Paul Bahn Quotes

6 Sourced Quotes

Archaeology is partly the discovery of the treasures of the past, partly the meticulous work of the scientific analyst, partly the exercise of the creative imagination... But it is also the painstaking task of interpretation so that we come to understand what these things mean for the human story.

Paul Bahn

Archaeology is the 'past tense of cultural anthropology.'

Paul Bahn

As Champollion said, archaeology is a beautiful mistress but she brings a poor dowry.

Paul Bahn

It takes very special qualities to devote one's life to problems with no attainable solutions and to poking around in dead people's garbage: words like "masochistic", "nosy", and "completely batty" spring readily to mind.

Paul Bahn

Field Archaeologists dig up rubbish, Theoretical Archaeologists write it down.

Paul Bahn

Archaeology is rather like a vast, fiendish jigsaw puzzle invented by the devil as an instrument of tantalizing torment, since: (a) it will never be finished (b) you don't know how many pieces are missing (c) most of them are lost forever (d) you can't cheat by looking at the picture.

Paul Bahn

Paul Bahn

Paul Bahn

Born: 1953 (age 73)

Bio: Paul G. Bahn is a British archaeologist, translator, writer and broadcaster who has published extensively on a range of archaeological topics, with particular attention to prehistoric art. He is a contributing editor to Archaeology magazine.

Known for:

Archaeology: A Very Short Introduction (1996)
Journey Through the Ice Age
Images of the Ice Age

Paul Bahn on Wikipedia

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