Lives in Ruins: Archaeologists and the Seductive Lure of Human Rubble
By: Marilyn Johnson / Narrated By: Hillary Huber
Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
Oh just SPARE me to those who complained this is fluff and non-scientific… it’s just FUN!
Lives in Ruins is TOTALLY NOT for armchair archaeologists who’ve read dozens of treatises on the subject. And it’s NOT for those who get tweaked off by continual levity when discussing a “serious” Non-Fun subject.
Noooooo! It’s for those of us who like going at such in a definite Mary Roach style. Like Roach, Marilyn Johnson digs deep (Hmmm, not even sure I intended the pun…) and joyfully wallows in each experience she seeks for herself. She’s trying to figure out who on earth would seek and live out a profession that is soooo not Indiana Jones (Thanks, however, to the movie for giving archaeologists a bit o’ dash and verve!). Nope, it’s all low-pay, job-scarcity, dirt dirt dirt and paperwork paperwork paperwork.
And sometimes you even have to dole out the bucks to do the job. Pay? Whazzaaa?!?
Johnson takes us on a rollicking tour of the earth whether it’s doing crime scene forensic archaeological investigations (Think traipsing along, looking for clues in the forest, and trying not to barf as you uncover clues whilst digging up a decaying 300-lb dead pig), or it’s joining a dig where the reeeeeeally dedicated archaeologist has to kinda sorta dissuade tourists on a geo-treasure hunt from stomping all over an Apollo-devotee’s temple… that’ll tick ANYone off! Johnson talks to archaeologists who are called in when developers discover Oh-No! skeletons as they rip up the soil (Total damper when you’re trying to build a strip mall!), and then watches as said lot turns up even more graves, these belonging to the largest cemetery for Revolutionary War soldiers, thereby inspiring era-actors to don their tricorn hats and Betsy Ross bonnets.
There are ancient beverages to be sampled, stone tools to be made, the lesson to say: NeanderTAL. And through all of this are the many and varied people who have found joy in the search, the excavation, who have not let constant barrages of stinging insects or sweating profusely beneath a scorching hot sun dissuade them from dig dig digging up the past. There’s SUCH joy to be had as Johnson brings each of these people, the various types of archaeologists to life, as it’s apparent her fondness for them, her fascination with their subject matter, is genuine. Some are quirky, some are temperamental, and all are so very patient with her as she joins them, getting herself beYONd filthy, mosquito-bitten, and doing unfortunate stuff like, only ONCE, digging with a bit too much vigor and kinda sorta accidentally breaking an edge off a pottery shard. This is more than made up for when she finds a prime piece o’ pottery and proudly displays it to much oooh-ing and aaaahhh-ing.
The globe is trotted as Johnson joins quests all around, and she braves sunstroke everywhere. She even braves certain death as a bus full of archaeologists careeeeeens around the winding single road going up up up to Machu Pichu even as many buses in the past have gone down down down to crash in the abyss. She enjoys it all and I found myself totally right along with her, chuckling at her wit and observations, enjoying the way she interacted with some truly interesting, inspiring, and just plain ol’ AWEsome people.
I’m soooo glad to be able to say that this was NOT one of the times narrator Hillary Huber “phoned in her performance” as I was kinda worried she might. Since this was an audiobook I offered Huber-only audiobooks for votes, I’m really really glad that this winner was one where she very much captured the mood and essence of the story and all the people quite well. Sure, there was the occasional attempt at a vocal juggle, but for the most part she simply narrated it straight, letting the people and the humor and the usually quiiiiite odd situations shine through with humor and with affection and pathos. Huzzah and PHEW!
9 hours just flew as I listened to this, and as each encounter/interaction is pretty short, the entire thing was engaging. It was one adventure and then onto the next, bang bang BANG!
So anyway. I’ll leave you with this: Whadda ya call a large group of archaeologists (As for geese it’s a gaggle, for lions it’s a pride, etc)?
Turns out a laughing, joyous group, dodging death as buses climb up to Machu Pichu prefer “Buckets”.
How can you NOT love the odd, eccentric, do-it-or-die devotion of the lot?!?
