Do I Really Want to Be an Archaeologist?
Letters from the Field 1968-1974
By (author) Karen D. Vitelli
Paperback (Published)
(September 2023)
ISBN: 9781803276120
6.85 x 9.69 inches
Price: $42.00
In stock
An edited collection of letters that Karen D. Vitelli wrote from pre-EU Greece and Turkey to family during her later years of graduate school and early field work (at Franchthi Cave, Gordion, and a training session at Corinth) through to the completion of writing her dissertation in Athens during a coup (1968-1974).
Do I Really Want to Be an Archaeologist? is an edited collection of letters that Karen D. Vitelli wrote from pre-EU Greece and Turkey to family during her later years of graduate school and early field work (at Franchthi Cave, Gordion, and a training session at Corinth) through to the completion of writing her dissertation in Athens during a coup (1968-1974). An introductory chapter provides background information to clarify references in the letters, additional new comments within the letters amplify points and events, and a final chapter sums up her post-dissertation years. The letters were written during lively times politically and socially, as well as archaeologically, in Greece and around the world. The author was often torn between immersing herself in the past and being involved in the upheavals of that present. The letters show her frequent questioning about whether to remain in archaeology or become an ‘activist,’ and how she eventually found ways to do both.
Chapter 1. The Background to the Letters
Chapter 2. Getting to Greece. Off to my First Dig, 1968
Chapter 3. My First Dig, Porto Cheli, 1968
Chapter 4. Fall Term at the American School, 1968
Chapter 5. Winter Term at the American School, 1969
Chapter 6. More Digs: Turkey and Back to Greece, 1969
Chapter 7. Beginning Dissertation Research, 1969-70
Chapter 8. Wrapping up the Dissertation Research. Nafplion 1970: April-August
Chapter 9. Avoiding, and Finally Starting the Dissertation, Athens 1973
Chapter 10. Finishing the Dissertation, during a Revolution
Bibliography
Karen D. Vitelli is Professor Emerita of Archaeology and Anthropology, Indiana University, Bloomington. A member of the Franchthi Cave Project since 1968, she published two volumes on its pottery and another on the contemporary pottery from Lerna, incorporating in both her work on experimental ceramics. She now directs the Franchthi Project. She was active in archaeological ethics, chaired related committees in both the AIA and SAA, and edited several volumes on that topic. She lives in Maine.
- By (author) Karen D. Vitelli
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