This is just a comment on a good book I picked up in the bookshop while visiting a Roman Villa in the Cotswolds last weekend. Other people may have this book but there was no record on anyone's reading list so I thought it worth mentioning.

Shadows in the Soil, Human Bones & Archeology by Tony Waldron, a consultant physician at St Mary's Hospital, London.

This is a very interesting book in my opinion. A fair amount of what we know about history depends on the analysis of skeletons, to tell us about age, size, diet, how people died etc which gives an insight into the societies we study in a historical context. This book is not long (150 pages or so) and the writing style is accessible but yet doesn't seem to fudge on the science of the area. It talks about demographics and social circumstances of societies based on the human remains found, discusses how some early studies in this area may be erroneous due to insufficient scientific rigour, and describes how you can tell different aspects of a person's life by the remains. The book is not concentrating on the study in the context of arms & armour or warfare but on a more general view. I found it very interesting and I think a lot of people who are interested in history and archeology as a whole might find it interesting. As I say, it's accessible and not a 1000 page medical work which requires professional knowledge to comprehend.

It should be available on Amazon and the ISBN number will be there (it's in my reading list too though I haven't done any review comments yet).

Daniel

Thanks for the recommendation, Daniel. Shadows in the Soil, Human Bones & Archeology looks like an interesting read. However, I could not find the book listed on either Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk. Of course, I never have gotten along with search engines....

Hi Steve

I pasted the details from my myArmoury booklist to here. They have a price on Amazon as per below so I guess it's available. It's a good read. The ISBN etc are down there too so can be searched on other booksellers.

Cheers

Daniel

Shadows in the Soil, Human Bones & Archeology


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by Tony Waldron

Our Price: $25.99 (As of Oct 31, 11:55 PM)
List Price: $40.00

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Average myArmoury rating: (1 vote)

Edition: Paperback



Product Details/Specifications:

Authors:
Tony Waldron

Publishers:
Arcadia Publishing

EAN: 9780752414881
Binding: Paperback
ISBN: 0752414887
Number of items: 1
Number of pages: 160
Publication date: 2001-06

Data cached: Oct 31, 2005 11:55 PM (GMT 0.00 hours)

Thanks for the link, Daniel.

Arrgh!! Search engines :eek: ! I told you that I don't get along with them. I searched for Shadows in the Soil (comma) Human Bones & Archaeology, but the title is actually Shadows in the Soil (colon) Human Bones & Archaeology. Oh, well. Got it now.