Archaeology Magazine - July/August 1983 - 76

Book BíefS
continued from page 75
Near East. Dates, views concerning
historical and social developments, and
technological insights have changed so
much that many statements in books
written 30 years ago now appear misleading. P.R.S. Moorey has succeeded in
integrating this new knowledge into
Woolley'soriginal text. The changes and
additions were made so sensitively that
a new reader would not recognizeanother
voice.
Moorey is a more careful scholar than
Woolley, and has a far greater knowledge of Near Eastern archaeology outside Ur. He has transformed the account
of the excavations at that site into an
excellent introduction for Mesopotamian
archaeology as a whole, and the striking
color shots and well-chosen black-andwhite illustrations give a new dimension
to Ur,. Edith Porada, Columbia University, New York
Texas Graveyards:
A Cultural
Legacy, by Terry G. Jordan . ix,
147 pages , 113 black-and-white photographs, 6 text figures, 1 plan, 1 map,
bibliography. University of ThxasPress,
Austin, TX 1982 $19.95
It has been understood for a couple of
decades that graveyards are gold mines
of material cultural data where one can
learn not only about a community's past
but about its present. This is the first
book about using those data as doorways
to peek into the cultures they represent.
As a cultural geographer,Jordan seeks
geographical, ethnic origins for the diverse cultural expressions found in East
Ibxas graveyards. With brevity, enthusiasm and freedom from jargon, and
aided by a profusion of black-and-white
photos (with a few graphic illustrations),
he gives an overview of the material distinctiveness of burial customs among
the three main ethnic groups he perceives in East Texas: Southern (folk
and traditional), Mexican, and Tfexas
German. Actually, there are more than
three to be seen, especially as divisions
of "Southern," but Jordan's intellectual
points would be much the same in any
case.
Although he does an admirable job of
tracing various material details and
practices to their most likely Old World
roots- can there be any such things as
"origins"?- the author could have gotten a lot more exciting mileage from his
already worthwhile text by considering
chronology within his graveyards. Unfortunately, like the pictures, his interpretations are black and white. Had he
provided the reader with a few data on
frequency distributions through time,
Jordan might have shown us how to see
these as evidence of continuing cultural
change and interaction among the diverse groups which he has broadly and
impressionistically painted for us.
Although scholars from various dis76

ARCHAEOLOGY

ciplines have been talking for several
years about the idea of material culture
and personality, Jordan breaks new
ground here by almost literally taking
us into the field with him, where, with a
few strong hints to get us going in the
right directions, we can design and pursue inductive paths of our own.
Even with its frustrating quantitative
and chronological shortcomings, this is
surely among the most thought-provoking works ever written about graveyards.
At last an author and a publisher have
recognized graveyards as the most valuable and holistic source for the study of
material culture that is available anywhere . Edwin Dethlefsen, Society for
Historical Archaeology, Keene, NH
Who Was Who in the Greek World,
edited by Diana Bowder. 240 pages,
frontispiece, 200 black-and-white photographs, 8 maps. Cornell University
Press, Ithaca, NY 1982 $29.95
The companion volume to Who Was
Who in the Roman World displays the
same excellence in authorship by a team
of scholars, sophisticated editing and
handsome design. It offers some 750 informative, well-documented and crossreferenced entries, accompanied by
selected illustrations that make personalities come alive. This biographical dictionary chronicles Greek poets, artists,
philosophers, and historical figures from
776 to 30 B.c. in brief but lively paragraphs supported by recent bibliography
as well as ancient sources.
A historical introduction by John
Chadwick of Cambridge University
presents 15 Homeric heroes with their
Bronze Age background (1600-1200b.c. )
and then the Dark Ages (1200-800B.c.);
the editor contributes a concise and sensible survey of Greek history to accompany the hundreds of personalities. An
index of names mentioned without separate entries and a glossary of Greek
literary and historical terms make this
book useful to the novice as well as the
scholar. Among the illustrations, coins
are effective contemporary portraits,
while sculpture and mosaics must often
be Roman copies rather than Greek
originals. The archaeological sites are
less suitable for illustration in a dictionary format, and hence are limited in
number and occasionally eccentric in
this book.
High standards dominate the book's
scholarship - often a critical professional view- and illustrations, whose
captions always acknowledge a dispute
in date or identification. Errors are rare,
but the "Leonidas" statue is in Sparta,
not Athens. Who Was Who in the Greek
World should be welcome to scholars
but is ideal for general readers as a reliable reference work and an attractive
as well as affordable introduction to ancient Greece. Sarah P. Morris, Yale University, New Haven, CT

Archaeology Magazine - July/August 1983

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - July/August 1983