Worked Bone Archaeology Book Published

The Worked Bone Research Group, part of the International Council for Archaeozoology (ICAZ) has just published the proceedings from the 10th Meeting of the WBRG, held in Belgrade in 2014. The book contains over 40 articles on worked bone from both prehistoric and historical archaeological sites. 

The book, Close to the Bone, is edited by Selena Vitezovic and can be downloaded for free at the WBRG site

Select Archaeology Books Available for Free Download from Springer

Edit: Or not. Either it was a glitch on Springer’s part, or an extremely short term offer. The books no longer appear to be free. It was nice while it lasted.

Springer has made a big chunk of its catalog of archaeology and other scientific and technical books freely available for download. There are almost 400 archaeology and anthropology books available, including Dent’s Chesapeake Prehistory, Odell’s Lithic Analysis, most/all volumes of the Encyclopedia of Prehistory, and many more. Titles include underwater archaeology, geoarchaeology, historical archaeology, and biological anthropology. See the books at Springer.

M.R. Harrington, a.k.a Ramon de las Cuevas

Mark Raymond Harrington was not only an archaeologist and ethnologist, but also a writer. Tellers of Weird Tales has an account of one of his earlier works of fiction, Teoquitla the Golden, which was published in Weird Tales using his pseudonym, Ramon de las Cuevas (i.e., Raymond of the Caves).

This story was published in 1924, the year before Arthur Parker and William Ritchie would begin excavations at the Lamoka Lake site. Harrington had recently completed his work at the Ozark rockshelters (likely the inspiration for his pen name) and would soon make some of his major discoveries in Nevada.

See how Harrington dressed when he wasn’t writing here.

Weird Tales 1924 Ramon de las Cuevas
Cover Story! Weird Tales November 1924, from tellersofweirdtales.blogspot.com

Reading the Cowboy Way: Ranger Doug Finishes all 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die

Riders in the Sky
Ranger Doug, left, prior to finishing reading 1,001 books.

Guitarist and lead yodelist Ranger Doug of the band Riders in the Sky just completed a five year odyssey reading all the books on the 1,001 Books you must read before you die list, according to an article in The Tennessean by Tony Gonzalez.

Why? “It’s just something you do on the road. You get in that bunk and you’ve got nothing to do until it’s your turn to drive.”

How does a cowboy round up all those books? He uses his local public library, scouts out used book stores, and occasionally resorts to using the internet.

Ranger Doug is both a reader and a writer, having authored several books including Singing in the Saddle: The History of the Singing Cowboy. Read the original article to see which books he recommends, and which he recommends you avoid.