BAHN, Paul 1953-

(Paul Gerard Bahn)

PERSONAL: Born July 29, 1953, in Hull, England; son of Charles Edward and Emilia (a schoolteacher; maiden name, Gobbers) Bahn. Education: Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, B.A., 1974, M.A., 1978, Ph.D., 1979. Hobbies and other interests: Music, cinema, genealogy.

ADDRESSES: Home—Hull, England. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, Ltd., 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxford, OX14 4RN, England.

CAREER: University of Liverpool, Liverpool, England, postdoctoral research fellow in archaeology, 1979–82; University of London, London, England, V. Cañada Blanch research fellow in archaeology, 1982–83, J. Paul Getty research fellow in the history of art and humanities, 1985–86; freelance writer, translator, and broadcaster, 1986–. Easter Island Foundation, vice president.

MEMBER: Prehistoric Society, Society of Antiquaries (fellow), Australian Rock Art Research Association (vice president, 1992–2000), Société Préhistorique Française, Rock Art Association of Southern Africa.

WRITINGS:

Pyrenean Prehistory, Aris & Phillips (Westminster, England), 1984.

(With Jacquetta Hawkes) The Shell Guide to British Archaeology, M. Joseph (London, England), 1986.

(With Glyn Daniel) Ancient Places: The Prehistoric and Celtic Sites of Britain, Constable (London, England), 1987.

(With Jean Vertut) Images of the Ice Age, Facts on File (New York, NY), 1988.

The Bluffer's Guide to Archaeology, Ravette (Horsham, England), 1989, 2nd edition, Oval Books (London, England), 1999.

(With Colin Renfrew) Archaeology: Theories, Methods, and Practice, Thames & Hudson (New York, NY), 1991, 3rd edition, 2000.

(With John Flenley) Easter Island, Earth Island, Thames & Hudson (New York, NY), 1992, 2nd edition published as The Enigmas of Easter Island: Island on the Edge, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2003.

(With Adrian Lister) Mammoths, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1994, 2nd edition published as Mammoths: Giants of the Ice Age, Marshall Publishing (London, England), 2000.

Archaeology: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1996.

(With Jean Vertut) Journey through the Ice Age, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 1997.

The Cambridge Illustrated History of Prehistoric Art, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1997.

The Easter Island Enigma, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (London, England), 1997.

Geoglyphs, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (London, England), 1997.

(With Bill Tidy) Disgraceful Archaeology; or, Things You Shouldn't Know about the History of Mankind!, Tempus Publishing (Stroud, England), 1999.

(With Douglas Palmer and Paul Pettitt) Unearthing the Past: The Great Archaeological Discoveries that Have Changed History, Lyons Press (Guilford, CT), 2005.

EDITOR

(And contributor) The Collins Dictionary of Archaeology, HarperCollins (London, England), 1992, American Bibliographical Center-Clio Press (Santa Barbara, CA), 1993.

(And contributor) The Story of Archaeology: 100 Great Discoveries, Barnes & Noble (New York, NY), 1995.

(And contributor) Tombs, Graves, and Mummies, Barnes & Noble (New York, NY), 1996.

(And contributor) The Cambridge Illustrated History of Archaeology, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1996.

(With Angelo Fossati) Rock Art Studies: News of the World, Oxbow (Oxford, England), 1996.

(And contributor) Lost Cities, Barnes & Noble (New York, NY), 1997.

(And contributor) Lost Treasures, Barnes & Noble (New York, NY), 1999, published Wonderful Things: Uncovering the World's Great Archaeological Treasures, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1999.

(With Matthias Strecker) Dating and the Earliest Known Rock Art, Oxbow (Oxford, England), 1999.

(And contributor) The Atlas of World Archaeology, Checkmark Books (New York, NY), 2000.

(And contributor) The Archaeology Detectives, Reader's Digest, 2001.

(And contributor) The Archaeology Companion, Weldon Owen (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia), 2001.

(And contributor) The Penguin Archaeology Guide, Penguin (London, England), 2001.

(With Henri Paul Francfort and Roberte Hamayon) The Concept of Shamanism: Uses and Abuses, Akadémiai Kidaó (Budapest, Hungary), 2001.

Written in Bones: How Human Remains Unlock the Secrets of the Dead, Firefly Books (Buffalo, NY), 2003.

(With Colin Renfrew) Archaeology: The Key Concepts, Routledge (New York, NY), 2005.

Contributing editor, Archaeology.

TRANSLATOR

Paul Courbin, What Is Archaeology?, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL), 1988.

Marina Rodna, The Bluffer's Guide to Modern Art, Ravette (Horsham, England), 1990.

Serge Gruzinski, The Aztecs: Rise and Fall of an Empire, Abrams (New York, NY), 1992.

Maurice Krafft, Volcanoes: Fire from the Earth, Abrams (New York, NY), 1993.

Carmen Bernand, The Incas, Abrams (New York, NY), 1994.

Catherine Orliac and Michel Orliac, The Silent Gods: Mysteries of Easter Island, Abrams (New York, NY), 1995.

Herbert Thomas, The First Humans: The Search for Our Origins, Abrams (New York, NY), 1995.

Jean-Marie Chauvet, Eliette Brunel Deschamps, and Christian Hillaire, Chauvet Cave: The Discovery of the World's Oldest Paintings, Abrams (New York, NY), 1996.

Valérie Berinstain, Mughal India: Splendours of the Peacock Throne, Abrams (New York, NY), 1998.

Denis Vialou, Our Prehistoric Past: Art and Civilization, Abrams (New York, NY), 1998.

Corinne Debaine-Francfort, The Search for Ancient China, Abrams (New York, NY), 1999.

Danièle Lavellée, The First South Americans: The Peopling of a Continent from the Earliest Evidence to High Culture, University of Utah Press (Salt Lake City, UT), 2000.

Patrick Tort, Darwin, Abrams (New York, NY), 2001.

SIDELIGHTS: Archaeologist, writer, translator, and editor Paul Bahn is the author of more than 400 publications and has written and edited books on the history of archaeology, prehistoric rock art, and Easter Island. Noted for his books for lay readers, which include The Bluffer's Guide to Archaeology and The Cambridge Illustrated History of Prehistoric Art, Bahn is perhaps best known for his breakthrough research, with John Flenley, on the settlement of Easter Island.

As the author and editor of dictionaries and encyclopedias on archaeology, Bahn has worked with a number of archeologists to collect articles for various reference books. Bahn both contributed to and edited articles for The Collins Dictionary of Archaeology, published in 1992, which Timothy Taylor and Cyprian Broodbank of Antiquity noted "aims to strike a fair balance between the various regions of the world and to be up-to-date." Bahn followed with 1996's The Cambridge Illustrated History of Archaeology, which collects the works of eighteen archaeologists. Gilbert Taylor, writing for Booklist, considered the book "a compact volume with a worldwide embrace, evenly balanced between sites famous and obscure." Noting that the volume is "lavishly illustrated," Brian Fagan, writing for American Antiquity, commented that the history "is refreshing in that it presents an international view of archaeological discovery and sometimes of changing ideas about the past." Historian reviewer Donald Lateiner noted, "The eight chapters proceed chronologically from 1500 (pious destruction) to 1994 (grudging artifact restitution)." Lateiner also commented, "Although strongest on the contributions from the British Empire, Bahn's global perspective is welcome." N. James, writing in Antiquity noted that the task of covering all of archaeology's history "is very difficult" and added, "The material covered is written most approachably and informatively."

Combining information about ice age artifacts and fossils, Bahn joined Adrian Lister to produce Mammoths, a book for young adults that focuses on these prehistoric cousins of elephants. Booklist reviewer Denise Perry Donavin remarked that the book has "a captivating text" and praised the illustrations as "stunning." Another title with young adult appeal is Lost Cities: 50 Discoveries in World Archaeology. This collection features 250 archaeological sites, including Macchu Pichu in Peru and lesser known sites including Cahokia, outside of St. Louis, Missouri, and introduces readers to archaeology. Joe Collins, writing in Booklist, commented, "normally forgotten or less-mentioned digs are included," and a Publishers Weekly contributor pointed out the "vivid color photograph" presented for each city. Library Journal reviewer Joyce L. Ogburn considered the work "a lavish yet scholarly book that is a treat to own and peruse."

Much of Bahn's work has dealt with prehistoric art, specifically rock art and cave drawings. Bahn translated the coffee-table book Dawn of Art: The Chauvet Cave, one of several of the books Bahn has worked on that discuss rock art. According to a contributor to Discover, Dawn of Art provides "a workmanlike narrative of the discovery" of the cave in southern France where explorers found paintings dating back 30,000 years—far earlier than archaeologists had previously dated the origin of art. The reviewer also commented on the "many bright … and mesmerising photographs" included in the volume. Bahn collaborated with Angelo Fossati to edit Rock Art Studies: News of the World, in which the editors gathered "a series of invited papers," according to Anthony Sinclair of Antiquity, to discuss developments made in the field of rock art study. Prehistoric art is again the topic of The Cambridge Illustrated History of Prehistoric Art, which Thomas A. Dowson, writing in Antiquity, felt "does not live up to the claims made on the back cover," citing "the almost total concentration on rockart" as one of the book's major problems. Gilbert Taylor in Booklist, on the other hand, found the title to be "an accessible, in-depth book that will fascinate advanced science or art students." Thomas F. Aleto, writing for American Antiquity, found that "its geographic range is as broad as its chronological perspective is deep," and concluded, "Bahn has authored a book that will be useful to nonspecialist professionals and students with interests in the fascinating subject of parietal art."

In 1992, Bahn and John Flenley published the findings of their research on Easter Island in Easter Island, Earth Island, in which they offered evidence that Easter Island had been settled not by South American travelers, but by their western neighbors from Polynesia. In 2003, the two worked together to update their original work and published The Enigmas of Easter Island: Island on the Edge, a second edition of their original book. The new version includes recent archaeological discoveries including the glyphs found by archaeologist Steven Fischer, which give evidence to a birdman cult in the island's history. They also reaffirm a statement they made in their first edition: that the reason for the destruction of the culture of Easter Island was the island's deforestation. Joan W. Garland, writing for Library Journal, considered the book "a groundbreaking study of Easter Island's archaeology and history," as well as "an out-standing study, clearly written, impressive in its scope." Along with publishing research about Easter Island, Bahn serves as the vice president of the Easter Island Foundation.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Antiquity, April, 1997, Brian Fagan, review of The Cambridge Illustrated History of Archeology, p. 390; April, 1999, Thomas F. Aleto, review of The Cambridge Illustrated History of Prehistoric Art, p. 392.

Antiquity, March, 1993, Timothy Taylor and Cyprian Broodbank, review of Collins Dictionary of Archaeology, pp. 157-158; September, 1887, Thomas A. Dowson, review of The Cambridge Illustrated History of Prehistoric Art, pp. 715-718; December, 1999, N. James, review of The Cambridge Illustrated History of Archaeology, p. 938; September, 2000, N. James and Simon Stoddart, "Archaeology: Theories, Methods, and Practice," p. 722; June, 2004, N. James, review of Rock Art Studies: News of the World, p 485.

Booklist, February 1, 1995, Denise Perry Donavin, review of Mammoth, p. 980; September 15, 1996, Gilbert Taylor, review of The Cambridge Illustrated History of Archaeology, p. 213; May 15, 1998, Gilbert Taylor, review of The Cambridge Illustrated History of Prehistoric Art, p. 1582; March 15, 1999, Joe Collins, review of Lost Cities: 50 Discoveries in World Archaeology, p. 1287.

Discover, December, 1997, review of Dawn of Art: The Chauvet Cave, pp. 72-73.

Historian, winter, 1999, Donald Lateiner, review of The Cambridge Illustrated History of Archaeology, p. 484.

Library Journal, June 15, 1999, Joyce L. Ogburn, review of Lost Cities, p. 90; October 15, 2003, Joan W. Garland, review of The Enigmas of Easter Island, Island on the Edge, p. 81.

Publishers Weekly, April 26, 1999, review of Lost Cities, p. 73; September 25, 2000, "Checkmark Books," p. 42.

Science News, July 5, 2003, review of The Enigmas of Easter Island, p. 15.

Whole Earth, spring, 1999, review of Dawn of Art, p. 39.