300 Social Sciences, Anthropology
Fagan, Brian. From Black Land to Fifth Sun: The Science of Sacred Sites. (Illus.) Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Longman, 1998. viii+403pp. $26.00. 97-42843. ISBN 0-201-95991-7. Index; C.I.P.
JH–T, GA ++
In Time Detectives: How Archaeologists Use Technology to Recapture the Past (1995) (See SB&F, Vol. 31. No. 5, p. 139), Brian Fagan—author of more than 30 textbooks and popular works on archaeology—recounted the extraordinary effect of radiocarbon dating methods on the practice of archaeology. In his current book, From Black Land to Fifth Sun, a personal and scientific account, he demonstrates how archaeologists employ multidisciplinary science to study ancient remains and infer religious beliefs from artifacts and sites. There is an enormous literature on sacred places, but Fagan's synthesis takes the reader on an enlightening journey through the sacred and the scientific, educating us about methods, theories, and inferences. The style popularizes some of the formal elements found in his acclaimed textbook, In the Beginning (9th ed., 1997). After an introductory essay, 12 chapters examine the ancient "intangibles" of sacred places. Fagan's compelling and delightfully written narrative, supplemented by 77 illustrations, spans 15,000 years and draws examples from French Ice Age caves, Gothic cathedrals, Jericho, Stonehenge, and the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire (C.E. 1521). He considers relationships between ancient cultures and the world as their inhabitants perceived it, citing as case studies well- and lesser-known sites from Black Africa to Aztec Mexico's "Fifth Sun" (hence the volume's title). Along the way, we encounter examples from Cretan Knossos, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, and Cahokia (Illinois). Among the concepts Fagan elucidates are cultural systems, contextual archaeology, and ethnographic analogy. Technical and scientific concepts are presented as sidebars. He blends science and archaeology to add a new dimension to our understanding of sacred places. Unfortunately, in this otherwise superb assessment, the publisher neglected to print the entries to "Further Reading" for one chapter and the epilogue (p. 382).—Charles C. Kolb, National Endowment for the Humanities, Washington, DC
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