Artifacts and Lies Blog Tour -- and a Giveaway!

As part of the Artifacts and Lies blog tour, I'm happy to welcome Jordan Jacobs, real-life archaeologist and the author of SAMANTHA SUTTON AND THE LABYRINTH OF LIES (Sourcebooks, October, 2012)

First, let me tell you about his book:

Samantha Sutton is a curious, headstrong twelve-year-old girl. She wants to be an archaeologist just like her Uncle Jay. When he offers to take her on one of his digs in Peru that summer, she jumps at the chance. The catch? Her older brother, who loves teasing her, comes along too. Not only that, but she has to work with her uncle's grouchy assistant. And then artifacts start to disappear from the dig site.

Combining history, mystery, and heart-racing adventure, Jordan Jacobs weaves a plot full of non-stop fun and incredible facts in Samantha Sutton and the Labyrinth of Lies. If you like Nancy Drew and other mysteries, you'll love this book. I received the galley from netgalley, courtesy of the publisher. 

Ever wonder what it’d be like to be an archaeologist, to travel to exotic places and dig into the mysteries of centuries old civilizations? For today's guest post, Jordan explains what a day in the life of an archaeologist is really like.

Jordan Jacobs (from his website)

Just Another Day at the Office

by Jordan Jacobs

The movies don’t get everything wrong when it comes to archaeology.   Even in real life, there’s plenty of adventure to be found.  

As an archaeologist, I’ve gotten to work high in the Andes at Chavin de Huantar—crawling through unexplored tunnels full of bats and rubble and scattered human bones. I’ve excavated Crustumerium, just north of Rome, where Bronze Age peoples lie at rest in a sprawling city of the dead. I’ve worked in the United States as well, clearing cemeteries in advance of major construction projects, excavating cliff dwellings, and digging the toilet of a California governor from the wreckage of his earthquake-totalled mansion.

But of course, this sort of adventure is only part of the job.  

An archaeologist’s task is to study past cultures through what they’ve left behind.  These pieces of evidence—or “artifacts”—can be as big as an Egyptian pyramid or as small as a speck of pollen, stuck to an ancient cooking pot.   But the information they contain can be surprising.  Archaeologists can use these artifacts to reconstruct how people once lived—from the food they ate, to the way they fought, to the religions that they practiced and their views of the world around them.

The archaeologist’s “typical day” takes a variety of forms.  Some work mostly in the field--surveying the land, digging precise excavation units into the earth, looking for patterns, making comparisons, and drawing careful conclusions from whatever pieces of the past still remain.  Others work in laboratories, using the tools of science to discover how old an object is, exactly what it’s made of, or precisely where it came from.  Still others spend their days in museum storerooms, re-examining the evidence recovered by their predecessors.  And some archaeologists work with governments and companies in order to protect sites from destruction through development, looting, neglect, or war.

But archaeology also carries a lot of responsibility.  One awkward truth is that excavation destroys sites, meaning that each particular discovery can be made only once.  It’s up to the archaeologist to record everything he or she can--otherwise, that information is lost forever.  Just as importantly, archaeologists have a responsibility to the people who live nearby the site, or who claim it as their ancestors’.  

At its best, archaeology is a little like time travel. Holding an artifact in your hand can make you feel a connection to someone who lived centuries or millennia before. It’s intimate.  It’s humbling.  Seeing the fingerprint of a potter on the surface of a plain and broken pot is a reminder of the humanity all people share--no matter where, or when, we live.  

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Ooo, I love time travel, so I guess that means I love archaeology too! Thanks for joining us today, Jordan.

Readers, Sourcebooks has generously offered to give away a paperback copy of SAMANTHA SUTTON AND THE LABYRINTH OF LIES to one lucky winner from the U.S. or Canada (sorry, Sourcebooks won't mail outside of the US or Canada).  To enter, you must be a follower and comment on this post.  You have until Saturday, December 1 at 10 pm EST. Remember, only US and Canada addresses, please.  Winner will be chosen by random.org and announced on Monday, December 3.