Travels with an Archaeologist

Richard Hodges OBE, is President of The American University of Rome, Italy. He is the editor of the Debates in Archaeology series; and his publications include Dark Age Economics, The Anglo-Saxon Achievement, Towns and Trade in the Age of Charlemagne, Goodbye to the Vikings and (as co-author) Villa to Village, all published by Bloomsbury. He has previously been Director of Archaeology for the Butrint Foundation and Director of the Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, USA.

'You must be very patient', most everyone asserts admiringly on encountering an archaeologist. Patience in the pursuit of history instantly earns consideration. Patience to sift through the soil to discover treasure, from gold to unidentifiable knick-knacks - an educated beachcomber. But, patience does not come into it so much as the chemistry of experiences from being in the company of others as the five senses are provoked and satisfied by the buried unexpected.Archaeology is about hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting and touching past textures in our time. With these senses, in the company of friends, new places are created from old ones. Travel with archaeologist and writer Richard Hodges as he explores sites across the globe and ponders the relationship of the individual with the past and the present of the past in its ruins, monuments and traces of distant worlds and civilisations.

A memoir of travels by an eminent archaeologist and historian.

Reaching beyond the heartland of the Classical Mediterranean, the essays take the reader as far as Mexico, Qatar and Florida

List of IllustrationsPreface and acknowledgements1. Introduction: An archaeologist's sense of the pastPart 1 In the Company of Placemaking People2. In Charles Newton's Shadow: Searching for Demeter at Knidos3. Wim van Es and the Discovery of the Dutch 'Troy', Dorestad4. Johnny Mitchell and San Vincenzo al Volturno's First Saint5. Riccardo and Quinto - Place-making at 'Lost' Tuscan villages6. Breakfast with Colin Renfrew7. Reviewing Lisa Fentress at Alatri8. With Giussy Nicolini where the Blue Begins9. Remembering Albanian HeroinesPart 2 Finding the sensesHearing10. Boreal Butrint and its Golden Oriels 11. Sublimity: Hidden in the Togate's Folds12. Fireworks at CopánSight13. Seeing beyond Sparta: Mistra14. Sights and sanctuary at Saranda15. Cavernous Spectacles of Colour: S. Michele at Olevano and the Crypt of the Original Sin16. A Renaissance Dream House at VisegrádSmell 17. The smell of the Desert: Doha and Al Zubarah18. Smelling Spices in Sana'a 19. The Disturbing Scent of Gold - Rosia Montana, TransylvaniaTaste20. Tuscan Cooking Classes and S.Pietro d'Asso21. Red Mullet and Retsina on Aegina22. The taste of Key Lime PieTouch23. Touching 'Gold' in Gordion24. In touch with Rome's Ex-pat dead: Rome's Non-Catholic Cemetery25. Bunga bunga?Index