Gods, Graves, & Scholars

Gods, Graves, & Scholars: The Story of Archaeology

By C.W. Ceram

Archaeology is not a backward-looking science. Until quite recently, I thought the opposite. In my mind, archaeology worked in reverse - ancient ruins, caves, and the Dead Sea Scrolls, civilization in the rear-view mirror. It is that, but after a freshman dip into the field, I see that it is more. I learned from a used book sale purchase (that beloved commonplace of bibliophiles) selected solely because of an interesting cover and a one-dollar price tag that archaeology is not only progressive and relevant today, it is critical.

My knowledge of archaeology has never risen above general chatter. I always found discussions of artifacts interesting, I love the mummies at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and, like everyone else in my age range, I think Indiana Jones had a very cool job. But I never dedicated any particular energy toward learning about the field which, for me, translates to the fact that I never read a book about it, until now.

Gods, Graves, & Scholars: The Story of Archaeology by C.W. Ceram is a lesson in archaeology, particularly for someone with a surface deep knowledge of the tidbits that have reached the pop cultural zeitgeist. It is a story of ancient cultures, the discoveries that enabled us to study and learn from them, and some of the archaeologists involved in these discoveries. (They are interesting characters, ranging from dilettantes to academics to obsessives.) The archaeological terms – Sumerian, Assyriology, Schliemann, Tower of Babel – are familiar but really, what do we know of the details? In my case, essentially nothing before reading the book, and something, although not nearly everything, after.

The story enthralled me, lending truth to my inner eye’s ability to select books. With chapter titles such as “Layard: A Dilettante Outwits a Pasha” I was immediately hooked. Who was Layard, how did he meet a pasha, outwit a pasha, and what exactly is a pasha? The very first chapter, “The Queen of Naples: From Her Garden to Pompeii,” drew me in right away. I have been to Rome multiple times and shown no discernable interest in visiting Pompeii. Six pages of Gods, Graves, & Scholars sent me looking for airplane tickets and tour guides, as well as searching my bookshelves for anything that might mention Pompeii and Herculaneum. All that was before I read about the Villa dei Papiri and Philodemus’ scrolls, which piqued my interest even further.

More provocative than the knowledge I accumulated though, were the insights I took away. Circling back to my first sentence, I learned that although archaeology studies the oldest things that have been found, it is not at all backward-looking. Every shard of recovered history expands our understanding of the past, so in that sense, an archaeologist does look back, to the past, often the very ancient past, as far back as he or she can go. But that look back is only the beginning of the story. When that knowledge helps to explain the present and map out the future, it comes alive, it contributes to all humanity, revealing our differences but also our connectedness. In the words of Ceram, “As we get to know more about the history of mankind, the time comes when we begin to feel the faint breath of the eternal wafted to us across the great gap of the years. We begin to see glimmerings of evidence that little human experience during five thousand years of history has actually been lost. We see, too, that often what was deemed good is now deemed bad, what once was true is now false. Regardless, the forces of the past still live on and exert their influence on us, though we may not be consciously aware of this. It is frightening to realize in full depth what it means to be a human being: that is, to realize that we are all embedded in the flux of generations, whose legacy of thought and feeling we irrevocably carry along with us. Most of us never become aware of the importance of this heritage that man alone of all mammals lugs forward through time. And seldom have we any notion how to make the most of our given burden.”

The book also taught me that idea of progressive development is not always the end of the story. As a society, we improve, we evolve, we advance, or, if you wanted to speak in academic jargon, you could say that we progressively develop. Progressive development describes how we learn history, for example that the Enlightenment was a time of forward progress, advancement over old ways, that led to our modern civilization. Yet even a cursory study of archaeology shows that cultures thousands of years older than Enlightenment Europe were technologically far ahead of it. The story of archaeology reminds us that ancient cultures – Mayan and Babylonian, for example – were in some ways more advanced than we are today, that much of what we know is based on ancient knowledge, that there is much to learn in various fields, for example medicine, by looking back to what those before us discovered and developed. And what if Atlantis really existed? Dreamers all over the world have spent many an hour imagining what we could learn, how humanity could advance, if Atlantis were ever found. Ceram does not have much time for fantasies of Atlantis, preferring lost worlds that have been found, but still.

In every secret revealed by recovered artifact, manuscript, etc., a new piece of the puzzle, a new sliver of explanation falls into place. And who knows what secrets are sitting out there, waiting to be found. Ceram wondered, “Who dares to claim that the archaeologists have dug up all possible cultural vestiges? Throughout the world are scattered monuments which, standing alone and mysterious, have yet to yield the secret of the culture that gave them being… Digs are in progress all over the world. For we need to understand the past five thousand years in order to master the next hundred years.”

Or, as I would say, as I say to myself every day, never stop learning – forward, backward, and everywhere in between. No matter where it comes from, whether the ruins of ancient Greece, a Mesopotamian ziggurat, or a Mayan temple, knowledge, tradition, discovery, looking back holds the power to push us forward.