Top products from r/Archaeology

I was actually going to take a class on the Vikings this spring for kicks (main area of study is Near Eastern archaeology). While I ended up not being able to take the class due to time, I did keep the books since they did a pretty good job of introducing the topic to someone who never had any exposure to it before; not to mention they were extremely interesting!

A History of the Vikings by Gwyn Jones: Kind of dry, but very informative and helpful.

Medieval Scandinavia: From Conversion to Reformation, circa 800-1500 (Nordic Series) by Birgit and Peter Sawyer: If I recall correctly, the husband and wife who wrote this are both archaeologists. This was a pretty accesible book.

Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga edited by William F. Fitzhugh and Elisabeth Ward: Lots of information with lots of pictures!

Silver Economy in the Viking Age edited by James Graham-Campbell and Gareth Williams: This is also available on Amazon, but I had originally just bought the e-Book rental through this link. This book mostly concentrates on the archaeology of the Viking Age, if that's what you're looking for. I think I might just buy this book soon, haha.

Hopefully that helped a bit!

--edit--

/r/AskHistorians also seems to recommend The Viking World by Stefan Brink (as mentioned by /u/ThrostThrandson) and Exploring the World of the Vikings by Richard Hall. That subreddit has compiled a pretty extensive book list for a wide variety of subjects, if that interests you as well.

Came here to respond but it seems like y'all summed it up pretty well. I'm not sure that the relatively unstable climate had a direct impact on the settling of the area, though of course it did (and does) impact the natural resources of the Eastern/Lower Cross Timbers which then further defines it as a transitional ecology. That transitional nature then manifest itself in the cultural realm. I think the defining quality of the region is that it was a buffer in all respects.

At first glance the gun/horse dichotomy seems sound, and of course elements of it make sense, but I'd venture to say that there are many more variables at play. It's never as simple as we'd like it to be. As always, European trade and influence played a major role, and if you want to delve into that mess I recommend the work of F. Todd Smith.

Also, if you haven't already, definitely check out The Cast Iron Forest by Francaviglia. He's got some helpful sources for sure.

Well I would figure out what attracts you to the field in the first place.
Is it the diving? Are you primarily interested in developments in nautical technology or are you more interested in anthropological questions? Do you want to be a professor?

I would strongly recommend reading as much literature as you can do get a grasp on the field as it currently exists. Here are a couple books that I would recommend starting with.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0306453304/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&condition=used

http://www.amazon.com/Shipwreck-Anthropology-Richard-A-Gould/dp/1938645049

1. Lab work, paperwork, compiling reports, data analytics, and artifact conservation. Once you're above the technician level, you also do a lot of coordination and might end up in contact with tribal governments and that sort of thing.
   
   
2. As a field tech starting out, expect to be traveling at random without much warning for anywhere between a week to a month at a time. Actual time away from home is pretty much your entire summer, and more sporadic until the mid spring/mid fall. You'll likely get nothing whatever during late fall/winter/early spring. This is for commercial archaeology, but academic archaeology operates on roughly the same schedule.
   
   
3. Depends where you're at and what you're doing, but it's usually
   50/50, maybe 60/40 lab/field.
   
   
4. Books really depend on what time period and culture you're interested in. For maritime, Beneath the Seven Seas by George F. Bass is a good first book. Ships and Shipwrecks of the Americas by George F. Bass is a good second book, as it's a bit more encyclopedic.

Masks of Exploit: Göbekli Tepe & Pillars of the Pharaoh System

At the heartland of Mesopotamia, today’s Republic of Turkey, an astounding discovery of the world's first temple was made, rewriting history of human civilization. Before agriculture, pottery and the wheel... 7,000 years older than the Giza Pyramids... 7,500 years older and 50 times larger than the Stonehenge. We have a great opportunity to look into its secrets because it was intentionally buried and preserved.

APPLE BOOKS (ENGLISH): http://books.apple.com/us/book/id1480322386

APPLE BOOKS (TURKISH): http://books.apple.com/us/book/id1481146593

AMAZON KINDLE (ENGLISH): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07X5MPQWC/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

AMAZON PAPERBACK (ENGLISH): https://www.amazon.com/dp/1690752211

You might enjoy a little book that a lot of archaeologists have on the shelf; although it's meant to be funny and sort of aimed at younger readers, it also is full of good archaeological examples of how things can be (mis)interpreted.

Motel of the Mysteries

An oldie but a goodie. Not too technical, some neat pictures, it's a good read.

Maybe not terribly helpful or the most pertinent in this case but D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths is a must for those not already familiar with the origins of the Greek myths and looking to get the basic understanding of them. It was our first required reading for my Greek Myth college course and could be helpful if you chance an encounter with anything referring to them.

I really liked The Greek Stones Speak. It was one of the books we used in a Classical Archaeology class that I took. The book is a scholarly, yet accessible and entertaining read.

I'm not sure of anything like what you're looking for, but Trigger's History of Archaeological Thought is a pretty decent all around guide to the development of archaeological theory, though it tends to be more US-focused. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0521600499

Here's another good one: http://www.amazon.ca/History-Archaeological-Thought-Bruce-Trigger/dp/0521600499

It has a large section on post-processualism in reference to other paradigms of archaeological thought. Good book to own for archaeologists in general.

These are amazing photos! That fourth one reminds me of the cover of the book Finders Keepers.

The Human Career is a good one as well as Principles of Human Evolution

Hey, this is my professor and this article is about 2 years old.
Here's her TEDtalk. She's pretty much the coolest person in the world.

Here's her book on the matter.

Hi Tom, Bellwood and Glover is a good book focusing on South-East Asian archaeology.

Geza Vermes has a translation of all the non biblical scrolls that is excellent, though it uses a lot of King James English (thou, thy, etc). Here it is on Amazon:

The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English: Seventh Edition https://www.amazon.ca/dp/0141197315/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_Np8MybJRDB3XP

It's a nifty little edition

The First Human: The Race to Discover our Earliest Ancestors by Ann Gibbons.

I really like this book because aside from discussing fossils and DNA, it also takes a historical look at the development of paleoanthropology as a scientific discipline. You get to know who the big names in the study of human evolution are, and how our understanding of the subject has changed and developed over the past 60 years or so. The only downside of this book is that it doesn't touch very much on South Africa. However, to supplement that void just pick up Lee Berger's In the Footsteps of Eve.

Marilyn Johnson's Lives in Ruins might answer some of those questions. It's a fairly recent book exploring the lives of some archaeologists--both academic and professional. She sat in a class I audited as a grad student for a semester because she was interviewing one of my professors. The book will give you an idea about what archaeologists end up doing for a career.

Guillermo Algaze's book Ancient Mesopotamia at the Dawn of Civilization is a very up to date book by an expert in the field.