The Reading Corner.

[Buster's Uncle]

The Sumerians Their History, Culture, and Character
by Samuel Noah Kramer

-Dry.

[Geo]

The Sumerians Their History, Culture, and Character
by Samuel Noah Kramer

-Dry.

My Mom Just Officially Banned You!
She's specialized in old Mesopotamian cultures. Or, to be more exact, Akkadian culture.

[Buster's Uncle]

Is Mom an academic?

[Geo]

Sure is. With the dirty hands to prove it (digging antiques in desert soil).

[Buster's Uncle]

And why would she ban me?  Akkad was in there.

[Geo]

And why would she ban me?  Akkad was in there.

A true archeologist can't understand  that anyone would find ancient history dry.

[Buster's Uncle]

What's a false archeologist like?

[Geo]

What's a false archeologist like?

You? 

[Buster's Uncle]

A re-read of  Kiln People by David Brin as bedtime-til-I-fall-asleep reading.

I have to suspend disbelief about the basic premise -making clay golem copies of oneself to do chores and such has taken over civilization- but Brin is never terrible, and this is good enough.  Helps that I don't recall where the plot's going.

[Geo]

I remember the title, but not reading it. Probably did though, since back then Brin was one of my writer 'heroes' of his day.
I just started on Catherine Asaro's Skolian Empire series. Female SciFi writing is definitely a bit challenging to get into (for me), but once the story starts rolling...

[Vidsek]

Um, as an Archaeologist myself, I can confidently state that we much prefer wet ancient prehistory.  Wet and anoxic.  Dry sites rarely have more than stone and, occasionally, bone.  Wet sites with no dissolved oxigen can have wood and other plant materials.  Sometimes even animal stuff other than bone.

Paperback books count as wood, so there's the tie-in.

[Geo]

Paperback books count as wood, so there's the tie-in.

Which begs the question: would books 'preserved' on the 'perfect' wet site still be as eligible as clay tablets after 3-4 millennia?

[Buster's Uncle]

Um, as an Archaeologist myself

We all would luuuuvvv to hear more about this, I reckon.  Specialty?  Fieldwork?  Where?  Any good stories to share?  Wanna talk about Indianna Jones? (Uno's a big fan - literally a Very Large Man Who Loves Indy.)

[Buster's Uncle]

Where, come to think of it, is there that much bog action in North America?  Are you doing the fieldwork in Ireland or something?

[Elok]

Rereading Stephenson's Baroque Cycle at present.  We don't have a good local library system so I don't read as much as I'd like to these days.  Found the trilogy (technically eight short books) digging through our old house that got rendered uninhabitable by Hurricane Michael back in '18.  Still good fun, if seriously uneven.