The ancient world saw the birth and collapse of great civilizations. In mainstream history the Classical world is dominated by Greece and Rome, and the Biblical world is centred on the Hebrews. Yet the roughly four-and-a-half thousand years (4000 BC-AD 550) covered in this book saw many peoples come and go within the brawling, multi-cultural mass of humanity that occupied the ancient Middle East, Mediterranean and beyond. While a handful of ancient...

Ancient civilizations hid the secrets of their incredible knowledge of astronomy in their temples and palaces, built to align with the sun, on the same day, all over the world. Revealing humankind's obsession with the sun, across thousands of years and every continent, this is architectural magic on a cosmic scale.

A basic but enjoyable introduction to the study of the culture of the ancient Greeks and Romans, from the languages to literature, philosophy, art, and much more For those who didn't take Classics at school, or who have forgotten most of what they knew, this primer is a look back at classical civilization-how they lived, and how many aspects of our own daily lives have been directly influenced by theirs, from roads and concrete, to central heating,...

Disc 1. The lure of the city -- Catalhoyuk, first experiment in urban living -- Jericho and its walls -- Uruk, city of Gilgamesh -- Mysterious Mohenjo-daro -- Kahun, company town in the desert . Disc 2. Work and life at Deir el-Medina -- Amarna, revolutionary capital -- Knossos, palace, city, or temple? -- Akrotiri, Bronze Age Pompeii -- Mycenae, Tiryns, and the mask of Agamemnon -- Athens, civic buildings and civic identity. Disc 3. Athenian domestic...

The traces of much of human history - and that which preceded it - lie beneath the ocean surface. This is fertile ground for speculation, even myth-making, but also a topic on which geologists and climatologists have increasingly focused on in recent decades. This is the first book to present the science of submergence in a popular format. Patrick Nunn sifts the fact from the fiction, using the most up-to-date research to work out which submerged...

Prehistory is all around us. We just need to know where to look. Juan Jose Millas has always felt like he doesn't quite fit into human society. Sometimes he wonders if he is even a Homo sapiens at all, or something simpler. Perhaps he is a Neanderthal who somehow survived? So he turns to Juan Luis Arsuaga, one of the world's leading palaeontologists and a super-smart sapiens, to explain why we are the way we are and where we come from. Over the course...

"From the first cities of Sumer to the empire of the Incas, travel around the world and through 5,000 years of history in this illustrated guide to see where and how ancient peoples lived. From North America to New Zealand, this book takes you on a trip around the world and through history to visit ancient cities and empires, showing who lived where and explaining the unique features of each civilization. The Ancient Worlds Atlas is a pictorial...