Every archaeologist knows an amusing story of a strange / funny / dangerous event at an earlier excavation, but these stories rarely make it outside of the site hut. This compact book offers a tongue-in-cheek approach to redress this by seeking to reveal what really happens on excavations.
Archaeology (and archaeologists) can often be presented (or perceived) as serious and dry, notably in the media, yet excavation sites are often filled with interesting, weird, and wacky characters. The book is essentially a collection of short tales (provided to the author from a long list of contributors) featuring stories that never appear in official reports. The six chapters broadly group the stories: 'fieldwork fun' and 'excavation encounters' both offer stories from the excavations; whilst 'dig dialogues' has stories of questions asked from the public and strange explanations often given by archaeologists (this section could have been much larger!). Some of the more amusing tales can be found in the latter chapters: stories on food, drink, and toilet humour can be found in 'food and grog and after-effects'; and 'archaeology after hours' includes some post-watershed adult tales; 'back in the office' ties things up neatly.
The stories are supplemented by some great cartoons by illustrator Bill Tidy that bring out the humour in some of the funnier tales. Generally the stories are a very hit-and-miss affair, this is worth reading for a bit of a giggle, but hardly laugh out loud funny. Students may enjoy this to entice them into fieldwork, and older (more experienced) readers may enjoy reminiscing on similar situations past.