Skip to main content

Waimarino County and Other Excursions - Martin Edmond

Readers of Martin Edmond's Chronicle of the Unsung (2004) will have picked up his interest in archaeology and pacific prehistory.

The autobiographical parts of his latest book Waimarino County and Other Excursions (Martin Edmond, Auckland University Press 2007) give us more on how he came to that.
"I recall when my mother stopped her red and white Hillman Imp on a suburban street in Huntly one day and said, What's it you are going to be, a doctor or a lawyer? replying, Actualy I want to be an archaeologist."

Edmond had a 1972/73 holiday job at Takatu and spent some of his spare time looking at and digging in archaeological sites. "I drew a map of the pa site and sent it to Auckland Musuem, my sole contribution to archaeology."

It is easy to disagree. His writing is rich in landscape, history and their connection. This book has a startling example: an account of his accidental personal discovery of the Tongapurutu rock carvings (p81). It is a fine piece of writing which exposes his emotional response to the site. Surely not all archaeological contributions need to be as prosaic as maps.

Popular posts from this blog

  This quote struck me in a compendium of quotes about archaeology: “Archaeology is the peeping Tom of the sciences. It is the sandbox of men who care not where they are going; they merely want to know where everyone else has been.” Jim Bishop, American, Journalist, 1907–1987. Excuse the sexism – of its time I guess – when the stereotypical archaeologist was male. Ther rest connected with me because I had just been reading   How Archaeologists Can Solve The Earth’s ‘Wicked Problems’   Scoop News – attributed to “Human Bridges” The guts of the thesis is: “…. archaeology is essential to the future of humanity and planetary health. This is for three main reasons. First, archaeologists have the capacity to think about and to understand humanity of the past, and to project that insight into the future. Second, archaeologists are uniquely placed to comprehend the many and complex ways in which humans, over time, have related to their environment and environ...
Read more
  For Museums. I love museums – there that is out. I have been associated with them all my life – as a donor to at least five, associated with their research with three, published in their Records and as a Board Member for one. I love that they use physical objects to tell a story. They can have art galleries and libraries and archives attached – they are often a good fit - but none are necessary. It is physical objects that are their heart. Their essential nature lies around those objects. They need a building to protect them – from decay, theft – and that building itself has to be protected, from fire, decay, earthquake – a suitable place for guarding taonga – treasures. The collections need to be catalogued, by someone who knows enough to adequately describe them and they need to be available for experts to study and, within reason, to anyone else who develops an interest in them. A Museum needs its public interface, through displays that engage its public. It does not...
Read more
  Quotes for Archaeologists I used to have these in the page formatting of this blog - but it didn't work on iPhones and the ilk so took it down. Here they are as a post instead.
Read more