In the Trenches of Twentieth-century Archaeology

摘要

No WHISK BROOM, no 1930s-style fedora, no pistol, and definitely no bull whip do I own. No chance of being chased by weapon-carrying, angry tribesmen or huge rolling boulders, and no spectacular deep-jungle rescues or perilous south Asian treks to rousing orchestral music do I have. But I am an archaeological sleuth-of a sort-in a vein somewhat similar to that famous film character. My tools are the personal computer, the Internet database, the photocopier key card, and the implementation of protocols with strange acronyms, like FOIA and MDR. On occasion, I even have rummaged inside archival repositories hunting for, and then examining, long-forgotten maps for new clues. Much like archaeologists who labor at sites in foreign lands, I have even had to persevere-in the face of (at-times) stiff resistance from government bureaucracies-to obtain necessary permissions for access (in my case, to documents).