Lives in ruins : archaeologists and the seductive lure of human rubble / Marilyn Johnson.

Includes bibliographical references.

Down and dirty : studying people who study people -- Boot camp. Field school : context is everything ; The survivalist's guide to archaeology : our ancestors were geniuses ; Extreme beverages : taking beer seriously ; Pig dragons : how to pick up an archaeologist ; My life is in ruins : jobs and other problems ; Road trip through time : our partner, heartbreak ; Underwater mysteries : slow archaeology, deep archaeology -- The classics. Explorers club : classics of the ancient world and Hollywood ; Field school redux : the earth-whisperers -- Archaeology and war. The bodies : who owns history? ; Evidence of harm : bearing witness ; Archaeology in a dangerous world : a historic alliance ; Avoidance targets : mission-- respect -- Heritage. Buckets of archaeologists : if archaeologists tried to save the world.

Examines the lives of contemporary archaeologists as they sweat under the sun for clues to the puzzle of our past. Johnson digs and drinks alongside archaeologists, chases them through the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, and even Machu Picchu, and excavates their lives. Her subjects share stories we rarely read in history books, about slaves and Ice Age hunters, ordinary soldiers of the American Revolution, children of the first century, Chinese woman warriors, sunken fleets, mummies. What drives these archaeologists is not the money (meager) or the jobs (scarce) or the working conditions (dangerous), but their passion for the stories that would otherwise be buried and lost.

English.