The Great Archaeologists

Controversial figures such as Heinrich Schliemann of Troy fame and the Aurel Stein, plunderer of ancient manuscripts from Central Asia, are reassessed. Little-known pioneers such as Max Uhle in Peru and Li Chi in China are set beside the giants in the field – from Lepsius, Mariette and Carter in Egypt, and Koldewey, Dörpfeld and Woolley in the Near East, to Stephens and Catherwood, discoverers of the Maya of Mexico, and Louis and Mary Leakey, who transformed knowledge of our African ancestry. Other indomitable women here include Gertrude Bell, explorer of Arabia and Iraq, Kathleen Kenyon, the excavator of Jericho, and the script-decipherer Tatiana Proskouriakoff.

Imaginatively chosen illustrations range from photographs of the archaeologists and their sites, original drawings and field notebooks, to images of the famous objects that were unearthed.

English

2014

304 Pages

19,50 x 25,50 cm