Bücher der Reihe Cambridge Library Collection - Archaeology

Desire Charnay (1828-1915) explored the ancient cities of Mexico and Central America, producing an informative account that surveys art, pyramid architecture, ancient customs and history based upon extant sources. This work, translated into English from French in 1887, remains valuable to scholars of Latin American history and archaeology.

In this highly illustrated work, published in 1901, Sir Arthur Evans (1851-1941), the great excavator of ancient Cretan culture, surveys the archaeological evidence for a common form of religious worship connected with symbols of sacred stones, pillars and trees found on Mycenaean Crete and in other ancient Mediterranean cultures.

This 1904 work presents a tablet, buried under the wall of a city founded by Tukulti-Ninib I (who reigned in the thirteenth century BCE) to commemorate his military achievements, including the invasion of Babylonia. It gives an introduction on the tablet, the cuneiform text and a parallel translation, along with an appendix of related documents.

In this 1907 work, Sayce begins with the history of the decipherment of cuneiform, and goes on to describe what the tablets reveal of political and trade interactions among the different nations of the Near East and Asia Minor, and the relevance of these discoveries to Old Testament studies.

Reissued in its 1845 second edition, this illustrated work by George Petrie (1790-1866) helped cement his reputation as a founding father of Irish archaeology. Its theories about the origin and uses of Irish round towers have been refined but broadly accepted by modern scholars of ecclesiastical architecture.

The archaeologist D. G. Hogarth was, during the First World War, acting director of the Cairo Arab Bureau, and later became president of the Royal Geographical Society. His 1902 survey of the Near East's contemporary political and commercial significance describes the condition of the region in the build-up to the conflict.

The archaeologist D.G. Hogarth (1862-1927) became acting director of the Cairo Arab Bureau during the First World War, and, later, president of the Royal Geographical Society. This account of his early experiences in Ottoman Turkey, Egypt, and Cyprus illuminates the close relationship between archaeology and politics in the period.

Sir Arthur Evans (1851-1941) discovered Minoan civilisation on Crete through his excavations at Knossos. This multi-volume excavation report, published between 1921 and 1935, was pioneering. With the help of his half-sister, Joan Evans (1893-1977), he published this thorough index in 1936.

William Hutton, a Birmingham bookseller, published his History of Birmingham (also reissued in this series) in his late fifties. Hutton was also famous for his walking exploits, which led to his 1801 expedition to Hadrian's Wall, and his 1802 account, of which the 1813 second edition is reissued here.

The bulk of this 1929 work is an alphabetical list of the buildings, streets and geographical features in ancient Rome mentioned by ancient authors and/or discovered by more recent exploration and excavation of the ruins, with details about literary and historical references, and about the original and any surviving structure.

This 1900 work, in a series intended to present knowledge of the more important facts in the history of the Near Eastern civilisations, is scholarly, but written for a popular audience, and remains of relevance to anyone interested in studying the everyday lives of ordinary people in this ancient society.

This 1894 work is an introduction to the world of ancient Assyria. Beginning with the geography of Mesopotamia and with the early archaeological discoveries in the region, Sayce next describes the decipherment of the cuneiform inscriptions and tablets, before describing religion, literature, and what can be deduced about everyday life.

This 1921 narrative begins in the prehistoric period, suggesting that the inhospitable landscape and climate dissuaded large-scale permanent settlement until the first hermit and monastic communities of the Christian era (although the Egyptians had been drawn there by resources of turquoise and copper), and continues down to the nineteenth century.

This 1895 work considers the history of Palestine in the context of new archaeological material coming to light in the course of the nineteenth century. Sayce's approach opposed the 'higher criticism' of the Old Testament; in his opinion, 'in the narrative of the Pentateuch we have history and not fiction'.

Gottlieb Schumacher (1857-1925) was an American-born German civil engineer and archaeologist who was influential in the early archaeological explorations of Palestine. First published in 1888, this volume contains the results of a survey of the Golan Heights and describes the geography, culture and archaeological remains of the region.

C. T. Newton (1816-1894) was celebrated for his excavation of the tomb of Mausolus of Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. This account from 1865 describes his archaeological investigations along the coast of Turkey between 1852 and 1859. Volume 2 covers the years 1855-1859.

Alfred Percival Maudslay (1850-1931) was a British archaeologist who is widely considered the founder of modern Mesoamerican archaeology. First published in 1899, this volume documents Maudslay's last expedition to Guatemala with his wife Anne Cary Maudsley, and contains detailed descriptions of the archaeological sites he had previously excavated.

Brown outlines best practice for the preservation of monuments and architectural and natural beauty. The second part, based on extensive secondary literature and official documentation, sets out how other countries run their historic monuments: in Europe, India, the Middle East and the United States.

Hermann Vollrat Hilprecht (1859-1925) was a leading German-American archaeologist and Assyriologist. This generously illustrated book, first published in 1904, describes the early British, French and American excavations in Assyria and Babylon during the nineteenth century. It provides a valuable retrospective account and evaluation of the archaeological beginnings of Assyriology.

Born in Scotland, James Fergusson (1808-86) spent ten years as an indigo planter in India before embarking upon a second career as an architectural historian. This illustrated 1865 work, containing two lectures, presents his controversial views on the location of important religious buildings in Jerusalem.

This highly influential work, first published in 1849, is a translation of Jens Worsaae's important account of excavations and discoveries in Denmark. It was reworked by William J. Thoms to guide future excavations in Britain, where there were many useful similarities among finds and architectural remains from the Dark Ages especially.

William Martin Leake (1777-1860) was a British military officer and classical scholar. First published in 1821, this volume contains Leake's pioneering topographical reconstruction of ancient Athens. This book was regarded as authoritative for the structures of ancient Athens for most of the nineteenth century.

Sir Ernest Alfred Thompson Wallis Budge (1857-1934) was a prominent English Egyptologist and scholar of Assyrian. This 1880 publication is a compilation of cuneiform inscriptions about the Assyrian king Esarhaddon (reigned c.681-669 BCE), with transliterations and English translations. It was the first scholarly study of this king.

From the finds in early cave shelters to the sophisticated metal and ceramic wares found in Bronze Age settlements and burials, this highly illustrated 1909 work by Eric Peet demonstrates the development of prehistoric society in a region generally much better known for the later achievements of the Romans.

This 1915 work describes Thompson's life 'in the field' at various sites in Egypt, the Sudan and western Asia. The difficulties and dangers of travel, the encounters with local people, the management of an excavation, and the fascinating 'trade of archaeology' are all described with enthusiasm and in melodramatic terms.

An Anglican clergyman, archaeologist and botanist, Clarence Bicknell (1842-1918) settled on the Ligurian Riviera and studied in depth the thousands of Bronze Age petroglyphs he found in the Vallee des Merveilles. This 1913 work, the first thorough guidebook to the region, features numerous illustrations of the remarkable rock engravings.