Archaeologists are synonymous with artifacts. With artifacts we construct stories concerning past lives and livelihoods, yet we rarely write of deeply personal encounters, of the way the lives of objects and our lives become enmeshed. In this volume 25 archaeologists each tell an intimate story of their experience and entanglement with an evocative artifact. They range from a New Britain obsidian tool to an abandoned Viking toy boat, the marble finger of a classical Greek statue and ordinary pottery fragments from Roman England and Polynesia. Other tales cover contemporary objects, including...

Archaeologists are synonymous with artifacts. With artifacts we construct stories concerning past lives and livelihoods, yet we rarely write of deeply personal encounters, of the way the lives of objects and our lives become enmeshed. In this volume 25 archaeologists each tell an intimate story of their experience and entanglement with an evocative artifact. They range from a New Britain obsidian tool to an abandoned Viking toy boat, the marble finger of a classical Greek statue and ordinary pottery fragments from Roman England and Polynesia. Other tales cover contemporary objects, including...