Books about Archeological from Amazon.com

The testimony of Jesus' contemporaries, including Herod, Pontius Pilate, and Joseph and Mary, holds a timeless fascination for anyone interested in New Testament literature. Ongoing debate over his classic work's authenticity makes it an engrossing read for those interested in judging for themselves. This elegantly bound edition will find a place in both scholars' and skeptics' collections.

In 1874, U.S. forces led by Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie carried out a surprise attack on several Cheyenne, Comanche, and Kiowa bands that had taken refuge in the Palo Duro Canyon of the Texas panhandle and destroyed their winter stores and horses. After this devastating loss, many of these Indians returned to their reservations and effectively brought to a close what has come to be known as the Red River War, a campaign carried out by the U.S. Army during 1874 as a result of Indian attacks on white settlers in the region. After this operation, the Southern Plains Indians would never again pose a coherent threat to whites' expansion and settlement across their ancestral homelands.

Until now, the few historians who have undertaken to tell the story of the Red River War have had to rely on the official records of the battles and a handful of extant accounts, letters, and journals of the U.S. Army participants. Starting in 1998, J. Brett Cruse, under the auspices of the Texas Historical Commission, conducted archeological investigations at six battle sites. In the artifacts they unearthed, Cruse and his teams found clues that would both correct and complete the written records and aid understanding of the Indian perspectives on this clash of cultures.

Including a chapter on historiography and archival research by Martha Doty Freeman and an analysis of cartridges and bullets by Douglas D. Scott, this rigorously researched and lavishly illustrated work will commend itself to archeologists, military historians and scientists, and students and scholars of the Westward Expansion..
Price: $19.77 [Notify me when price goes down.]

In 1996 a pediatrician and "avocational archeologist" living in Wharton, Texas, decided to try to find evidence in Wharton County of the Mexican army of 1836. Following some preliminary research at the Wharton County Junior College Library, he focused his search on the area between the San Bernard and West Bernard rivers. Within two weeks after beginning the search for artifacts, a Mexican army site was discovered, and, with the help of the Houston Archeological Society, excavated. Then began the archival exploration of the history behind the archeology, the contacting of historians with expertise in that period, and even the learning of Spanish so that the original source documents could be studied. The result is an amazing tour de force for a doctor who was "adept at circumcisions, spinal taps, and treating asthma but . . . knew next to nothing about Texas history."

One of those consulted in the course of this work was noted historian Professor James E. Crisp of North Carolina State University, who calls the author a "natural historian" and describes Dimmick's findings as "a story which rivals the miracle of San Jacinto in importance . . . a remarkably complete account of what happened to the main force of the Mexican army between April 21 and the second week of May, 1836 . . . a few days [within which] an orderly Mexican withdrawal to a defensive position within Texas turned into an unmitigated disaster which sealed the fate of the Mexican campaign."

The movements of the Mexican army during the two-week period from April 21 to May 9, 1836, are followed in meticulous detail, based on the full scope of published and unpublished sources, many of which appear here in English, and in their entirety, for the first time. The actions of Mexican generals Vicente Filisola and José de Urrea and the bitter rivalry between them are presented in their own words, from their letters and diaries. And this is only half the story. The author and his "digging buddies" have located many actual artifacts dropped or discarded in the mud by Mexican soldados more than 165 years ago. Thousands of hours excavating in the Sea of Mud (El Mar de Lodo) have produced hundreds of items (many pictured and described in the book) along the army's trail--munitions, arms, uniform fragments, and personal items--all serving to paint a more accurate picture than we have heretofore had of Santa Anna's army and its response to his order to retreat.

All in all, this is a breathtaking accomplishment in historical and archeological investigation and a book that will henceforth be a standard reference for those studying the 1836 campaign in Texas..
Price: $16.18 [Notify me when price goes down.]