The explorations of archaeology encompass the whole globe, survey 2.5 million years, and range from deserts to jungles, from deep caves to mountain tops, and from pebble tools to GPS. Its efforts to reconstruct and understand the past do not fail to fascinate us. Paul Bahn explores the importance of archaeology in this entertaining introduction. It is often said that well-written books are rare in archaeology, but this is a model of good writing for a general audience. [The] chapters rattle along, packed with information by never getting bogged down in too much details. The book is full of jokes, but its serious message-that archaeology can be a rich and fascinating subject-it gets across with more panache than any other book I know.