ACCIDENTAL ARCHAEOLOGISTS

Usually, Albee says, archaeology—the study of human history through artifacts—involves slow, methodical, exacting research. Here she recounts 17 instances of major, history-changing discoveries that happened entirely by accident, from the 1709 discovery of Italy’s Herculaneum by workers digging a well to Johannesburg cavers coming across a trove of early hominoid remains in 2013. Many of them—the Lascaux cave paintings, the Dead Sea Scrolls, China’s terra-cotta warriors—will be familiar to adult readers. Others—a first-century B.C.E. mechanical model of the Greek universe, considered the world’s first computer, found in 1900 by Aegean sponge fishermen—are less well known. Albee describes each discovery, backs up to place it into historical context, and then moves forward to explain why each matters, writing throughout in clear, engaging, present-tense language. She points out the social inequities and ethical considerations that are part of the broader context of many discoveries: for example, how Black cowboy George McJunkin’s 1908 discovery of extinct giant bison fossils, something that upended our understanding of human history in North America, was ignored for years because of his race and class; and why plundered and formerly colonized Egypt wants the Rosetta Stone back. She closes with speculation regarding the burial place of Genghis Khan, a fine reminder that more hidden discoveries await.

An engaging mixture of history and science.