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Final Report: An Archaeologist Excavates His Past
by Michael D. Coe
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Thames & Hudson (2006-05-15)
ISBN: 0500051437
EAN: 9780500051436
Dewy Decimal #: 972.01092
Hardcover: 224 pages
Edition: 1
SKU: 07110374
Condition: New New
Comments: Hardcover. New book. Cover, text and dustjacket all pristine. Book appears never read. Gift quality beautiful book.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
"A moving autobiography, an exciting account of the rediscovery of vanished civilizations, and unforgettable portraits of the argumentative archaeologists who made those rediscoveries. Enjoy!"—Jared Diamond
For more than four decades, Michael Coe has been at the forefront of American archaeology. His research on the Olmecs and the Maya has had a decisive effect on the way we think about Mesoamerican culture, and his acclaimed books have introduced archaeology to a popular audience. Now, in an act of personal excavation, Michael Coe looks back on a remarkably diverse life.
For one whose life's work meant overturning many previously held assumptions about the past, Coe's early years were quite traditionally American. The Coes were a well-to-do Long Island family, and Michael was born to a privileged lifestyle. He was an indifferent student in college, and it took some time before he settled on archaeology—time that was occupied by a stint in the CIA, stationed on the China coast and in Taiwan, and travels to Thailand and Sri Lanka.
Beginning in 1955, when Coe entered the Graduate School of Harvard University, he committed himself to the civilizations of ancient America. He worked on the front line of a generation of archaeological discovery, research, and interpretation that has profoundly altered and enhanced our vision of ancient Mesoamerica. His quest to penetrate archaeological puzzles and mysteries has led him on some extraordinary adventures: digging in remote Guatemala in grueling conditions; investigating, dating, and defining the little-known Olmec culture.
Coe has always had plenty of enthusiasm to spare—for his wife, Sophie, and five children, and the dilapidated Massachusetts farmhouse that they restored; for art collecting; for fly fishing (an obsession that has taken him from the tropics to Siberia); and for travel—to Russia under Brezhnev, to Angkor Wat after the Khmer Rouge. Now, with the publication of his memoirs, the general public will recognize what his colleagues have always known: here is a man of brilliance, humor, and charm, who has lived his life as an ebullient adventure. 41 illustrations.
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Customer Reviews
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Exciting Memoir on Mesoamerican studies, teaching, travel
Rating  (5)
Date: 2008-07-17
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
Final Report: An Archaeologist Excavates His Past
Michael Coe, the famous Mesoamerican archaeologist, digs enthusiastically into his past. As an engaging memoir, this work chronicles the highlights of his personal life and his professional achievements. Each chapter is presented as a series of exciting anecdotes including personal experiences, conversations and opinions that sparkle with wit and good humor. Born into a well-to-do family in Long Island, NY, he fondly recollects his formative years at boarding schools in New England, interspersed with vacation times at the country estates of his wealthy grandfather. He developed an intense interest in the Maya during his undergraduate years at Harvard, where he majored in anthropology. During the Korean War, he served with the CIA in Taiwan. There he gained valuable new experiences in military intelligence - how to elicit information, how to detect lying, how to work with all kinds of people. After 2 years overseas service, he visited several ancient archaeological ruins in Southeast Asia before resuming graduate studies at Harvard. Following is the account of his 35 years of research and teaching, mostly in the Department of Anthropology at Yale. Discoveries from his numerous digging seasons brought new, exciting, and sometimes controversial evidence of age relations among the early Maya cultures. In particulat, the Olmec monuments that he unearthed have profoundly modified our understanding of their significance in early Maya history. His analysis of Maya hieroglyphs contributed significantly to his text "Breaking the Maya Code" (1992, Thames & Hudson, Inc.). In his personal life, Michael Coe was deeply devoted to his wife, Sophie Dobzhansky Coe, and to their five children. His greatest sorrow was at her death in 1994 that sadly coincided with his retirement. Among his many activities, he is an avid fly-fisherman. This memoir is an excellent "Final Report" - about an exciting life but, fortunately, not a final demise.
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Final Report
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-07-09
2 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
Excellent insight on this man who is a very interesting archologist. He brings life to a dead subjects and his final report is his memoir of his life.
Highly recommend.
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Wm. F. Buckley Meets Indiana Jones
Rating (5)
Date: 2006-05-11
8 out of 11 customers found this reveiw helpful
Mr. Coe's contributions to society are immense. We owe much of our understanding of ancient Mesoamerican civilizations to him. He could have pursued many paths, and indeed the CIA and Ivy League background is reminiscent of William F. Buckly, without the politics. He is probably as close to a real Indiana Jones as you will ever find, and has written a marvelous tale of his exploits and accomplishments.
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