Though he did point out some of the reasons for their insistence on "converting the heathens", and their inability to understand that they were dealing with another civilized people (not that that stopped Europeans from imposing their religion on others, anyway - Thirty Years War, anyone?). And Ceram's views of Cortez and the other Spanish explorers/invaders of the New World were also much more approving than nowadays. The diggers in Babylon were a _little_ more careful, but only a little.
I was wincing through his whole description of Schleimann's burrowing through the mound of Troy - while he looked for "interesting" things and gold, he was destroying huge amounts of data on the other cities and cultures that had inhabited the same place. There were also some interesting sidelights on matters - Ceram's attitude towards the early history-hunters (not archaeologists, the ones who were just looking for neat stuff to take back to their countries) is interestingly in-between their own attitudes and how things are thought about today. Interesting book! I learned some things I hadn't known, and details about things I had known.
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