The Sumerians are widely believed to have created the world's earliest civilization on the fertile floodplains of southern Iraq from about 3500 to 2000 BC. They have been credited with the invention of nothing less than cities, writing and the wheel, and therefore hold an ancient mirror to our own urban, literate world. But is this picture correct? Paul Collins reveals how the idea of a Sumerian people was assembled from the archaeological and textual...

In 1921, author David Randall-MacIver moved to Rome in order to focus on Italian archaeology, the result of which is this is this fascinating and detailed study of the history of the Etruscans, first published in 1927. The Etruscan civilization is the modern name given to a powerful, wealthy and refined civilization of ancient Italy in the area corresponding roughly to Tuscany, western Umbria, and northern Lazio. As distinguished by its unique language,...

Hailed by Science News as "the new seminal text," The Pyramids is the most up-to-date, comprehensive record of Egypt's ancient monuments to become available in the last six decades. Distinguished Egyptologist Miroslav Verner draws from the research of the earliest Egyptologists as well as the startling discoveries arising from the technological advances of the 1980s and 1990s. His Pyramids offers a clear, authoritative guide to the ancient culture...

Dolmens are iconic international monumental constructions which represent the first megalithic architecture (after menhirs) in north-west Europe. These monuments are characterised by an enormous capstone balanced on top of smaller uprights. However, previous investigations of these extraordinary monuments have focussed on three main areas of debate. First, typology has been a dominant feature of discussion, particularly the position of dolmens in...

"Rachel Morgan's frank and incisive history begins with Richard Wetherill's "discovery" of Mesa Verde in Colorado in 1888. Subsequent expeditions by amateurs, looters, and budding professional archaeologists abetted the devastation of Indigenous sites throughout the Southwest. These expeditions became the proving grounds for different conceptions of what archaeology should be and how it should be practiced. Ultimately, revulsion at the work of nineteenth-century...

A light-hearted approach to the process of mummification in ancient Egypt.

Scandinavia is home to prolific and varied rock art images among which the ship motif is prominent. Because of this, the rock art of Scandinavia has often been interpreted in terms of social ritual, cosmology, and religion associated with the maritime sphere. This comprehensive review is based on the creation of a Scandinavia-wide GIS database for prehistoric rock art and reexamines theoretical approaches and interpretations, in particular with regard...

First published in 1871, Ancient America delivers the earliest comprehensive English‑language survey of North America's prehistoric past. Baldwin synthesizes scattered accounts-from the fluted‑point hunters of the Paleo‑Indian era to the monumental earthworks of the Mississippi‑Valley "Mound Builders," and onward to the pyramidal cities of Mexico and Central America-into a single, lucid narrative. Rejecting then‑common Eurocentric myths,...

In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. The great Biblical flood so described in Genesis has long been a subject of fascination and speculation. In the 19th century the English archbishop James Ussher established it as having happened...