Sins of the Shovel
Looting, Murder, and the Evolution of American Archaeology

This is an excellent book on the history of modern archaeology, centered on the American Southwest. Rachel Morgan did an amazing amount of research for this, and she shows us the receipts; the last third of the book is all bibliography and footnotes. I knew some of the names of people involved in th......more

An interesting account of early “archaeology” and what it has become - basically from looting to a bureaucratic nightmare. It raises interesting thoughts about balancing the interests of Indigenous cultures and science and who should do the balancing. I think it underrepresents the potential role of......more

About 2/3 of the book presents the early White explorations of Chaco Canyon, told with an arch "oh those stupid people" tone. I suppose it's not a suprise considering the title. There is then a leap to 1970's and then 2020's general political responses to the interaction between archaeology, develop......more

The one good thing about this book is that it directs people to look to the various indigenous tribe to have them express their particular desires regarding remains. Most of the rest is bad for blowing the horn of "science" regarding archeology and looking to the federal government for leadership.......more

This had some interesting history, especially if you’ve been to any of the parts of the Southwest where the detailed plunder took place, but I really expected a broader review of the “sins of the shovel” rather than such a deep dive of one or two families in Chaco Canyon, etc. I expected to be more......more