Archaeology Quotations - A Collection of Quotes about Our Ancient Past

A

• Douglas Adams on the importance of subsistence.
• Anonymous movie goers at Raiders of the Last Ark.
• Arioti and Oxby on the false opposition between food predation and food production.
• Jane Austen (as Catherine Morland) on the torment of reading history.

B

• Paul G. Bahn on Pleistocene art.
• Paul G. Bahn on bluffing your way to being an archaeologist.
• Zainab Bahrani on looting at the Iraqi National Museum.
• Kage Baker imagines Flinders Petrie
• Chris Ballard on holding out against closure.
• J. G. Ballard on his fears for the future.
• Keith Bassett on the New Intellectual.
• Charles Baudelaire on the pleasure we derive.
• Charles Austin Beard describes Hari Seldon.
• Charles Austin Beard on seeing stars.
• Max Beerbohm on the work of art that is the Past.
• Ruth Benedict on the purpose of anthropology.
• John Berger on the effects of postmodernism.
• Henry Bergson on present effects.
• Robert L. Bettinger on the persistence of crackpots..
• Ambrose Bierce's definition of History.
• Ambrose Bierce defines the Past.
• Lewis Binford on why he'll never be a quote of the week.
• A tip on museum management from Bob & Ray.
• Barbara Bocek on bioturbation.
• Nurit Bird-David on hunter-gatherers.
• Tsianina Blackstone on what good friends archaeologists make.
• Bonnichsen and Steele on why the New World Entrada is so fascinating.
• C. Loring Brace on what's wrong with standardized tests.
• C. Loring Brace et al. on the chimerical concept of race.
• Edward M. Bruner on post-modernist interpretations of tourism.
• Edward Bulwer Lytton on archaeology and historical romances
• Octavia E. Butler (as Lauren Oya Olamina) on letting the past go.
• A.S. Byatt on forms and forces
• Lord Byron on the usefulness of the past.

C

• Calvin on why he'll choose not to be an archaeologist.
• William Calvin on the human mind's Big Bang.
• Howard Carter on the good old days.
• Edward Hallet Carr on history's dialogue.
• Matt Cartmill on why he became a scientist.
• C.W. Ceram on archaeology's grandiose tasks.
• John Chapman on the archaeology of war in the Balkans.
• Douglas Charles on wearing different shades.
• Anubha Charan on digging up holy places.
• Cicero on children.
• Geoffrey Clark on NAGPRA's fatal flaw.
• Grahame Clark on wasting one's life.
• David Clarke on the immutability of archaeology..
• Michael Coe on small favors.
• Confucius on diligence.
• Cyril Connolly on the sweet smell of the past.
• Norman Cousins with an alarming metaphor.
• George Cowgill on reasonable alternatives
• Donald Crabtree on the beauty of projectile point technology.
• Susan Crate on climate change and advocacy
• O.G.S. Crawford on the future of archaeology.

D

• Glyn Daniel gets a fit of the giggles.
• Clarence Darrow on what is wrong with history.
• Charles Darwin on useful observations.
• Robertson Davies on archaeologists and domestic architecture
• Kathleen Deagan on the ethnic stew that is Latin America.
• Warren DeBoer on experiencing Cahokia archaeology
• Stephen Dedalus (James Joyce) on how he feels about history.
• Emily Dickinson on an armed past.
• Tom Dillehay on the first people in South America.
• Robert A. Dodgshon on the end of time.
• John Dryden on what has been.
• A classic insult from Alexandre Dumas (pere)
• Finley Peter Dunne on why the past looks so good.
• Will Durant on geological consent.
• Will Durant on clever things to say.

E

• Abba Eben on men behaving wisely.
• Albert Einstein on the cosmic religious experiences of science
• Loren Eiseley on melancholy secrets
• T. S. Eliot on history's cunning passages
• Ralph Waldo Emerson on personal preferences.
• Ralph Waldo Emerson on the end of the human race.
• Ralph Waldo Emerson on what Varnish is not.
• Clark Erickson on appropriate technology and sustainable agriculture.

F

• Brian Fagan on who really owns the past.
• Christine Finn on votive offerings at Chaco Canyon.
• Laurence Flanagan on the rationality of our forebears.
• K. V. Flannery on killing our informants.
• Kent Flannery on fun with your pants on
• Kent Flannery on what the world wants from archaeology
• Lars Fogelin on tempering the imagination.
• Foley and Lahr on sweet studies .
• Henry Ford on why history is bunk.
• Allie Fox on evolution's little joke.

G

• Donna Gabaccia on the immigrant paradigm.
• Joan Gero on distinguishing the past from the present.
• Michael Goodchild on maintaining intellectual depth.
• Stephen J. Gould on creationism.
• Maxim Gorky on taking the past for a ride.
• Paul Grobstein on being progressively less wrong.
• the Guanzi on understanding the present.
• John Guare on history and amnesia.

H

• Heinrich Harke and Bettina Arnold on coping with political reality.
• L. P. Hartley on our alien past.
• William Least Heat-Moon on the lack of yesterdays on the road.
• Robert Heinlein on the effects of ignoring history.
• Robert Heinlein on human capabilities.
• Edward F. "Ned" Heite on dirty truths
• Patrick Henry on the lamp guiding his feet.
• Heinrich Himmler on doing archaeology right.
• Jennfier Hochschild on true science.
• Oliver Wendell Holmes on how humans are omnibuses.
• John Hoopes on the future of the past.
• Terry Hunt on the genocide on Easter Island
• Terry Hunt and Carl Lipo on the Rapa Nui Effect.
• David Hurst-Thomas on the meaning of discovery.
• Aldous Huxley on living high.
• T. H. Huxley on choosing one's grandfather.
• Hypatia of Alexandria on preparation for tomorrow.

I

• W. R. Inge on why history is a terrific occupation.
• Von Igelfeld (Alexander McCall Smith) on German archaeology
• Glynn Isaac on overextending our enthusiasm
• Eddie Izzard on small walls
• Eddie Izzard on the Time Team

J

• Shirley Jackson on why there's always been a lottery.
• Randall Jarrell on seeing the world through gold-colored glasses.
• B. S. Johnson (Terry Pratchett) on the future of architecture.
• Andrew Jones on perceiving the Neolithic.
• Indiana Jones on why archaeology will never make a good movie plot.
• James Joyce (as Stephen Dedalus) on how he feels about history.
• Rosemary Joyce on the illusory 'Ancient Maya'.

K

• Timothy Kaiser on the politics of archaeology in the Balkans
• Alice Beck Kehoe on the tolerance of ambiguity.
• Walt Kelly on the view behind us.
• Khufu's Law for projects worth doing well.
• Gusti Kollman on historic ironies.
• A. L. Kroeber on the charm of anthropology.

L

• Stephen H. Lekson on influential mythologies.
• Jill Lepore on history in seven words.
• Tea Leoni on how she almost became an anthropologist.
• Levi-Strauss on the value of the past.
• Sinclair Lewis on authenticity among scientists.
• Nathan Light on the mental prison of modern myths.
• Penelope Lively on howling landscapes.
• Kristin Lord and Vaughn Turekian on the Diplomacy of Science
• What George Lucas said when he first saw Tikal.
• R. Lee Lyman on a seat at the high table in anthropology

M

• Domenica Macdonald [Alexander McCall Smith] on the soft life of some anthropologists.
• René Magritte on the odors of the present.
• Max Mallowan on why Agatha Christie married him.
• Mao ZeDong on the struggles of society.
• Tommaso Marinetti on our most dangerous prevaricator.
• William H. Marquardt on unearthing support for archaeology.
• Lisa Maurizio on the meaning of the Oracle at Delphi.
• A Maya elder on the importance of remembering the past.
• Alexander McCall Smith (Prof. Von Igelfeld) on German archaeology
• John C. McEnroe on discussing the past
• Herman Melville on the textbook of tyrants.
• Lynn Meskell on the hope for archaeology.
• Catherine Morland [Jane Austen] on the torment of reading history
• Margaret Murray on a welter of flint chips.

N

• Nicholas and Bannister on who owns the future
• Nietzsche on the chain of the past.

O

• Lauren Oya Olamina (Octavia E. Butler) on letting the past go.
• Michael Ondaatje on unsafely settled places.
• George Orwell on the control of the past.
• George Orwell on generational conflicts.

P

• Camille Paglia on voyages to the past.
• Camille Parmesan asks why climate change is insurmountable.
• William Penn on living with the moderns.
• Ezra Pound on Kulchur.
• Philip Phillips on New World variations.
• Wendell Phillips on the roots of revolution.
• Plutarch on the difficulty of history.
• Poyer and Kelly on mystification of the Mikea.
• Adrian Praetzellis on tolerating ambiguity.
• Praetzellis on having too much fun.
• Terry Pratchett on the future of architecture.
• Ptahhotep on the limits of skill.

R

• Joseph Ransdell on the new conception of science.
• Adrienne Rich on journeys into the past.
• Clara Dice Roe demonstrates the problems with oral history.
• Unnamed Roman Emperor on the good life.
• John Ruskin Laying Stone on Stone
• Steve Russell on the meaning of the repatriation movement.

S

• Jeremy Sabloff on archaeology's role models.
• Carl Sagan on painful lessons learned.
• Carl Sandburg on archaeological treasures.
• Simon Schama on why historians are doomed.
• Arthur Schlesinger on history's effect on the present.
• Heinrich Schliemann on the case for Hasserlik.
• J. William Schopf on the importance of pond scum.
• Carmel Schrire on why she became an archaeologist.
• Sellar and Yeatman on what history is.
• Will Shakespeare on prophesies.
• Moishe Shokeid on melding anthropologist and informant.
• Sir Philip Sidney on why poets are better than historians.
• Maxine Singer on the thread that holds us together.
• Bruce D. Smith on niches and domestication
• Susan Sontag on vanishing beauty.
• Captain Spaulding's (Groucho Marx) greatest contribution to science
• Stephen Spender on wooden ships
• John Steinbeck on the literature of science.
• John Lloyd Stephens on the moral effect of Maya monuments.
• Clarice Stasz Stoll on collective forgetfulness.
• Lawrence Straus on interpreting genetic data.
• Christine Sullivan on the real adventures of Indiana Jones.

T

• T. R. Talbott on the dark and stormy end of the Ice Man.
• Sarah Tarlow on negotiating between rocks and a whirlpool.
• R. E. Taylor on the two cultures.
• Walter Taylor in mid-diatribe, quotes Linda Ellerbee.
• Paul Theroux on evolution's little joke.
• Henry David Thoreau on unremarkable history.
• Henry David Thoreau on what to do with ambitious boobies.
• A. J. Toynbee on using history well.
• Bruce Trigger on the implications of multiple standpoints.

V

• Voltaire on the foundations of history.
• Voltaire on Ancient Tricks
• Von Igelfeld (Alexander McCall Smith) on German archaeology

W

• Anthony F. C. Wallace asks "When is Now?"
• Mary Webb on what is invisible and mute
• Kenneth Weiss on defining evolution
• Kenneth Weiss on finding hybrids
• E. B. White on the future of reading
• Alfred North Whitehead on why knowing the past is useful.
• James Whitley on fishy ideas.
• Walt Whitman on the teeming gulf, the infinite greatness of the past.
• Oscar Wilde on inalienable privileges.
• Oscar Wilde on our duty to history.
• Oscar Wilde on the value of archaeology
• Kate Wilhelm on living with the past.
• Howard Winters on civilization's components.
• Leonard Woolley on the effects of business.
• J.A.A. Worsaae on taking one's country seriously.
• Ronald Wright on the fascination of cannibalism.

X

• Malcolm X on the value of memory.

Y

• Yasumaro on the teachings of the ancients.