Overview
Featuring numerous black-and-white and color photographs of dig sites and artifacts, as well as 14 specially commissioned maps, this book will enable any budding archaeologist to set out on the voyage of a lifetime. The twelve "lost cities" awaiting both discovery and exploration in these pages include Troy, Angkor, Machu Picchu, Petra, Knossos, Nineveh, and Ur.
Explores twelve archeological "lost cities," with accounts of site discovery and investigation of the meaning of recovered objects.
Editorials
From the Publisher
"Each gripping account reveals the methods...of those who found the fabled cities.... Another winner for both author and publisher."--Library Lane
"This lively survey of 12 buried and rediscovered cities is spellbinding. The aspiring archaeologists on your list will cherish such a book."--Smithsonian
"[An] engrossing survey of archaeological discoveries.... A title that's certain to spark interest in vanished civilizations and in archaeology, with its mix of dramatic discoveries and careful deductions."--School Library Journal
"[Stefoff] paints a vivid picture of archaeology as it has progressed from little more than looting and grave robbing to the painstaking process it is today."--Booklist
"Stefoff blows the dust off 13 of archaeology's greatest triumphs, and the careers of the scientists and adventurers who forged them during the field's 'heroic age' and beyond.... The currency of her information, the expertise with which she picks out intriguing details, plus the trenchant contrast she draws between the destructive methods of early treasure hunters and today's careful scientists, make this must reading for students of the past."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Children's Literature -
From Angkor to the Great Zimbabwe, Chaco to Ur, 'lost' or 'buried' cities of the world have held fascination, inspiration, and allure. By examining the lives of those who went in search of these places, and exploring the places themselves, Stefoff also offers a study of the early years of archeology. Stephens and Catherwood are here, in awe at the valley of Copßn. Schliemann invests his wealth to follow the path of Homer, only to loot Troy when he finds it. Amelia Edwards and Harriet Boyd were female pioneers in the male world of archeological exploration of their time. Their stories are skillfully told, playing out against the backdrop of the incredible places and civilizations they "discovered."Kirkus Reviews
Stefoff (Charles Darwin, 1996, etc.) blows the dust off 13 of archaeology's greatest triumphs, and the careers of the scientists and adventurers who forged them during the field's "heroic age" (from Napoleon's 1798 Egyptian expedition to Howard Carter's first glimpse of Tutankhamen's treasure in 1922) and beyond.To the often-told tales of Schliemann at Troy, Evans at Knossos, and Layard at Nineveh, Stefoff adds plenty of lesser-known discoveries, including Harriet Boyd's excavations at Gournia, known as "the most perfectly preserved small Minoan town", rancher Richard Wetherill's discovery of the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde, and Nicholas Clapp's inspired use of satellite photography to locate the buried city of Ubar on the Arabian peninsula. From the discovery of Copán's royal tombs in the late 1980s to the even more recent excavation of a Byzantine church at Petra, many sites are yielding treasures even after decades of digging. Though the author includes too many general accounts of various civilizations that are more suited to textbook or encyclopedia articles, the currency of her information, the expertise with which she picks out intriguing details, plus the trenchant contrast she draws between the destructive methods of early treasure hunters and today's careful scientists, make this must reading for students of the past. Profusely illustrated with full-color and black-and-white photographs.