Discussion: Archaeologists as storytellers

Abstract

When Mary and Adrian Praetzellis asked if I would be the discussant for their Storytellers ses sion, I must admit that I had certain doubts whether they could pull it off. After all, few of us have been taught creative writing, although we write at times in certain "creative" ways, but that is a different matter. But by the time the session ended, any reservations I may have held had completely vanished. The papers were uniformly excellent, and did no violence to the data on which they were based. I can honestly say that this was the first session that I have ever at tended at any conference during which I did not look at my watch at least once or twice. The concluding presentation, "A Connecticut Merchant in Chinadom," authored by Adrian and Mary, was the crowning touch. Not only was it enter taining as well as informative, it raised in my mind questions that I think we all might give some thought to as we go about our business. In short, what is it that we do, and why do we do it? Simply put, archaeologists are storytellers. It is our responsibility to communicate to as wide an audience as possible the results and signifi cance of our findings. Now any account of the past, whether based on excavated materials or documents, is a construction. When it comes to understanding life as it was in the 17th-century Chesapeake, I would give equal credence to John Barm's (1987) The Sot-Weed Factor as to any site report. Barth did his homework: "[my] ear lier novels had taken me a half year each to write. I reckoned this one [The Sot-Weed Factor] might take as long as two years. It took four, of immersion in The Archives of Maryland and other documents and studies of American Colo nial history" (Barth 1987:vi). The same may be said for other works of fiction of a similar genre; certain novels by Andre Brink and T. Coraghessan Boyle come immediately to mind. Even a work as outrageous as Roy Lewis's (1994[1960]) The Evolution Man, described by one reviewer as a cross between Kafka and Monty Python, can inform us about the past. When I cotaught introductory archaeology with the late Glyn Isaac, he would regularly read aloud passages from Lewis's book, and I have used it very recently in my introductory anthro pology course. The Storytellers session sent a clear message, that it is possible to convey our findings in an engaging fashion, and that there is ample room for us to change our style of writing. In a way, by having the courage to craft their presentations as they did, the participants demonstrated just that. I have made timid use of a narrative style both in Flowerdew Hundred and in In Small Things Forgotten, but only in introductory pas sages; Noel Hume is a master of this kind of writing, and it probably is not coincidental that he also has authored works of fiction.