Books like Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology

A fairly interesting read. Its style is somewhere in between that of a textbook and that of a "popular" book. I'm not sure it entirely succeeds at either. The topics it covers include the Piltdown Man hoax, the Cardiff Giant hoax, the mound building culture, Atlantis, and settlement/discovery of North America. It's my personal opinion that everyone who has an interest in science should be aware of the Piltdown Hoax. The Cardiff Giant hoax was new to me; it might be of interest to those of you who have connections to Syracuse NY, since the Cardiff Giant does. The discussion of mainstream (white) Americans' beliefs that the mound builders couldn't possibly have been Indians was interesting. The discussion of the physical evidence for a Viking presence in North America was also interesting to read about.It was also interesting to learn that the idea of Atlantis the lost continent came from Plato's dialogues. (And it reminded me how ignorant I am when it comes to classical topics. Sigh. So much to learn, so little time.) It was mildly interesting to read about the research that's been done on the Shroud of Turin, but I skipped the section on scientific creationism, because frankly, I already believe that scientific creationism is BS. If this book has a single flaw, it's that the author really wants to debunk things like New Age-ism, having once been a believer and then realized that a lot of New Age claims were, er, poorly founded. In that context, an odd connection came up - an ethnologist named Stanislaw Poniatowski, who attempted experiments in psychic archaeology. I can't find conclusive evidence, but I would be very unsurprised if this Stanislaw Poniatovski turns out to be a descendant of this guy, who was the nephew of the Stanislaw Poniatowski that Catherine the Great put on the throne of Poland. (I read about this in Catherine the Great: Love, Sex, and Power.)There are links here that the book recommends as a further exploration of the topics covered. And in case that page is moved elsewhere, the top page is http://mhhe.com/frauds5/.Beginning students of archaeology will probably find this to be worth a read.