The Bluffer's Guide to Archaeology (Bluffers Guides) - Softcover

Dating from 1953, Paul Bahn decided at an early age that he wanted to be an archaeologist since it seemed to be better than working for a living. As a child he dug holes in his back garden in Hull and found fragments of pottery, which proved to be Willow Pattern (Woolworths) and not Ancient Roman, but the thrill of discovery remained intact.

He later studied archaeology at Cambridge, obtained his Ph.D., and adopted the regulation beard and shapeless sweaters, but despite weeks of cutting through the South American jungle in search of lost settlements, he failed to acquire a taste for either tobacco or vast quantities of alcohol.

He therefore settled for freelance writing about what he considers to be the more interesting aspects of the subject such as horse teeth and engravings of genitalia (viz: Crib Biting: Tethered Horses in the Palaeolithic?; No Sex, Please, We're Aurignacians).

Paul Bahn's publications include a brick-like text, Archaeology co-authored with Colin Renfrew, Easter Island, Earth Island co-authored with John Flenley, and the lavishly illustrated Journey Through the Ice Age. Fortunately all this work entails a certain amount of travel which is why this book was written on a beach in Fiji rather than in a Portakabin by a rained-off rescue dig in Milton Keynes.

The popular image of archaeologists is that of a bunch of absent-minded scruffs and misfits covered in dust and cobwebs. The bluffer will stress, however, with a knowing smile, that this is not always true - some of them are only slightly absent-minded, and a few keep quite clean.
Bluffer's Guides is a series of snappy little books containing facts, jargon, and all you need to know for instant expertise.