Do I Really Want to Be an Archaeologist?: Letters from the Field 1968-1974

Do I Really Want to Be an Archaeologist? is an edited collection of letters that Karen D. Vitelli wrote from pre-EU Greece and Turkey to family during her later years of graduate school and early field work (at Franchthi Cave, Gordion, and a training session at Corinth) through to the completion of writing her dissertation in Athens during a coup (1968-1974). An introductory chapter provides background information to clarify references in the letters, additional new comments within the letters amplify points and events, and a final chapter sums up her post-dissertation years. The letters were written during lively times politically and socially, as well as archaeologically, in Greece and around the world. The author was often torn between immersing herself in the past and being involved in the upheavals of that present. The letters show her frequent questioning about whether to remain in archaeology or become an ‘activist,’ and how she eventually found ways to do both.