Experimental Archaeology . John Coles

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AMERICAN A N THR0POL OGIST

In sum. although Fry has assembled a volume that adds little to the general theories of regional exchange, he has contributed a collection that provides a valuable overview of the various technological applications that are currently being used to study pottery. The book is priced affordably and thus should become a useful companion volume for earlier, less technical, ceramic analyses. For the future, regional exchange studies are advised to avoid the limitations of the current research. Analyses should not be restricted to single classes of data. Rather, they should be encouraged at the regional scale with integration of studies of settlements with those of architecture, land use, rare resources, lithics, and ceramics. Only well-designed, diachronic investigations of this kind will give archaeologists both the opportunity to understand the true complexity of human economic systems and the ability to explain the causes and consequences of changes in them.

Experimental Archaeology.John Coles. London: Academic Press, 1979. ix + 74 pp. $25.00 (cloth); $11.50 (paper). Stephen C. Saraydar Cornell University This book fills the gap created when John Coles’s previous volume, Archaeology by Experiment, went out of print two years ago. It is a worthy successor that provides an entertaining and generally comprehensive introduction to many of the experiments in human prehistory performed between the late 18th century and 1979. Although the book easily achieves the goals set out in the preface (pp. vii-viii),this accomplishment is perhaps a mixed blessing, because the author has chosen to defer slightly more to the layman than to the serious student. This bias is evident in the introductory chapter, which succeeds in presenting a useful overview of the history of experimental archaeology but falls short of the mark in its treatment of theory. Although the approach adopted here shows more originality than the one in his previous book, some significant recent theoretical and methodological developments that have enhanced the standing of experimental archaeol-

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ogy in the discipline as a whole are not incorporated (e.g., experimentally derived quantitative transformations and the use of experiments to improve procedures for testing ethnographic analogues). Coles ignores a wealth of valuable research carried out under the banner of “ethnoarchaeology” in the last decade (see p. 39). producing a distorted view of research strategies in contemporary archaeology. Also disappointing is his discussion of the three levels of experiment (simulation for display purposes, replication of original manufacturing methods, and discovery of function) and the various criteria for designing and evaluating research (pp. 36-38); what is presented is quite sound, but, nonetheless, a bit stale. Chapters 2 through 5 (“Discoveryand Exploration,” “Subsistence.” “Settlement,” “Arts and Crafts”) are well-written, comprehensive, and provide a realistic view of the scope of the research conducted in each area. Most worthy of praise is Coles’s account of experiments with sailing vessels and the daring exploits of mariners such as Heyerdahl, Finney, and de Bisschop. This material is rich enough to captivate even the hardened professional. Coles’s concluding remarks are preceded by a chapter lacking coherence but possessing an interesting title: “Life and Death.” In it, we are first presented with lengthy descriptions of two experiments in “living archaeology” (Life), after which Death appears in the guise of bog bodies and skulls showing evidence of trepanation. Experiments concerned with ways of disposing of the dead other than consigning them to bogs are then recounted and this leads to considerations of intentional mummification, building pyramids for the mummies, and monumental constructions of all sorts. In fairness, this chapter’s ramblings are not apt to bother most readers. But for textbook use, experiments dealing with activities such as the transport of heavy stones are best grouped with other forms of heavy industry as they were in Coles’s earlier book. This book’s weaknesses do not detract seriously from what is a masterful synthesis of many of experimental archaeology’s achievements. Experimental Archaeology provides an easy and engaging introduction to the subject that will stimulate readers to learn more and perhaps to attempt experiments of their own. With the few exceptions noted, I doubt that one could ask much more of a book of this kind.