Magazine - July/August 1981 - 5

Cover Question
LETTERS

TO

THE

EDITOR

The opinionsexpressedhere do not necessarily reflect the positionof the Archaeological
Institute of America.Readersare invited to
submit letters, which should be typed, dou-

ble-spacedand addressedto the Editor, Archaeology, 53 Park Place, New York NY
10007.We reserve the right to edit and retain any material.

Megalithic Knowth

entrance to the western tomb of the main
mound. Length, 2.8 meters "
All of these in no way reflect any fault
of the author's. -Ed.

To the Editor:
Is the picture captioned "The narrow
passage of the eastern tomb at Knowth"
on page 50 of the May/June issue upside
down or am I looking at it wrong?
Randall M. Anderson
Marietta , GA
This middle photograph and the one at
the top are both upside down. -Ed.
To the Editor:
In your May/June issue, covering the
article on the passage tombs of Ireland, I
believe that certain typographical errors must have been made.
The top picture on page 51 describes
the corbelled roof of the chamber as having a height of 60 meters. Probably the
author meant 6 meters as 60 meters
would be an incredible height of 200
feet.
On page 54, the bottom picture describes the curbstone at the entrance as
being 22 meters long. This also must be
in error. Again, the author probably
means 2.2 meters.
Kindly check into these figures as
there is probably a mistake in the interchange between feet and the metric
system.
I.L. Cohen
Syosset, NY
You are absolutely correct. In fact , the
on page 51 should have
top photograph
"
"
read, over 5.5 meters The error is not
the author's, however, but occurred during the production process.
A number of captions were inadvertently confused in Dr. Eogaris article.
On page 48, the caption should read,
"This
large curbstone stood at the entrance to the eastern tomb in the main
mound. Length, 2.2 meters. " On page 50,
the caption for the photograph at the top
r
right should read, Interior of the western chamber at the main mound. The
chamber is formed by the widening of the
passage and is roofed by a massive capstone." On page 51, lower photograph,
the caption should read, "Stone basin
decorated on both the outside and inside.
It is over one meter in diameter and is
carved from sandstone " On page 53, the
tomb pictured is Tomb 14 not Tomb 4.
Finally, on page 54, the caption should
read, "This massive stone stood at the

Removing Your Label
To the Editor:
Please tell Jim George of Dallas, Texas
(Letters to the Editor , March/April
1981), that there are several ways he
can remove the label from the cover .
1. Put a damp cloth or sponge on the
label for a few minutes and then peel the
label very carefully;
2. Use a steam iron set on "wool" for
four or five seconds. If the label sticks a
little, do not pull; just put the iron on
again for a few seconds and try again.
Phyllis B. Folk
Ryderwood, WA
A Bone to Pick
To the Editor:
I enjoyed thoroughly reading the article
in the May/June issue of Archaeology
entitled "Nubia's Last Christians" by
Dennis Van Gerven; however, I have a
bone to pick with you on the article. On
page 28 the bone showing the Parry
fracture happens to be the ulna, not the
humerus. The wrench-like appearance
of the proximal portion is a dead giveaway (olecranon notch).
Emmet R. White, MD
Rutherford College,NC
The author tells us that it is indeed an
ulna. -Ed.
Only the Beginning
To the Editor:
...I have always been of the opinion that
human cultural and physical remains
could provide tremendous insight into
the daily life of a population, plus much
more. I am very impressed with the
term
"biocultural
adaptations"
("Nubia's Last Christians," Archaeology 34 [1981]: 22-30.) It is encouraging
to see that I am not the only one who
believes that excavation is not an end in
itself. Excavation as an interdisciplinary approach is only the beginning, as
you have indicated in your article bravo!... I plan to share your article with
my [high school] students....
Rosalind Kelly -Norris
Nicoma, OK

To the Editor:
The cover photograph on Volume 34,
Number 3, featuring Dr. Van Gerven
handling a human skull removed from a
Nubian grave is inappropriate, in my
estimation. Certainly, you would not
feature a scene depicting the excavation
and removal of a skeleton from an
Amerind site on your cover. The black
and white mosaic from Le Colonne, or
the engraved monoliths from Knowth,
or the Sardis tiles might have made interesting and non-controversial cover
subjects.
William P. McHugh, Ph.D.
Monroeville,PA
Visiting U.S. Sites
To the Editor:
In the May /June issue you had a section
entitled Visiting Archaeological Sites
(Archaeology 3 [1981]: 8 if.). Included
in the listing for Massachusetts was the
Olmstead-GofFe house. Unfortunately,
there will be no archaeological excavations this summer. We would appreciate
it if this information is passed on to your
readers.
Gray Graffam
Institute of Conservation Archaeology
Cambridge, MA
c

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Archaeology Magazine - July/August 1981

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - July/August 1981
