From dust jacket: "Forty two pioneer archaeologists, with all their range in style, temperament and discovery, tell of their own experiences, conveying the immediacy and authenticity of archaeological spadework. Most of the selections have long been out of print or were hitherto unavailable in English. Sylvanus G. Morley's colorful account of his trail blazing expedition to Uaxactun, Guatemala, taken from his journals, has never been published before. Dr. Leo Deuel, who pioneered the collecting of archaeological memoirs in book form, has created a special genre of archaeological literature in which carefully chosen and edited narratives of inherent interest and scientific worth are joined into a cohesive, continuous story bound together by his own interpretive text - itself the result of many years of New World studies. For once we are not restricted to the overworked Incas, Mayas, and Aztecs, but are introduced to the ancient inhabitants of the entire hemisphere from Greenland to Patagonia: the primitive bison killers of the North American plains, the cavemen of Nevada and Argentina, the cliff dwellers, mound builders, humble growers of maize, pre - Eskimo caribou hunters and Viking settlers."