Down to Earth Archaeology collects sixteen archaeological papers by
Professor William Y. Adams chosen by the author, who added introductory
commentary to each. These articles were written at various times during
his lengthy and productive academic career for different purposes and
for different audiences. Most of those selected had been previously
published only in a limited way, either as conference proceedings or
contributions to various Festschriften, and as such he wanted to
enable them to reach a wider readership than they had originally. He
described this collection as his 'dernieres pensees'. The essays
encompass a wide range of topics, from reflections upon the successes,
failures and lessons learned from the UNESCO International Campaign to
Save the Monuments of Nubia in the 1960s, in which Bill was very much a
leading figure and which he was uniquely positioned to critique, to
discussions and criticisms of the theoretical framework of 'New' or
'Processual Archaeology' and its application of 'scientific' methods.
Other papers included here are seminal works discussing the ideological
concepts of typology and classification and their practical application
to archaeological excavations, notably his own major excavations
conducted at the large Nubian cityscapes of Meinarti, Kulubnarti and
Qasr Ibrim, and the ceramic kilns at Faras.
