This book for children brings alive our excavations at Attirampakkam. A fact and fiction series from Tulika publishers, Chennai, the book is being used by teachers and has been translated into Malayalam. To order the book contact Tulika Publishers, Chennai
The Shining Stones, Tulika Publishers: Review in Antiquity
On Involving local people in community archaeology...
A little book from India
targeting 7-10 year old children does this wonderfully
well. The Shining Stones by Shanti Pappu is
didactic, and not afraid to tackle the very distant past:
not the archaeology of the Indus Valley civilisation, but
that of 700,000 BP or 'more than 10,000 grandafters ago!'
A number of devices are used, woven together: the story of
the excavation of a Lower Paleolithic site at
Attirampakkam in Tamilnadu; the presentation of the finds
– an Acheulean handaxe, a human tooth, the footprints of a
baby elephant; life in the village (the local people are
asked to 'Guard the site. Don't allow anyone to pick up
stone tools from the site. All this is yours. Look after
it.'); and the story of the hunter-gatherer family on the
banks of the river Kortallayar which allows the
present-day children to relate to remote people. Add to
this a timeline of human evolution and explanations of the
techniques and tools used by archaeologists. All this in
26 pages, with colour photographs from the modern village
and the excavations and different styles of illustration
to suit the mood of each element of the narrative. This is
informative, fresh, deligtful, a lovely, even if directed,
way of connecting living communities with humanity's deep
past.
– March 2008, Antiquity
(volume 82, no 315) New Book Chronicle
Set in a story book format,
The Shining Stones, succeeds in its aim of bringing
archaeology alive for children. As you browse through
this book, it's like revisiting the same topics from
history that you so dreaded. But this time round, you'll
be surprised to find yourself smoothly leafing through the
entire book with renewed interest. ...the relatively short
(32pages) book...is brimming with interesting
illustrations, photographs and facts about the most
fascinating era of mankind – the Stone Age...Mainly aimed
at children and teachers...also likely to be
an indispensable guide for parents wanting to educate
their kids about human evolution, how archaeologists work,
the tools used in excavations and the lives of our
ancestors.
– June 2007, Indian
Express
http://www.scribd.com/doc/31525411/For-Children
The Book Leaf, Pune: http://thebookleaflibrary.com/page/2/
The Statesman, Kolkata, 24 June 2007, Review by Lopamudra Maitra
http://lopamudramaitra.blogspot.com/p/book-reviews.html
