REVIEWS 385

varied regarding the discursive or analytical quality ground drawings. Nearly all the major architectural
of the individual reviews. The articles therefore range sites are illustrated by plans, and we are given a
from important accounts of research problems and generous selection of minor sites as well. As the
key issues (including speculations on future develop- end-product of this endeavour the author presents a
ments (p. 531, searching self-awareness of the con- series of period-by-period settlement maps. The pot-
straints of established explanatory frameworks (p. tery, which provides the basis for chronology, is
57), and even critical views on deficiencies in treated in a long Appendix that describes and illus-
research priorities (pp. 93, 98) to more factual listing trates the principal types, and discusses the age and
and description of the activities carried out during the distribution (within and outside the valley] of each
five-year period. one. As a work of record this book sets new standards
In spite of these variations it is clear that all the and will have permanent value as a reference source.
articles fulfil the useful function of presenting in an But the author’s ambitions do not stop there. One of
easily accessible form a thematic review of a wide- his initial objectives was to investigate ‘the relative
ranging selection of publications. Thus publications roles of irrigation agriculture, population growth and
in Swedish are made available to a larger audience, warfare’ [the three buzzwords of the Pennsylvania
and this volume is therefore extremely useful. It gives school, though Wilson is a Michigan man] ‘in the
a quick but thorough overview of what Swedish origins and development of complex prehispanic
archaeologists consider the main results and distinct society in a single, strategically located coastal Peru-
tendencies within their own fields of expertise. One vian valley.’ The assumption that these (and not, say,
can only conclude that archaeological commu- politics, religion or social institutions]are the critical
nication at an international level would improve determinants is never discussed, and the further
greatly if nationally-published abstracts were more Wilson moves away from the raw data the less
commonly supplemented by periodic analytical satisfying his explanations become.
reviews. Swedish archaeology 1981-1985 must be On the credit side, he is scrupulous about describ-
praised for having recognized this need, and one can ing how he derived his figures for crop yields,
but hope that it will be taken as an example. population size etc., and, at the intermediate level of
MARIE LOUISE STIG S0RENSEN analysis, he scores some major successes. I accept his
Department of Archaeology reasons for believing that the archaeological record is
University of Cambridge essentially truthful, and that alluviation, modern
urban growth, and sheer attrition through age, are not
David J. Wilson. Prehispanic settlement patterns in serious factors for distortion. Without necessarily
the Lower Santa Valley, Peru; a regional perspective accepting his absolute figures for population size and
on the origins and development of complex North carrying capacity, or the resultant arguments about
Coast society. xx + 590 pages, 280 figures, 18 plates. the degree of ecological stress, I was convinced by
1988. Washington (DC): Smithsonian Institution Wilson’s discussion of relative population sizes a t
Press; l S B N 0-87474-984-0 hardback $55. different periods, and by his demonstration of a
population peak at about AD 800 with subsequent
This heavyweight book is the most complete study of collapse during Chimu and Inca times. He is also
regional settlement patterns ever carried out on the perceptive about such questions as the development
Peruvian coast. Its intellectual antecedents are the of site hierarchies and the changing nature of political
Viru Valley survey of 1946 (correctly regarded as a boundaries. To give just one example, his recogni-
turning point in New World archaeology) and the tion, on the basis of pottery distributions, of a
Basin of Mexico project initiated by William Sanders culturally distinct Middle Horizon state, indepen-
(which opted for total survey, rather than statistical dent of Wari and located in the valleys from Moche to
sampling, and is perhaps the most influential piece of Huarmey, is a valuable contribution, and one which
work produced by the North American cultural clarifies a very confused situation.
ecology school]. For his own Ph.D. research Wilson Again and again, Wilson’s study gives a clear
surveyed c. 750 sq. km of the lower Santa valley and definition of the problems that must be explained, but
was able to record 1020 discrete archaeological sites, at this, the ultimate level of analysis, the book is at its
ranging in age from preceramic to Inca. Many of these weakest, permeated by the kind of naive views on
were previously unknown or inadequately described. what constitutes an explanation, or a ‘sufficient
One of the virtues of Wilson’s ‘total’ strategy is that it cause’, that make historians despair of archaeology as
does not discriminate in favour of the major cere- a serious discipline. Throughout the text there is the
monial sites, which still dominate Peruvian archaeo- familiar confusion between a correlation and an
logy, but gives a much truer idea of how the various explanation, with a tendency, as the argument
elements of the prehispanic landscape are articulated unfolds, for initial guesses to harden into ‘facts’
- not just the platform mounds, fortresses and the which are then used to sustain the later stages of
Great Wall of Santa, but also the hamlets, fields, canal discussion. What one ends u p with is this sort of
systems, animal corrals, roads, petroglyphs and thing, taken from the concluding page: ‘The demogra-
386 REVIEWS
phic decline of the later periods . . . is probably due in
large part to the continuing processes of impaction
and agricultural intensification throughout the North
Coast area as well as to the specific meddling of
tributeifood-hungry multivalley states, in creating a
maladaptive focus on overirrigation and overpro-
duction especially in the Lower Valley sector.’ This is
not the much sought, if never attained, scientific archae-
ology of the 1960s textbooks. The vocabulary and the
models have changed, but the mixture of proven fact,
intuition and plain wishful thinking could have come
straight out of any book by Gordon Childe. This is not
to condemn Wilson for writing his own personal
just-so story (we do have an obligation to try and
interpret our data), but it should make us think very
seriously about the limits of archaeological inference.
WARWICK BRAY
Institute of Archaeology
University College, London
Patrick F. Houlihan with Steven M. Goodman. The
birds of ancient Egypt. 191 pages, 199 figures. 1986.
Warminster: Aris 6.Phillips; and Atlontic Highlands
(NJ): Humanities; ISBN 0-85668-283-7 paperback
€28.
Joachim Boessneck. Die Tierwelt des alten Agypten.
I97 pages, 252 illustrations, 1 map. 1988. Munich:
C.H. Beck; ISBN 3-406-33365-6 hardback DM88.
Never again will human beings be able to rival the
intense involvement with animals that was such an
integral part of the ancient Egyptian civilization. Five
thousand years ago the Nile valley must have teemed
with animals from an enormous diversity of species,
for here was a meeting ground of biogeographical
regions. The well-watered, fertile land was a refuge
from the increasing aridity of the Saharan desert in
the west and the Sinai desert in the East. It was also a
corridor down which, from the north, moved strays
from the Mediterranean fauna, while, to the south, the
savanna fauna could move up from the tropics.
Today, very little of this rich mosaic remains but its
legacy can be seen in the marvellous art of ancient
Egypt which has received surprisingly little attention
from biologists, perhaps because its very wealth has
been too daunting. Betwcen 1903 and 1909 L. Lortet 8r
C. Gaillard produced their five classic volumes on La
faune momifit‘e de I’nnciznne Egypte, but since then
tlie%.r
have been few books that provide authoritative
ident;*?cationsof all the animals portrayed aiid per-
haps none that corntines thest: with ecological inter-
pretations.
The two books. on the birds and on the animals of
ancient Egypt, go far towards filling thegap. 7he birds
of nncient Egypt is a remarkable conhination of
sc:holarship in Egyptology arid knowledge about the
birds represented ir vaintings, as hieroglyphs, and as
mummies. It is well printed and very clearly illus-
trated, but the arrangement of the information is
somewhat difficult to follow. The book begins with an
extensive bibliography which is reached through 726
notes placed at the end of the text but before the
checklist of bird species by Goodman. This checklist,
despite being described as ‘preliminary’, provides
comments on the species which are comprehensive,
well-ordered, and interesting. The Arabic names for
the birds are given, as well as dates of sightings, and
the checklist has its own list of 170 notes.
In Die Tierwelt des alten Agypten Boessneck draws
on his 35 years experience of working on animal
remains from archaeological sites, including a
number in Egypt. His extensive knowledge of
archaeozoology and biogeography has been used to
produce a well-documented survey of the animals,
both vertebrate and invertebrate, of ancient Egypt.
The systematic description of the fish, following the
work of von den Driesch, is particularly detailed aiid
is illustrated with fine line-drawings of the species.
The large number of plates combines ancient
Egyptian art with drawings and photographs of
modern animals, bones, and mummified remains.
In ancient Egypt, boundaries between the human
and animal worlds were hazy while those between
wild and domestic animals were perhaps nonexis-
tent. Every modern writer on the subject has
commented o n the experiments in domestication; the
oryx in harness, the cranes being herded, the hyaena
lying on its back and apparently having food forced
down its throat. But what Houlihan, in particular,
manages to convey is the appreciation of individua-
lity, of the belief that animals were conscious beings,
that is expressed by the art. This empathy has been
lost in the art of all later civilizations, although it is
seen in the rock paintings of the San in southern
Africa. One anthropocentric lapse by Houlihan has to
be mentioned: he describes the Egyptian vulture as
‘perhaps the most loathsome of all the scavenging
birds, often relying on human excrement and refuse
for subsistence’. (Perhaps vultures would be an
answer to the great problem of waste disposal in the
world today.)
Like all civilizations, that of ancient Egypt had an
inexorable effect on the aninial world which must
have been progressively depleted, for Herodotus,
writing around 450 BC, recorded that ‘Egypt, though
it borders on Libya, is not a region abounding in wild
animals. . . . The animals that do exist in the country,
whether domesticated or otherwise, are all regarded
When a man has killed one of the sacred
did it with malice prepense, he is pun-
ished with death.’ (11: 65.) Clearly, the conservation of
animals was beconling as important to the ancient
Egyptians as it is in o u r own society and this is an
aspect of Egyptology that has never been studied.
It would be of great interest to record the diversity
of species and their frequency of representation
throughout the ancient Egyptian period, but this is
only one of numerous topics that could be investi-