In this book the author shows how a new generation of researchers equipped with novel scientific techniques have come to previously unheard of conclusions about the Americas before the arrival of the Europeans. In 1491 there were probably more people living in the Americas than in Europe. Certain cities, such as Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital, were greater in population than any European city. Tenochtitlan, unlike any capital in Europe at that time,...

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,...

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...

This book traces the evolution of Maya civilization through the Pre-Columbian era, a span of some 2,500 years from the origins of complex society within Mesoamerica to the end of the Pre-Columbian world with the Spanish Conquest in the 16th century. The sixth edition presents new archaeological evidence and historical studies and offers the most extensive revisions of this classic work to date.

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...

This is a reprint of the first edition, published in 1998 by Edinburgh University Press. Now with an updated preface and colour illustrations throughout, this beautiful book tells the story of Swaledale, a well-loved part of the North Yorkshire Pennines. It shows how the perspectives of archaeology, history and ecology can be linked to transform our understanding of the landscape. Starting from the contemporary framework of the landscape with its...

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...

It's 1925 and the treasure-hunting scene is a man's world. Irene Blum is passed over for the curator position at a Seattle museum but is not willing to accept defeat. Irene comes into possession of a map believed to lead to a set of copper scrolls the tell the lost history of Cambodia's ancient Khmer civilization. Irene travels from Seattle to Shanghai to the Cambodian jungles in search of the lost scrolls and encounters several other adventurers...