The past has a way of suddenly speaking to us. When images appear, for example, of human hands that archaeologists say were stenciled 40,000 years ago, a haunted feeling of connection and perspective quickly emerges. But many archaeologists themselves seem to experience this sense of connection more or less continuously. As Marilyn Johnson suggests in “Lives in Ruins,” her lively survey of archaeology and the people who practice it, it fuels their dedication to the job, which they desperately need because the actual work and the challenges involved are pretty continuous as well.
Archaeologists at work in Egypt (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
