Cartographia: Mapping Civilizations


Vincent Virga - 2007
    These maps show how our idea of the world has shifted and grown over time, and each map tells its own unique story about nations, politics, and ambitions. The chosen images, with their accompanying stories, introduce the reader to an exciting new way of "reading" maps as travelogues---living history from the earliest of man's imaginings about planet earth to our current attempts at charting cyberspace. Among the rare gems included in the book are the Waldseemuller Map of the World from 1507, the first to include the designation "America"; pages from the Ortelius's Theatrum Orbis Terrarum of 1570, considered the first modern atlas; rare maps from Africa, Asia, and Oceania that challenge traditional Western perspectives; William Faulkner's hand-drawn 1936 map of the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi; and even a map of the Human Genome. In an oversized format, with gorgeous four-color reproductions throughout, Catrographia will appeal to collectors, historians, and anyone looking for a perfect gift.

The Human Career: Human Biological and Cultural Origins


Richard G. Klein - 1989
    A. Foley, Antiquity), The Human Career has proved to be an indispensable tool in teaching human origins since its publication in 1989. This substantially revised edition retains Richard Klein's innovative approach and incorporates new findings from the past decade.The Human Career chronicles the evolution of people from the earliest primates through the emergence of fully modern humans within the past 200,000 years. Its comprehensive treatment stresses recent advances in knowledge, including, for example, ever more abundant evidence that fully modern humans originated in Africa and spread from there, replacing the Neanderthals in Europe and equally archaic people in Asia. With its coverage of both the fossil record and the archeological record over the 2.5 million years for which both are available, Klein emphasizes that human morphology and behavior evolved together. Throughout the text, Klein presents evidence for alternative points of view, but also does not hesitate to take a position.In addition to outlining the broad pattern of human evolution, The Human Career details the kinds of data that support this pattern, including information on archeological sites, artifacts, fossils, and methods for establishing dates in geological time. With abundant references and hundreds of illustrations, charts, and diagrams, this new edition is unparalleled in its usefulness for teaching human evolution.

Then and Now Bible Maps


Rose Publishing - 2011
    This fascinating reference tool contains seventeen Bible maps showing the locations of ancient cities and countries in comparison with modern-day cities and boundaries. What a great way to compare places in today's news with places in the Bible.You will love the amazing Then & Now Bible Maps eBook. The Then and Now Maps make the Bible more relevant and meaningful by showing biblical sites in relation to modern day cities and countries. The widely acclaimed Then and Now Bible Maps eBook from Rose Publishing brings fresh perspective to traditional Bible accounts. When you see biblical places compared with modern-day cities and countries, you can experience the Bible in a richer way. A few examples: • Daniel was taken as POW to Babylon and lived there the rest of his life. The ruins of Babylon are south of Baghdad, in present day Iraq. • The ruins of Nineveh are in Northern Iraq near the Kurdish city of Mosul • The wise men were probably from Iran or Saudi Arabia • Queen Esther's palace in Susa was about 100 miles northeast of Kuwait CityThen & Now Bible Maps makes it easy to see where Persia is today and the places Paul's first missionary journey would take him if traveling the same route today. Below are just a few of the maps included in this incredible resource: • The Middle East map during Bible times and today • The Assyrian Empire, Babylonian Kingdoms and Persian Empire • The Holy Land: 1020 BC and 900 BC & Now • Places of Jesus' Ministry Then (26-30 AD) & NowThen & Now Bible Maps eBook makes it easy to compare locations that are familiar in the Bible with modern day locations. On each of the seventeen maps, Bible places are shown in black type and modern-day cities and countries appear in red type. The maps also provide helpful historic information. For example: • "The Holy Land: Then & Now" shows the historical and modern-day names of cities within the regions occupied by the Twelve Tribes and how the Twelve Tribes divide up the land. • "Paul's Journeys: Then & Now" shows the Seven Churches of Asia found in Revelation 1-3 (now in present day Turkey), cities and towns, ancient ruins, mountains, modern capital cities and a key for measuring the distance traveled from city to city • "Empires & Kingdoms: Then & Now" shows the changing boundaries of the Assyrian Empire, Babylonian Kingdom, and Persian EmpireThen & Now Bible Maps is a fascinating resource that you will refer to again and again when you are studying the Bible.

The Lost Queen of Egypt


Lucile Morrison - 1937
    We come to know and love this girl, called Small Bird by her family, through the events of her colorful childhood and her marriage to Tutankhaten, a boy of royal birth. Her efforts to save the kingdom from conniving priests and soldiers were gallant and dramatic.While the fate of the Queen is unknown, in her story Lucile Morrison ventures to suppose a satisfying ending to the romance. An extraordinarily accurate, vivid picture of domestic and court life which will enrich any study of the culture of ancient Egypt.Illustrations by Franz Geritz, done in the style of ancient Egypt, help set the mood of Ankhsen­amon's story as the clock is turned back more than three thousand years. Color frontispiece and newly recolored map end pages.

Kybalion: A Study of the Hermetic Philosophy of Ancient Egypt and Greece


Three Initiates - 1912
    This concise guide offers a modern interpretation of the doctrine, distilling its teachings with seven compelling principles that can be applied to self-development in daily life.

The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times


Adrienne Mayor - 2000
    But what if these beings were more than merely fictions? What if monstrous creatures once roamed the earth in the very places where their legends first arose? This is the arresting and original thesis that Adrienne Mayor explores in The First Fossil Hunters. Through careful research and meticulous documentation, she convincingly shows that many of the giants and monsters of myth did have a basis in fact--in the enormous bones of long-extinct species that were once abundant in the lands of the Greeks and Romans.As Mayor shows, the Greeks and Romans were well aware that a different breed of creatures once inhabited their lands. They frequently encountered the fossilized bones of these primeval beings, and they developed sophisticated concepts to explain the fossil evidence, concepts that were expressed in mythological stories. The legend of the gold-guarding griffin, for example, sprang from tales first told by Scythian gold-miners, who, passing through the Gobi Desert at the foot of the Altai Mountains, encountered the skeletons of Protoceratops and other dinosaurs that littered the ground.Like their modern counterparts, the ancient fossil hunters collected and measured impressive petrified remains and displayed them in temples and museums; they attempted to reconstruct the appearance of these prehistoric creatures and to explain their extinction. Long thought to be fantasy, the remarkably detailed and perceptive Greek and Roman accounts of giant bone finds were actually based on solid paleontological facts. By reading these neglected narratives for the first time in the light of modern scientific discoveries, Adrienne Mayor illuminates a lost world of ancient paleontology. As Peter Dodson writes in his Foreword, "Paleontologists, classicists, and historians as well as natural history buffs will read this book with the greatest of delight--surprises abound."

Forgotten Peoples of the Ancient World


Philip Matyszak - 2020
    While several of these are well known, for all those that have been recorded, many have been unjustly forgotten. Our history is overflowing with different cultures that have all evolved over time, sometimes dissolving or reforming, though ultimately shaping the way we continue to live. But for every culture that has been remembered, what have we forgotten?This thorough guide explores those civilizations that have faded from the pages of our textbooks but played a significant role in the development of modern society. Forgotten Peoples of the Ancient World covers the Hyksos to the Hephthalites and everyone in between, providing a unique overview of humanity’s history from approximately 3000 BCE–550 CE. A wide range of illustrated artifacts and artworks, as well as specially drawn maps, help to tell the stories of forty lost peoples and allow readers to take a direct look into the past. Each entry exposes a diverse culture, highlighting their important contributions and committing their achievements to paper.Forgotten Peoples of the Ancient World is an immersive, thought-provoking, and entertaining book for anyone interested in ancient history.

The 5,000-Year-Old Puzzle: Solving a Mystery of Ancient Egypt


Claudia Logan - 2002
    Readers are invited to join a young boy, Will Hunt, as he and his family become part of an archaeological team led by world-famous Egyptologist Dr. George Reisner. Based on actual records of Reisner's history-making dig, Giza 7000X, this strikingly original picture book uses journal entries, funny postcards, and quirky cartoons to pull readers into an ancient unsolved mystery. Luminous paintings of the pyramids, informative sidebars and inventive collages, including authentic documents and archival photographs, help provide information and clues. When a secret tomb is uncovered, readers, along with Will, put together clues to discover: Whose tomb is this? Why was it hidden? And how can a mummy be missing from a sealed tomb?This illuminating book invites readers to participate in the process of archaeology as it provides a rare glimpse into the true stories that exist behind the objects in museums.The 5,000-Year-Old Puzzle is a 2003 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations


David R. Montgomery - 2007
    It is the root of our existence, supporting our feet, our farms, our cities. This fascinating yet disquieting book finds, however, that we are running out of dirt, and it's no laughing matter. An engaging natural and cultural history of soil that sweeps from ancient civilizations to modern times, Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations explores the compelling idea that we are—and have long been—using up Earth's soil. Once bare of protective vegetation and exposed to wind and rain, cultivated soils erode bit by bit, slowly enough to be ignored in a single lifetime but fast enough over centuries to limit the lifespan of civilizations. A rich mix of history, archaeology and geology, Dirt traces the role of soil use and abuse in the history of Mesopotamia, Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, China, European colonialism, Central America, and the American push westward. We see how soil has shaped us and we have shaped soil—as society after society has risen, prospered, and plowed through a natural endowment of fertile dirt. David R. Montgomery sees in the recent rise of organic and no-till farming the hope for a new agricultural revolution that might help us avoid the fate of previous civilizations.

When the Sky Fell: In Search of Atlantis


Rand Flem-Ath - 1995
    Scientific evidence, exciting new research, and the breakthrough discovery of an amazing Egyptian map prove without a doubt that this lost continent did exist...and reveal where its ruins can be found.But the fascinating truth about Atlantis also leads to a chilling conclusion about the environmental catastrophe that destroyed it. Now you can find out how the forces that shattered the first great civilization on Earth can happen again, bringing the end of the world to us all!

The Strange Case of the Walking Corpse: A Chronicle of Medical Mysteries, Curious Remedies, and Bizarre but True Healing Folklore


Nancy Butcher - 2004
    Nancy Butcher has gathered together some of the most unusual natural cures that have been proven effective today, and even throws in some unbelievable and-thankfully-abandoned therapies from times past.Filled with case histories of unique illnesses, historic documentation of strange medical practices, and the author's own insightful commentary, this book explains not only how to cure headaches, sleep better, and improve your sex life, but also that people with Cotard's syndrome actually believe they are dead.

The Ark Before Noah: Decoding the Story of the Flood


Irving Finkel - 2014
      Since the Victorian period, it has been understood that the story of Noah, iconic in the Book of Genesis, and a central motif in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, derives from a much older story that existed centuries before in ancient Babylon. But the relationship between the Babylonian and biblical traditions was shrouded in mystery. Then, in 2009, Irving Finkel, a curator at the British Museum and a world authority on ancient Mesopotamia, found himself playing detective when a member of the public arrived at the museum with an intriguing cuneiform tablet from a family collection. Not only did the tablet reveal a new version of the Babylonian Flood Story; the ancient poet described the size and completely unexpected shape of the ark, and gave detailed boat building specifications. Decoding this ancient message wedge by cuneiform wedge, Dr. Finkel discovered where the Babylonians believed the ark came to rest and developed a new explanation of how the old story ultimately found its way into the Bible. In The Ark Before Noah, Dr. Finkel takes us on an adventurous voyage of discovery, opening the door to an enthralling world of ancient voices and new meanings.

From Atlantis to the Sphinx


Colin Wilson - 1996
    In his astonishing new bestseller exploring the implications of these explosive new findings, Colin Wilson takes us on a grand tour of the knowledge amassed by researchers over the centuries to ask questions about mysteries that have puzzled humanity since Plato: Was there an ancient civilization destroyed by some great catastrophe whose survivors built the Sphinx some 10,500 years before Christ? If so, who were these people who had developed a highly advanced culture and who traveled the world from China to the South Pole (then free of ice)? Were they really so unique in their thinking, as Wilson suggests, that, compared with modern man, they were as alien as Martians? Via paleontology and ritual cannibalism, Wilson's tour through time and space sets out to reconstruct that ancient knowledge. In a fascinating exploration of the remote depths of history, From Atlantis to the Sphinx takes us from the structure of the pyramids and the purpose of their tortuous interior shafts, to the prehistoric cities of America by way of ancient sea maps apparently showing the outlines of Antarctica before it was covered by ice.

The Riddle of the Rosetta Stone


James Cross Giblin - 1990
    Packed with illustrations, engravings, and historical photographs, The Riddle of the Rosetta Stone is an informative yet accessible overview perfect for aspiring young Egyptologists, kids interested in archaeology, and students in grades 3 to 7.This ALA Notable Children's Book also includes excerpts from the translated text of the Rosetta Stone and a bibliography with suggestions for further reading, making it an ideal starting point for Ancient Egyptian research and reports.Supports the Common Core State Standards

The Fossil Trail: How We Know What We Think We Know about Human Evolution


Ian Tattersall - 1995
    Today we can see a recreation of the making of the Laetoli footprints at the American Museum of Natural History, in a stunning diorama which depicts two of our human forebears walking side by side through a snowy landscape of volcanic ash. But how do we know what these three-million-year-old relatives looked like? How have we reconstructed the eons-long journey from our first ancient steps to where we stand today? In short, how do we know what we think we know about human evolution? In The Fossil Trail, Ian Tattersall, the head of the Anthropology Department at the American Museum of Natural History, takes us on a sweeping tour of the study of human evolution, offering a colorful history of fossil discoveries and a revealing insider's look at how these finds have been interpreted--and misinterpreted--through time. All the major figures and discoveries are here. We meet Lamarck and Cuvier and Darwin (we learn that Darwin's theory of evolution, though a bombshell, was very congenial to a Victorian ethos of progress), right up to modern theorists such as Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould. Tattersall describes Dubois's work in Java, the many discoveries in South Africa by pioneers such as Raymond Dart and Robert Broom, Louis and Mary Leakey's work at Olduvai Gorge, Don Johanson's famous discovery of Lucy (a 3.4 million-year-old female hominid, some 40% complete), and the more recent discovery of the Turkana Boy, even more complete than Lucy, and remarkably similar to modern human skeletons. He discusses the many techniques available to analyze finds, from fluorine analysis (developed in the 1950s, it exposed Piltdown as a hoax) and radiocarbon dating to such modern techniques as electron spin resonance and the analysis of human mitochondrial DNA. He gives us a succinct picture of what we presently think our family tree looks like, with at least three genera and perhaps a dozen species through time (though he warns that this greatly underestimates the actual diversity of hominids over the past two million or so years). And he paints a vivid, insider's portrait of paleoanthropology, the dogged work in the broiling sun, searching for a tooth, or a fractured corner of bone, amid stone litter and shadows, with no guarantee of ever finding anything. And perhaps most important, Tattersall looks at all these great researchers and discoveries within the context of their social and scientific milleu, to reveal the insidious ways that the received wisdom can shape how we interpret fossil findings, that what we expect to find colors our understanding of what we do find. Refreshingly opinionated and vividly narrated, The Fossil Trail is the only book available to general readers that offers a full history of our study of human evolution. A fascinating story with intriguing turns along the way, this well-illustrated volume is essential reading for anyone curious about our human origins.