Even Briefer

Dead Tech: A Guide to the Archaeology of Tomorrow

Rolf Steinberg, translated by Michael Stone (Sierra Club: San Francisco, 1983) 132 pp., $14.95

At last, we thought, here is a book that will tell us about the archaeology of the future. Here we will learn not only about the latest techniques being used today but also about the experimental and embryonic methods that will someday transform archaeology into a more exact science. Here the likely impact of modern technology on the archaeological enterprise will unfold before our very eyes.

Alas, the book is about automobile graveyards. It has nothing to do with archaeology. It is about the nonrecyclable waste of our technological society (the dead tech of the title), the rubber, plastic and broken glass we try unsuccessfully to bury. It is about the debris we will leave for future archaeologists to dig up as evidence of what we were like. What will they conclude? That we were an exotic, grotesque civilization? Perhaps some brash young archaeologist, departing from long-held interpretations, will conclude that the evidence indicates we were always in a great hurry and valued disposability above all.

Despite its subject matter, this is a beautiful book with superb photographs of industrial graveyards throughout the Western world. Some of the decayed hulks of our great feats of engineering resemble nothing so much as absurd mythical creatures. The book is not only beautiful, but is well written and exposes a serious problem. Well worth reading.

Handbook for Biblical Studies