Archaeologists

spacer2Archaeologists are increasingly staking a claim, and rightly, to being scientists as their disciplines include an expanding dependence upon evidence management and diagnostic tests. Thus, one might think of them as “scientific historians,” as their hypotheses and conclusions increasingly depend upon scientific insights and rigorous physical proofs.  This increase in analytical rigor enhances the archaeologist’s traditional role of supplementing written history with material evidence, which often contradicts history written exclusively by elites. Most exciting of all are the possibilities to better understand the preliterate and the untranslatable civilizations, which are evidenced only by their ruins.

Recently, archaeology has expanded its activities to include more modern artifacts, dating up to the twentieth century.  The consequence of this is to enrich written history with illustrative artifacts, to bring to light that which was overlooked, and to contradict historic misstatements.

The following list is selected from those who have advanced my understanding of the post-glacial period (Holocene) in the geographic arena of the Raising Up Pharaoh epic. This understanding includes: paleoclimatology, technology, flora, fauna, and material culture, as well as analysis of earlier and later stages of civilization—the essentials for interpolating, or extrapolating backwards into the story’s setting.

One final caveat regarding this list: Raising Up Pharaoh is a fictional account of what might have happened in a tiny and far distant sliver of time, and takes great liberties with what these archaeologists and other writers might theorize in their peer-reviewed and scientific profession. But, I owe these professionals a debt of gratitude for shining light on those dark, distant times, and igniting my imagination with a setting for a high-stakes epic romance and adventure.

 

Akkermans, Professor Dr. Peter

Albright, William Foxwell

Alizadeh, Abbas

Anthony, David A.

Ballard, Robert

Bass, George Fletcher

Bibby, Geoffrey

Breasted, James Henry

Burke, Aaron A.

Carter, Robert.

Casson, Lionel

Castor, Alexis Q.

Cline, Eric H.

Dalley, Stephanie M.

Drews, Robert

Edwards, Iorwerth E. S.

Fagan, Brian

Jacobsen, Thorkild

James, T. G. H.

Kemp, Barry J.

Kenoyer, Jonathan Mark

Kenyon, Kathleen

Kramer, Samuel Noah

Lambeck, Kurt

Magoffin, Ralph Van Deman

Mazar, Amihay

Max Mallowan

McIntosh, Jane

Midant-Reynes, Béatrix

Mithen, Steven J.

Nissen, Hans Jörg

Oates, David

Oates, Joan

Peilstöcker, Martin

Petrie, Sir William Matthew Flinders

Postgate, Nicholas

 Redford, Donald B.

 Renfrew, Colin

 Roaf, Michael

 Romer, John

Rose, Jeffrey I.

Roux, Georges

Stager, Larry

Stein, Gil

Trigger, Bruce G

Wachsmann, Shelley 

Weeks, Kent R

 Wooley, Sir Leonard

Zangger, Eberhard