Digging Up the Past
Digging Up the Past - Archaeology for the Young and Curious
The Blurb
What do moa eggs, seeds chewed by rats and 600-year-old footprints have in common? Lost planes, dog turds and frozen sleeping bags? Archaeologists in Aotearoa New Zealand deal with artefacts like these every day to work out how the people before us lived.
In this book David Veart walks alongside the archaeologists as they dig up the past on top of volcanoes and beneath our city streets, in Māori pā and explorers’ huts. He shows us the things they find – obsidian adzes, enamel cups, the carved prow of a waka – and tells us the remarkable stories they have uncovered of Polynesian voyagers and Pākehā sealers, Māori gardeners and Chinese storekeepers.
Looking for ancient DNA, researching your own rubbish (WARNING: stinky work ahead), doing aerial archaeology with Google Earth (better than leaning out of a biplane) – this book will have readers of all ages thinking like archaeologists as it excavates the stories of the past.
The book was reviewed by Nigel Prickett in Archaeology in New Zealand 54(4) 2011.
Mini Review
Lots of interesting and informative pictures and photos. There is a lot of information. There are heaps of topics. It is quite easy to read but there are some hard words, especially the Maori words. It tells you lots of facts. Sometimes it is hard to understand what it means. It has lots of real photos with writing about them It tells you what being an archaeologist is about. Its good how you can learn about something that is so old and is buried.
Joshua Year 4
