Gods

First published in German in 1949, this history of archaeology tells how ancient civilizations were recovered in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Ceram follows the excavations and decipherments associated with Pompeii, Troy and Mycenae, Egypt's tombs and hieroglyphs, Mesopotamia and the Bible lands, Crete, and the Maya, treating each as a narrative of discovery. The figures are excavators, linguists, and patrons rather than a single hero. He explains what was found and how it changed the picture of the ancient world. The book is popular narrative history of the discipline, not a field manual or a catalogue of objects.

Bound in blue buckram, cover blocked with a silver design by Simon Brett. Blue slipcase.