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February 4, 2006

Raiders of
the Lost Matrix
(continued)

The Archaeologist
with a Thousand Faces

“From often humble beginnings, and often with a childhood fascination
for antiquity, the archaeologist leaves familiar surroundings to
undergo exacting professional training under a series of mentors and
when armed, at last, with the intellectual weapons of the profession,
sets off for unfamiliar or exotic realms, braving opposition and danger
to solve an ancient mystery. The lives of… real-life
archaeologists… have lent themselves to this style of retelling… as
have such fictional heroes as John Cullinane (Michener 1965) and
Indiana Jones.”

– From “Promised Lands and Chosen Peoples: The Politics and Poetics of
Archaeological Narrative,” by Neil Asher Silberman, pp. 249-262 in
Nationalism, Politics, and the Practice of Archaeology, edited by
Philip L. Kohl and Clare Fawcett, Cambridge University Press,
paperback, published Feb. 8, 1996.

From Today in History,
by the Associated Press:

Thought for Today:
“Character consists of what you do
on the third and
fourth tries.”

– James Michener,
American author (1907-1997),
attributed by
Simpson’s Contemporary Quotations
to Chesapeake, Random House, 78.

The Matrix: