Leo Deuel’s “Conquistadors” are not the true conquerors of the New World, who used the sword, but the archaeologists, who accomplished a peaceful reconquest of the Americas with the spade. He has compiled accounts of New World archaeology from the writings of those who performed the investigations. They range from an early account of the antiquities of Virginia by Thomas Jefferson published in 1801 to a description of Maya hieroglyphic writing by Tatiana Proskouriakoff in 1961.
Forty-two passages telling of archaeological finds stretching from Andean South America to Greenland are grouped into geographic units. Deuel chose texts to tell of early discoveries and adventures, as well as modern advances in the science of archaeology. He has tried to emphasize continuity and to produce an outline history of American archaeology. Each selection begins with an essay devoted to background and interpretation. Maps, drawings, and photographs, some from the original sources, supplement the text.
The volume is designed for the popular reader. In fact Deuel encountered an unanticipated difficulty in compiling the volume, for American archaeologists have not written many first hand narratives. Instead, a majority of important discoveries are reported only in the dullest of technical papers or are rendered in such generalities that they lose all concreteness for the average reader. Deuel has therefore selected the more popularly written accounts from the pens of archaeologists and the narrative writings of early travellers and later popular writers. Most of the selections make good reading and do report some of the pioneering events and recent accomplishments in archaeology. Deuel’s annotations place them in proper perspective.