Archaeological Thinking

Reviews / Votes

The second edition of Orser's Archaeological Thinking has been significantly updated and enhanced from the 2015 edition (CH, May'15, 52-4848). It retains the first edition's focus on using archaeological examples to promote critical thinking. Orser wisely continues to use examples from pseudo-historical or pseudoscientific theories and ideas that have become part of popular culture. In this second edition, he includes examples from the Ancient Aliens TV series, which prodigiously uses archaeological sites and discoveries to bolster its dubious contentions. The Netflix documentary Ancient Apocalypse (2022) gets a timely mention as one of the book's examples of dubious scholarship, although a detailed critique would have provided a fine demonstration of critical thinking. Another useful addition is the up-to-date and concise account of the Kennewick Man controversy which pitted Native American religious beliefs against anthropologists. The second edition contains 10 chapters, of which four are new. Two chapters from the first edition have been dropped. Orser also provides an excellent discussion of the various schools of archaeological thought in the new chapter 7. Any library looking to build up its resources on critical thinking and archaeology will want to add this new edition to its collections. Recommended. Undergraduates and graduate students * Choice Reviews * This engaging book is a valuable corrective to common ideas that archaeology is about digging up facts. Instead, Orser claims that the most important archaeological tool is the mind. He provides a clear and concise guide to how archaeologists use critical thinking skills to interpret the artifacts they find and create knowledge about the human past. Useful for all those curious about 'pseudo' interpretations of the past as well as parsing all kinds of scientific and historical interpretations from false or misleading claims. -- LouAnn Wurst, Michigan Technological University Charles Orser's Archaeological Thinking is the accessible antidote to false information related to the past. Orser shows how archaeologists do their work, from excavation to analysis and to forming conclusions, guiding the reader through the entire process in an engaging style that helps the discipline come alive. Archaeological Thinking is not just a must-have for courses related to introductory archaeology but for anyone looking to learn more about how we figure out what our ancestors were doing. -- Jacob J. Sauer, PhD, senior lecturer, department of Anthropology, Vanderbilt University