Shovel Bum Review

561 Words3 Pages
Trent de Boer’s Shovel Bum is a new and modern perspective on how archeological work is being carried out in the field. What makes fascinating is the fact that the stories are from the archeologist’s point of view. “Shovel bum” by definition is a group of archeologist who work for government agencies and independent contractors. Despite the large amount of work that the archeologist are involved in, the public remains oblivious of their hard work. De Bore’s book provides behind the scenes access to the ups and downs of shovel bums using a humorous tone. Without the first chapter, readers that are not necessarily members of the archeological community would find the book incoherent and uninteresting. The book is presented in an unconventional manner. The author does not present the stories in a sequential chronological order but rather categorizes the stories depending on the themes. Despite the lack of continuity and omissions, the book provides invaluable insight on the lives of shovel bums. In the first chapter, the author gives a brief overview on life of a typical shovel bum and provides the foundation to understanding stories that will follow in the book. This chapter is intended for the general public and enables the reader who is not an archeologist to understand the entire book. The second, third and fourth chapter are concerned on food, accommodation and transportation in that order. These three chapters give the overview on the major challenges the archaeologists face in the field. These chapters provide a lot of information that even real life archeologists can put to use. These chapters have a lot of humor, but these sections contain vehicle reviews, simple recipes and information on hotels that any shovel bum could find practical and useful. The different stories breaks down the necessities that anybody interested in doing archeological work would
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