Virtual Dig: A Simulated Archaeological Excavation of a Middle Paleolithic Site in France, with Student CD-ROM (Win-PC only)
by Harold L. Dibble, Shannon McPherron, Barbara Roth, Harold L. Dibble, Shannon McPherron, Barbara Roth

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Book Reviews of Virtual Dig: A Simulated Archaeological Excavation of a Middle Paleolithic Site in France, with Student CD-ROM (Win-PC only)

Book Review: Simulated Excavation: Great Idea, Poor Implementation
Summary: 3 Stars

The book and program simulate an actual excavation at a Middle Paleolithic site called Combe-Capelle in southern France, not far from Le Moustier, which gave the Mousterian tool tradition its name. The original inhabitants were Neanderthal, and they produced a variety of tools for which Francois Bordes, the early expert on the Lower and Middle Paleolithic, provides a hierachy of 63 types. That is the core (no pun intended) of this program's problems--it is too complex for the beginning student.

The book has some value. Dibble and associates are to be congratulated for a not-bad replication of an actual excavation, and they have perceived a need for such a program at colleges that cannot budget for an archaeology lab.

Unfortunately, Dibble and his colleagues go too quickly into the complexities of the site without first laying a solid groundwork for a good excavation: mapping a site, excavating with various tools, explaining in detail why each tool (from dental pick to trowel to backhoe) should be selected, and the rudimentary elements of archaeological analysis.

Instead, the book charges into the more advanced topics at te outset. The student learns, or tries to learn the finer points of Bordes's tool typology in Chapter 2, and then, on page 13, is treated to a brief introduction to the Charantian Mousterian and its two subvariants, the Quina and the La Ferrassie Mousterian. So goes the rest of the book; by Chapter 20, the student is scratching his/her head over character and numeric values with nary an introduction to statistics.

The fundamentals are scattered here and yon. We do not get down to site charting until Chapter 5, after a chapter on the finer points of research design, long before the students have some notion as to what is to be researched. Stone attributes are not covered until Chapter 16. Types of excavation tools take up less than a page of description, and we get little idea as to when to use a dental pick and when to drag out a backhoe. We are expected to know what kind of a crew to recruit in Chapter 8, what vehicles to get in Chapter 9 (all from a French company), and what should go into a budget in Chapter 10--before we know what we are to budget for.

In sum, the book has value, but the instructor planning to use this text has a lot of reorganizing to do--not to mention excising of that material more appropriate to upper division courses--before springing Virtual Dig on first- or second-year students.

Summary of Virtual Dig: A Simulated Archaeological Excavation of a Middle Paleolithic Site in France, with Student CD-ROM (Win-PC only)

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