When I was in about
fourth grade, my mother gave me a 12-month subscription to the then new Random
House series, All About Books. I loved All
about Dinosaurs, Rocks, Rockets, The Planets, but my favorite
was All About Archaeology. The idea of digging up ancient ruins
fascinated me to no end. A few years
later, I came across the book Gods,
Graves, and Scholars by C.W. Ceram. From that day forward, I knew I wanted to be
an archaeologist. I read everything I
could find. I even researched colleges
which had a program. But as I neared
college, my plans changed, and becoming a digger faded. However, it never disappeared
altogether.
When I found The Dig by John Preston, I returned to
those heady days ancient Egypt, classic Greece and Troy. My graduate work at Baylor involved some
study of Anglo-Saxon and Danish sites in England. I marveled at the metal work, pottery, masks,
helmets, and swords found in England. I
pulled a book off my shelves by Angela Care Evans, entitled The Sutton Hoo Ship Burial. Iwas able to see pictures – not only of
the characters, but photos of many of the items described in the actual
excavation. Preston’s novel is a
fictionalized account of the discovery of one of the largest buried Danish
ships ever found. This interesting story
combined two of my favorite subjects: archaeology and English history.
John Preston is a
former arts editor of the Sunday
Telegraph and Evening Standard. He lives in London. His novel has lots of dated Briticisms, since
the ship was found shortly before the outbreak of World War II. The characters act and speak with some
reserve, and the humor is typically dry.
The owner of the land she wanted to investigate, introduces a local
archaeologist, who has agreed to begin a survey of the site, to her young son,
Robbie. Preston writes, “‘Robbie, […]
this is Mr. Brown.’ // Mr. Brown stood up.
His head came through the smoke cloud [from his pipe]. // ‘This is my
son, Robert.’ […] ‘Hello there, young man.’ // Robert said nothing; he just
kept staring up at him. // ‘Mr. Brown is an archaeologist,’ [she]
explained. ‘He is going to have a look inside
the mounds’” (11). For a moment I
imagined myself as young Robert.
Preston has brought
me back to the days of peering over the shoulder of Howard Carter as he broke
the seals in a burial chamber and saw, for the first time in over 2,000 years,
“Wonderful things” to quote Carter.
Of course, nothing
like the Sutton Hoo site could be kept secret for very long, and the curator of
a local museum began calling in experts from the British Museum. Brown did not want to bring anyone else into
the find, but then, neither did the curator.
Faster than you can say, “What ho chap.
Have you got something by George?” experts from all over descended on
the site. A squabble over who owned the
treasures buried there arose, which took a few years to resolve. Fortunately, the courts held the property
owner had first claim to everything found there. When WWII broke out, work had to be stopped
at the dig for the duration, but quickly resumed after VE Day.
The Dig by John Preston is neither a big book, nor an important one. But it does demonstrate the magic one can
experience from reading. It also shows
how a book can take you anywhere, anytime, anyway with imagination. 5 stars
--Chiron, 4/20/16
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