Love, War, and Diplomacy: The Discovery of the Amarna Letters and the Bronze Age World They Revealed

Love, War, and Diplomacy: The Discovery of the Amarna Letters and the Bronze Age World They Revealed by Eric H. Cline

I've enjoyed other books by the author, but this one did not pique my interest. The Amarna letters were tablets that had fairly extensive historical records of an ancient civilization. They were discovered a century ago. Alas, many were destroyed as the treasure collectors tried to maximize value. The book covers the work of the people that found and translated the tablets even more than the contents. It is an interesting story of "how archeology works", but it would be much more appreciated by a niche audience.

A World Beneath the Sands: The Golden Age of Egyptology

A World Beneath the Sands: The Golden Age of Egyptology by Toby A. H. Wilkinson

Egypt has been one of the centers of archaeological exploration and discovery. The climate allowed for preservation of ancient artifacts. The large scale structures like the pyramids show evidence of a grand civilization. The accounts in the Bible encouraged discovery. It was located close to Europe and well documented in Roman history. It seemed to have a lot going for it.  The Rosetta Stone helped enable understanding of the language and kicked things into high gear. Discoveries continue to come in spits and stutters. Both Britain and France laid claims to the area at a time when they were regularly in conflict with each other. Antiquities were gathered for various museums. Research was done in various manners, with some being more destructive. Eventually the "gentlemen explorers" transformed to professional archeologists. Egypt started to exert more control for itself. (Though at one time it had a huge western population with a a country more interested in showing its grandeur than providing for its people.) The book is an interesting account of the work of discovery in Egypt. It does not try to be "history" of ancient Egypt, but rather of the modern explorations and relations with the modern state.

The Indo-Europeans Rediscovered: How a Scientific Revolution is Rewriting Their Story

The Indo-Europeans Rediscovered: How a Scientific Revolution is Rewriting Their Story by J. P. Mallory

A mysterious group of "Indo Europeans" spoke a language that is the ancestor of almost half the world's native language. Where did this language come from? Where did the people live? Depending on how the facts are analyzed, very different conclusions can be drawn. Add in desire of some groups to show their ethnic superiority, and things get even more complicated. This book looks at various theories that have been proposed and why they are good and bad. I especially appreciated the examples given with "historical" language. Using some of the techniques used to locate the Indo-Europeans, you could get very misleading locations for the original English or Latin speakers. There are many possible options for a homeland. Is one of them valid? Or are there many? Alas, we don't have an answer sheet.

The Source: A Novel

The Source: A Novel by James A. Michener

The Source is a very long novel that attempts to tell the history of Israel and Judaism by focussing on one small city. It is framed by the story of an archeological dig. As they uncover more, the story goes into the stories of the lives of those living in the region. It begins with prehistoric times, goes to the birth of Judaism, the many conflicts, the rise of Christianity and finally to the modern Arab-Israeli conflict. It portrays Judaism as not being a static religion, but instead once that has changed to help maintain internal cohesion rather than widespread social acceptance. Christianity and Islam can be seen as branches that have changed instead to be "universal".

The Modern Scholar: The Dead Sea Scrolls: The Truth behind the Mystique

The Modern Scholar: The Dead Sea Scrolls: The Truth behind the Mystique by Lawrence H. Schiffman

There is as much mythology as fact involved with the Dead Sea Scrolls. There was some knowledge of the scrolls before they came to light. A boy did discover them when exploring will wandering in the area - however, he was of a family of relic hunters. The scrolls do have early Jewish history with Messianic prophecies. However, there is no identification of the New Testament data there. The "scrolls" are actually primarily fragments in various conditions.

The Dead Sea Scrolls do give us a view of a Jewish sect from a few millennia ago. They had many of the same records of the Old Testament. The condition was fairly similar to what we have today. They also had their own commentary and historical views. The scrolls allow us to view the society as they saw themselves back then without the interference of historical change. This provides interesting insights that are interesting to Jews and Christians. The professor in these lectures is clearly excited about the scrolls and presents a "big picture" view of some of the scrolls and what they can tell us, without going into excessive detail.

Digging Up Armageddon: The Search for the Lost City of Solomon

Digging Up Armageddon: The Search for the Lost City of Solomon by Eric H. Cline

Eric Cline has written many other books that describe details of ancient civilizations that archeologists have discovered. In this book, he focuses instead on the archeologists themselves. The focus is on the dig for "the lost city of Solomon". The site had many layers of artifacts, some of which are still being uncovered. 

Most of the work done was done between the world wards by Rockefeller-funding groups from the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago. These had plenty of problems working together. This is to be expected with people traveling across the world to spend huge amounts of time together working with others. Some people didn't get along. Others had extreme prejudices. Others were just a product of their time. Wives would often accompany the men, but did not do much work until the end. Some people just did not get along with each other. There were mixtures of local workers with out of towners. Great discoveries were made, but there were also plenty of mistakes made. The work came to an abrupt close due to World War II. The return was prevented by looting and damage to the site. 

The book was not what I had expected. It does, however provide a counterpoint to the archeology of Indiana Jones. These guys were working at the same time, but not quite the same glamor of those in the movie.

The Inca: Lost Civilizations

The Inca: Lost Civilizations by Kevin Lane

The Inca are an intriguing population. They had built up a great empire that only seemed to last a short time before it succumbed to the Spaniard guns and germs. The Inca had very little intercourse with other populations (in part due to their geography). Thus they developed many of the hallmarks of humanity (such as writing) in their own fashion. With the vast elevation changes in an equatorial region, they had a variety of climatic regions in a small geographic area.

This book on the Inca is written from a very academic style. Anthropologists and archeologists are given abundant credit for their insights. There is little concrete narrative on the life of Inca, but rather a scientific dissection of the various aspects of their society. This leads to some repetition with parts that fit in multiple categorizations.

Some areas that I found interesting included the fact that the Inca empire was relatively short lived. There were other civilizations that had grown up before. The Inca unified some close regions and had a strong empire for only a few generations. They also used means of moving people around to keep them in order. Road networks were fairly well established as was agriculture (especially potatoes).  The religion seems to not be very well understood, but it did include some human sacrifice. Dynastic leadership was quite complex with multiple aspects of inheritance and old clans "hanging on".

Motel of the Mysteries

Motel of the Mysteries by David Macaulay

I read this after hearing Eric Cline refer to it in his lectures on archeology. In this book, an area of the contemporary United States has had a cataclysmic event occur. A few millennia later archeologists discover a pristine motel. They make all sorts of inferences about it. They assume it is a burial chamber for the elite. Things like TVs, remote controls and toilets all have religious aspects. A toilet seat is seen as a fine piece of jewelry.  It makes us wonder how many wrong inferences we are drawing when excavating sites. Are we over assuming religious purposes? How do we know what is valuable or important?

Archaeology: An Introduction to the World's Greatest Sites

Archaeology: An Introduction to the World's Greatest Sites by Eric H. Cline

In these lectures, Eric Cline explores the key archeological sites around the world, while also providing background on the day in the life of an archaeologist. Alas, life is not nearly as fun as Indiana Jones would make us think. There is a lot of scrounging for money, and then hard work out and organization out in the field.  Many people will volunteer for the interesting digs. However, you also have to deal with disturbances - often looters ancient or modern. Many techniques are used to date finds. Underwater archeology is a newer subfield that can often find insights from preserved shipwrecks. 

The course explores some of the key areas that have been studied. Ancient Egypt and Biblical Areas get the most attention. However, there are many great archeological sites in the new world also. 

Some challenges with archeology are looters. Provenance is very important for artifacts. There is also significant efforts to discourage selling and looting. 

The Modern Scholar: History of Ancient Greece

The Modern Scholar: History of Ancient Greece by Eric H. Cline

The Minoan people of Crete appear to be the first cultural Greeks. The people spread to Greece and later spread to other areas with "colonies". Turkey and Sicily all had Greek connections. Sparta and Athens were connected to different areas. Many of the stories we hear of Greece have some basis in truth. Troy was uncovered and found to have many layers. (However, we likely guessed wrong at first.) There are still a number of guesses we have made regarding ancient Greece. What new things will we discover?

Looks like I also listened to these lectures a decade ago

Shipwrecked!: Diving for Hidden Time Capsules on the Ocean Floor

Ship wrecks tend to be very inaccessible, thus making them a rich store of archaeological information. While catastrophes on land are likely to be built over (or destroyed by elements), those at sea tend to stay there. They are much more difficult to access. Recent technology has enabled greater exploration of ship wrecks. It has enabled us to find out more about ancient civilizations and technology. (For instance, a Greek wreck had a millennias old computer.)

Even with new technology, some wrecks remain difficult to access (such as those in the Arctic.) It can often take considerable effort to find wrecks in order to explore them. Once found, the wrecks can help provide insight, but still require work to answer questions. (What caused an early submarine to sink, killing all the crew?) There are problem many other interesting discoveries can be made exploring shipwrecks.

Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age

Çatalhöyük,Pompeii,Angkor and Cahokia were both significant cities in their time. They all disappeared for various reasons. 

Pompeii (in modern Italy) was destroyed by volcano a couple millenia ago. The environs were uninhabitable and the area was abonded. This was in important part of the Roman empire at the time and we have contemporary historical records of the time.

Angkor, in modern Cambodia was the base of Khmer empire. It was a vast city with extensive infrastructure. After hundreds of years of strength, the city began to fade until it was sacked a half millennium ago. However, the central area remained a religious shrine. A number of reasons for the decline were speculated, included repeated climatic hits that wore on the region as well as changes in religious practices that changed the power structure. 

Çatalhöyükin modern Turkey flourished around 7000 BC. Much less is understood about this city than others. Most of the understanding is speculated based on the architectural discoveries. These discoveries tend to be heavily influenced by the opinions of the discoverers. It appears very egalitarian with little monumental architecture. However, there could be a hierarchy we just don't understand. 

Cahokia lies near modern St Louis and reached its apex around a millennium ago. It appeared to be a fairly large city at the time. Some people believe it was primarily a religious, rather than a commercial center. The weather conditions may have led to the eventual abandonment. 

The author ends by comparing these cities to the many cities that have changed in society. Cities are often not instantly abandoned, but gradually fade away. There may be many ebbs and flows in the process. After the Dot com bust in 2000, San Francisco looked to be dead. However, it recovered with a vengeance over the next two decades. Perhaps the midwestern cities like Detroit are gradually on their way to nothingness. People have been changing their living conditions for thousands of years and will continue to do so.

Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art

Kindred is a "popular" book written by an academic with extensive experience in Neanderthals. It is not as dense as a typical academic work. However, it is not an easy to access as a typical popular work. The writing is a fairly dense recitation of the "state of the art" in ancient hominid research, with small bits of narrative tied in.

Neanderthals lived in "recent" prehistoric times. There is fairly large amount of available fossil records. However, most of the work has been done by making inferences based on the state of the skeletons and the related material. Death rituals and eating habits can be more easily be determined by looking at the bones and those of related animals. However, we are somewhat constrained in dealing with the "well preserved" remains. Are sample may not represent the population as a whole.

Genetic analysis has made for some interesting discoveries. There has been interbreeding between humans and early Neanderthals. However, the later Neanderthals did not appear to mate with humans. There are a number of open questions as to what happened to Neanderthals. Did humans wipe them out? Are they a cautionary tale of what humans can do to each other and those that seem different?

Discovery of Ancient Civilizations

In Discovery of Ancient Civilizations, Brian Fagan focuses on the discoverers more than the discoveries. This is a journey that unravels in the way that it did for modern people. Starting in the 1800s, the focus was an Egypt. Gradually older civilizations had been discovered. The initial excavations were more akin to "looting" and many key insights were lost by the haphazard approach. However, if not for this earlier work, archeology would not have grown to what it is today, and we wouldn't have the more scientific approach to archeology. He praises some of the Chinese attitudes towards excavation. They are willing to wait until "later" to excavate an ancient site. Why rush now?

Using a "discovery" approach helps resolve some of the issues with narrating the many ancient civilizations that originated in diverse parts of the world. Much of the lectures focus on the middle-eastern societies (such as Egypt and Mesopotamia) that are more well known. America, India and China are covered in less detail, later in the lectures. These societies were discovered later and have not received the public recognition as have the others. However, they are still interesting and have many potential new discoveries.

This focus on the explorers also gives us more insight into the characters involved in the discovery. Because the information about these civilizations is sparse, the personality of the discoveries can have a huge impact on our understanding and opinion of the societies. Many artifacts have been lost from some ancient sites, so the ones that have been preserved and deemed valuable are crucial to our understanding. The predetermined views of the archaeologists can also determine what areas are searched and evaluated. Would we understand these societies differently if different people had been researching? And what if everyone was equally dedicated to writing. Those that write and speak eloquently can have a much greater influence.

While it would be nice to have a "history" of the ancient civilization, it is probably impossible for it to be totally objective. This "discoverers" approach helps to provide a more accurate understanding.

Human Prehistory and Early Civilization pt 2-3

This is a continuation of the first set of lectures. In these lectures, we do learn many times that the professor has had a classical education. But more important to the topic, we get the first episodes of herding animals and farming. These are treated as logical occurrences, rather than dramatic changes.

This delves into more of the "modern" prehistory. We get early europeans, Incas, Aztecs, early Chinese, etc. Some of the early societies built up huge, complex organizations. But often, something as simple as a climate change could lead it to all tumble down.

Since this is "prehistory" there is little in the way of written record. As such, a lot of what we "know" about the early societies is little more than guesswork. Perhaps some people had very advanced civilizations, yet fell to be totally unrecognized in the archeological record.

The professor follows a "5 paragraph essay" style for all his lectures. He tells us what he is going to tell us, he tells us, then he tells us what he told us. It makes the course slow moving. However, the content is quite interesting - even if it is ever-changing.

Ancestral voices: Decoding Ancient languages

This book goes through some of the major "decipherments" of ancient language. It covers them in the large historical basis, with stories starting centuries ago with the first hints of the "lost language". (And it is good that they start a while back, since the book itself is a few decades old.)

The author can be verbose, with a chatty, flowery language (even though it is a rather short book.) I have read better books that cover most of the same basic matter. However, this one does go in to more detail of the "long-range" history of identifying and then cracking ancient languages.

Myths and Mysteries in Archaeology

Frauds, Myths, & Mysteries Science & Pseudoscience in Archaeology 4th EDITION
These lectures provide a fairly balanced approach to "mysteries" and pseudo-discoveries in archaeology. She does a good job of presenting why science thinks some "stories" are false, yet still admits that there are still plenty of unknowns.

However, she is not afraid to come down hard on people that seem to show intentional ignorance of facts that they know. (Many "popular" writers and alien conspiracy theorists would fall in to this group.)

She spends some time covering Atlantis - which she sees as one of Plato's morality tales that somehow got twisted in its interpretation. Early residents of America were given a balanced treatment. The land bridge hypothesis seems fairly clear, but there are a lot of unknowns regarding various sites. There may have been other people that made it to America before Columbus. However, there is minimal proof for any other than the Vikings. (And for the Vikings there is another mystery of a Minnesota rune-stone.)

Stonehenge and Easter Island provide additional mysteries. Some studies have shown that they are possible. But there are still questions of "why?"

All in all, it is a good look at mysteries and frauds from the past and present, as well as an analysis of how science works and some of the deficiencies of scientific analysis.

Human Prehistory and the First Civilizations

The Teaching Company: Human Prehistory and the First Civilizations 18 Audio Cds with Course Outline Booklet (The Great Courses)
The lectures started out with a pronouncement of the superiority of modern archeological science, given in a British Elmer Fudd voice. Luckily, though there is a bit of cockiness, the lectures were fairly well done.

The first part deals primarily with the early prehistory that is "divined" from archeological data, augmented with dating and biochemical methods. Alas, the data is rather scarce, and the conclusions are, by nature, inconclusive. Our observations are based on the "hard" items that have survived. We can come to fairly broad conclusions of a migration out of Africa. However, there is plenty of controversy, with many theories being overhauled after new finds.

The population of America is particularly mysterious. Some people theorize a maritime population along the coasts. However, since the sea levels have risen significantly since the suspected period, these sights would be almost impossible to locate (and unlike to have much preserved.) The interior migration is more commonly accepted. However, this would involve migrating among glaciers.

Study of prehistory invariable involves making suppositions about motives based on simple remains. This brings the discoverer's view front and center. The views of the past are heavily colored by current world views and attitudes. They are also influenced by the type of artifacts that can survive. (If somebody dug up remains from our society 30,000 from now, they could find all the books and advanced technology biodegraded or pilfered and only uncover a few royal toys. What would they think of the society?)