Red-Haired Ash Reads

This was an interesting investigation into experimental archeology, which attempts to replicate or approximate ancient cultures methods of performing various tasks. This book covers things like recreating an accurate Roman fish sauce, creating ancient Egyptian bread, using obsidian blades, and how to actually play an Aztec ballgame. 

While I did enjoy the experimental archeology side of this book, I didn’t enjoy Kean’s fictional narrative of people from these eras that he is covering. I can understand why it might be more interesting for some people to weave more of a tale on why/how these things were used, but I just didn’t really enjoy it and found myself skimming these narratives towards the last half of the book. That said, I did enjoy learning all about the experimental archeology he researched and tried out, but it felt like that was such a small portion of the book compared to the fictional narratives. 

So while I did learn a few things about this field, I think it would have been more enjoyable for me if it had just focused on the actual experiments and not the fictional stuff. I also feel like the book should have spent more time on these experiments since that is what it was supposed to be about, and not on the fictional narrative he created. 

TW: animal death and experiments with dead animals; death; bullying; physical abuse; starvation; slavery;

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