Archaeology Books

Loot: The Battle over the Stolen Treasures of the Ancient World

Sharon Waxman

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Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> History & Criticism -> General AAS

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Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

A journey across four continents to the heart of the conflict over who should own the great works of ancient art

Why are the Elgin Marbles in London and not on the Acropolis? Why do there seem to be as many mummies in France as there are in Egypt? Why are so many Etruscan masterworks in America? For the past two centuries, the West has been plundering the treasures of the ancient world to fill its great museums, but in recent years, the countries where ancient civilizations originated have begun to push back, taking museums to court, prosecuting curators, and threatening to force the return of these priceless objects.

Where do these treasures rightly belong? Sharon Waxman, a former culture reporter for The New York Times and a longtime foreign correspondent, brings us inside this high-stakes conflict, examining the implications for the preservation of the objects themselves and for how we understand our shared cultural heritage. Her journey takes readers from the great cities of Europe and America to Egypt, Turkey, Greece, and Italy, as these countries face down the Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum, the British Museum, and the J. Paul Getty Museum. She also introduces a cast of determined and implacable characters whose battles may strip these museums of some of their most cherished treasures.

For readers who are fascinated by antiquity, who love to frequent museums, and who believe in the value of cultural exchange, Loot opens a new window on an enduring conflict.

Unholy Business: A True Tale of Faith, Greed and Forgery in the Holy Land

Nina Burleigh

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Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> History & Criticism -> Regional -> Middle Eastern
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Subjects -> History -> Middle East -> Israel

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Total reviews: 40 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In 2002, an ancient limestone box called the James Ossuary was trumpeted on the world's front pages as the first material evidence of the existence of Jesus Christ. Today it is exhibit number one in a forgery trial involving millions of dollars worth of high-end, Biblical era relics, some of which literally re-wrote Near Eastern history and which could lead to the incarceration of some very wealthy men and embarrass major international institutions, including the British Museum and Sotheby's.

Set in Israel, with its 30,000 archaeological digs crammed with biblical-era artifacts, and full of colorful characters—scholars, evangelicals, detectives, and millionaire collectors—Unholy Business tells the incredibly story of what the Israeli authorities have called "the fraud of the century." It takes readers into the murky world of Holy Land relic dealing, from the back alleys of Jerusalem's Old City to New York's Fifth Avenue, and reveals biblical archaeology as it is pulled apart by religious believers on one side and scientists on the other.

Europe Between the Oceans: 9000 BC-AD 1000

Barry Cunliffe

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Editorial Review:

Europe is, in world terms, a relatively minor peninsula attached to the Eurasian land mass. Yet it became one of the most innovative regions on the planet, generating restless adventurers who traversed the globe to trade, to explore, and often to settle. By the fifteenth century Europe was a driving world force, but the origins of its success have until now remained obscured in prehistory.

 

In this magnificent book, distinguished archaeologist Barry Cunliffe views Europe not in terms of states and shifting political land boundaries but as a geographical niche particularly favored in facing many seas. These seas, and Europe’s great transpeninsular rivers, ensured a rich diversity of natural resources while also encouraging the dynamic interaction of peoples across networks of communication and exchange. The development of these early Europeans is rooted in complex interplays, shifting balances, and geographic and demographic fluidity.

 

Weaving together titanic concepts while remaining sensitive to specifics, Cunliffe has produced an interdisciplinary tour de force. His is a bold book of exceptional scholarship, erudite and engaging, and it heralds an entirely new understanding of Old Europe.

(20080808)

The End of Days: Armageddon and Prophecies of the Return (The Earth Chronicles)

Zecharia Sitchin

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 42 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Why is it that our current twenty-first century A.D. is so similar to the twenty-first century B.C.?
Is history destined to repeat itself? Will biblical prophecies come true, and if so, when?

It has been more than three decades since Zecharia Sitchin's trailblazing book The 12th Planet brought to life the Sumerian civilization and its record of the Anunnaki—the extraterrestrials who fashioned man and gave mankind civilization and religion. In this new volume, Sitchin shows that the End is anchored in the events of the Beginning, and once you learn of this Beginning, it is possible to foretell the Future.

In The End of Days, a masterwork that required thirty years of additional research, Sitchin presents compelling new evidence that the Past is the Future—that mankind and its planet Earth are subject to a predetermined cyclical Celestial Time.

In an age when religious fanaticism and a clash of civilizations raise the specter of a nuclear Armageddon, Zecharia Sitchin shatters perceptions and uses history to reveal what is to come at The End of Days.

The Seven Daughters of Eve: The Science That Reveals Our Genetic Ancestry

Bryan Sykes

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 119 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

DNA Diva 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I have worked at Genelex DNA Testing lab for 8 years and recommend this book to anyone with an interest in genealogy and DNA testing. It is a quick, fun read that illustrates what you can learn about your past from a simple DNA test.

Editorial Review:

As Provocative as Stephen Jay Gould's The Mismeanure of Man and as controversial as E. O. Wilson's Sociobiology, The Seven Daughters of Eve offers a fascinating history of the world as revealed through genetics. After years of research that resulted in headlines across the world, Bryan Sykes, an Oxford University geneticist, now lays the foundation for an entirely new branch of the study of DNA. After being summoned in 1997 to an archaeological site in Italy to examine the remains of a five-thousand-year-old man, Sykes ultimately was able to prove not only that the man was a European but also that he has relatives living in England today. Sykes found a particular strand of DNA that passes unbroken through the maternal line, allowing us to trace our genetic make-up back to prehistoric times to seven primeval women, or the "seven daughters of Eve". This book is popular science at its best, and its scientific and cultural reverberations will be discussed for years to come.

Fingerprints of the Gods (Alternative History)

Graham Hancock

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Total reviews: 263 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Basic point is valid but numerous errors mar the book. 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Graham Fancock's basic point is valid. Numerous artifacts have been found which show there were advanced civilizations prior to our historical records. Unfortunately he tarnishes his work with authoritative statements based on shoddy scholarship. One example is that he states Plato's Atlantis could not have been in the Atlantic Ocean because the the ocean floor has been mapped and no trace of a city has been found. Yet the mid-Atlantic ridge which goes past the Azores is home to many volcanos and earthquakes. In the early 1800's undersea volcanos spewed so much lava that a new island, Sambrina, appeared in the Azores. It was claimed by Great Britian but the new island later sank beneath the waves. While I am not saying Atlantis was near the Azores, if it was there the city would now be covered with huge amounts of silt and lava. Of course it would not be picked up by devices scanning the ocean floor.
Another defect in this book is that Hancock is an Egyptophile. While Egyptian monuments are important, Hancock ignores the older monolithic works found in Britian and Ireland. Radiocarbon dating of material at the site of Newgrange, in County Meath in Ireland, has shown that ancient structure is older than the Saqqara pyramid.
It is unfortunate that these problems mar the book. We need to learn more about our prehistory but the quest needs to be based on solid scholarship.
Jack Farrell, Middletown, MD

Editorial Review:

Using tools as varied as archaeo-astronomy, geology, and computer analysis of ancient myths, author Graham Hancock presents a compelling case to suggest that the story of mankind is far older than was previously believed. 2 cassettes.

The Machu Picchu Guidebook: A Self-Guided Tour

Ruth M. Wright, Alfredo Valencia Zegarra

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 29 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A great way to prepare your eyes for Machu Picchu 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This book is fairly scholarly and serious, but I read it on a cross-country flight, using the detailed map insert to locate key items as I read. It made my enjoyment of the site itself many many times greater. Most local guides you hire at the site will only show you "Machu Picchu's greatest hits", and with the book's knowledge you can really appreciate what they are taking you to and can explore the rest effectively on your own. I was glad to have read and studied the book and its many illustrations ahead, however, as the weather was wet and using it as an on-the-spot guide wouldn't have worked so well.

Editorial Review:

Whether you have three hours or three days at Machu Picchu, this guidebook will help you see things of significance that otherwise might just blend in with the overall grand impressions of this magical place. Built in the mid-fifteenth centruy by Incan royalty and "rediscovered" by Hiram Bingham in 1911, Machu Picchu is the stuff of legends. The authors offer an almost step-by-step tour, constantly guiding the traveler to understand key elements of the function and construction of these remarkably well-designed, well-built, and well-preserved ruins. A full-color foldout map along with some 150 illustrations, many of them in full color as well, will make this the indispensable guide. No traveler should go to Machu Picchu without this superb little book.

The Last Days of the Incas

Kim MacQuarrie

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Subjects -> History -> Americas -> South America -> Peru

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 36 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In 1532, the fifty-four-year-old Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro led a force of 167 men, including his four brothers, to the shores of Peru. Unbeknownst to the Spaniards, the Inca rulers of Peru had just fought a bloody civil war in which the emperor Atahualpa had defeated his brother Huascar. Pizarro and his men soon clashed with Atahualpa and a huge force of Inca warriors at the Battle of Cajamarca. Despite being outnumbered by more than two hundred to one, the Spaniards prevailed -- due largely to their horses, their steel armor and swords, and their tactic of surprise. They captured and imprisoned Atahualpa. Although the Inca emperor paid an enormous ransom in gold, the Spaniards executed him anyway. The following year, the Spaniards seized the Inca capital of Cuzco, completing their conquest of the largest native empire the New World has ever known. Peru was now a Spanish colony, and the conquistadors were wealthy beyond their wildest dreams.

But the Incas did not submit willingly. A young Inca emperor, the brother of Atahualpa, soon led a massive rebellion against the Spaniards, inflicting heavy casualties and nearly wiping out the conquerors. Eventually, however, Pizarro and his men forced the emperor to abandon the Andes and flee to the Amazon. There, he established a hidden capital, called Vilcabamba. Although the Incas fought a deadly, thirty-six-year-long guerrilla war, the Spanish ultimately captured the last Inca emperor and vanquished the native resistance.

Kim MacQuarrie lived in Peru for five years and became fascinated by the Incas and the history of the Spanish conquest. Drawing on both native and Spanish chronicles, he vividly describes the dramatic story of the conquest, with all its savagery and suspense. MacQuarrie also relates the story of the modern search for Vilcabamba, of how Machu Picchu was discovered, and of how a trio of colorful American explorers only recently discovered the lost Inca capital of Vilcabamba, hidden for centuries in the Amazon.

This authoritative, exciting history is among the most powerful and important accounts of the culture of the South American Indians and the Spanish Conquest.

Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea

Gary Kinder

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Total reviews: 196 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A Real Life Indiana Jones Saga Of Sunken Treasure 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This book seamlessly blends three stories. Two are adventure related with one begatting the other, that is the story of the sinking of the S.S. Central America, creating great panic due to about half of the U.S.A.'s gold being lost in addition to the death of over 400 passengers, and the subsequent story of how it was found and reclaimed some 130 years later. The other, the third story if you will, is a bio of what I am inclined to call an important yet still virtually unkownn American scientist, Tommy Thompson. I guess if Titanic fever helped in some ways, making Bob Ballard a household name, it somewhat obscurred Tommy Thompson. That fact adds to the mystique Ship Of Gold so wonderfully reveals.

Yes, this has quite a bit to reward the reader with. I was fascinated by the amount first hand documented information availabe. On the day prior to and the day of the sinking we get an almost hour by hour account, so vivid it actually puts the reader in the midst of the unfolding tragedy, during which most women and children were evacuated and the men valiantly bailed in the real hope that their lives as well as the boat could be saved. When the boat did begin to sink the last thing those in the water remember was the renowned Captain Herndon going down with the ship. The imagery conveyed is jaw-dropping. At the time the sinking put the young country in an economic depression due to the tremendous financial loss of the nation's gold, but due to the Civil War it was forgotten in the passing years.

Mr. Kinder has woven the bio of a youngster named Tommy Thompson into the telling of the sinking by going back and forth using chapters as dividers. Just as a series of unknown random events created the conditions to sink a ship so they did to spark a young boy's fertile mind. Tommy Thompson was not just brilliantly inquisitive..He was imaginatively inventive. A bit of a theorist, like Einstein, and a lot of an inventor, like Edison. By the time we get to the adult Tommy Thompson we're still not sure if he's kind of a mad scientist version of Jimmy Buffett, or if he's a "once-in-millenium" brilliant intellectual that happens to be entertaining as hell. Either way destiny will bring the right person on a collision course with the S.S. Central America.

The third part of the story is that intersection. Against all odds, Tommy Thompson was about to make history. Even though he fooled the casual on-looker, Tommy Thompson was a disciplined scientist first before being an adventure seeker. He methodically knew there were steps that had to be taken, including the extremely speculative possibility of finding the S.S. Central America. However, even if that could be done he was still going to have to extend technology to do things that were not considered doable yet. None of this stopped him and this book vividly, with lots of comic relief, tells of this impossible journey resulting in the truly amazing outcome when he triumphed.

This true story can not be equaled by fiction. It should, and I understand, may be turned into a movie. Until then I recommend this book to any armchair adventurer and history buff. It's a first rate true yarn that is entertaining and scientifically significant too.

The Complete World of Greek Mythology

Richard Buxton

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

disappointing 3 out of 5 stars.
15 of 16 people found this review helpful.

Somewhere amid the oodles of glossy photos of athlete-festooned kraters and oinochoes, I was hoping to discover some well narrated myths. My quest was frustrated. Not only does the book provide, at best, sketchy coverage of the thrilling heroic epics (e.g., Theseus, Perseus, Herakles), but one must hunt around for a sentence here and a paragraph there--even to reconstruct something as basic and tightly definable as the "birth of Zeus and overthrow of Kronos" story. That said, I feel strongly obliged to assign three stars merely because the volume is so overwhelmingly physically beautiful. Give this book wide berth and reach for either Schwab (a narrative cyclopedia) or D'Aulaire (a fun, richly illustrated--if purportedly juvenile--panorama). Graves isn't bad, either, but it's oriented toward the scholar of comparative evolution of mythosystems or some such, not for the seeker of glorious old tales, spicily woven; nor can you go wrong with Hamilton, though that's clearly showing its age.

Editorial Review:

A retelling of Greek myths is combined here with a comprehensive account of the world in which the myths developed - their themes, their relevance to Greek religion and society, and their relationship to the landscape.