Traces the migrations and evolution of the races as well as the development of civilizations from prehistoric times to the fourth century A.D.

    From 1934, Thom became interested in the megalithic culture that had erected the stone circles, rows and other monuments in Neolithic and Bronze Age Britain. He began to accurately survey these sites, and in 1967 published Megalithic Sites in Britain, which claimed that the builders had been skilled surveyors and astronomers, and had used an identical and accurate unit of length to mark out their constructions throughout Britain, a length he called the Megalithic yard (2.72 feet or 0.829m).Thom also discovered that the geometry being used was based on right-angled ‘Pythagorean’ triangles, triangles whose sides were whole numbers of this same megalithic yard, or subdivisions or multiples of it. He also proposed that the builders were observing both the sun and moon using precision alignments to identified sites or natural features on a distant horizon. He even showed that they could have predicted eclipses. The book was described by archaeologist Professor Richard Atkinson as ‘a well-constructed time-bomb dropped through the letterbox of archaeology’, and it caused a huge rumpus within the profession. In effect Thom had demonstrated that there was a huge missing component in our understanding of the Megalithic culture, one that archaeologists had totally missed, and that our model of prehistory was flawed and hopelessly inadequate.

    

    

    H. Scullard examines the cities of Etruria, the dominant power on the Italian peninsula just prior to the ascendancy of Rome. Though eventually conquered by the Romans, the Etruscans exerted enormous influence on Roman political and social institutions. Scullard describes the mysterious origins of these people, their years of conquest and expansion, and their encounters with Greeks, Romans, Celts, and others. Generously illustrated, the book admirably captures the distinct qualities of Etruria's various urban centers - from the southern cities, where art and handicrafts flourished, to the metal-working northern cities, to the outlying Etruscan areas of Latium and Campania.

    His background, his character and the manner of his early success are examined and his career as a whole is considered in relation to issues of foreign policy, to social problems and to various trends in political behaviour. The crisis of 133 BC falls within this framework and the links between that crisis and Scipio's career are discussed.