Brilliant detective work by this French paleoanthropologist, who has studied Neanderthal traces from the Arctic to the Mediterranean and argues that their intelligence was different from our... read more
Explores the history of the translation of classical Greek literature into Latin. Far from being inevitable, as it seems seen from the C21st, the Roman adoption of Hellenic classics was an e... read more
A zesty account of archaeological wizardry, from Champollion's decipherment of hieroglyphics in 1822 to the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb by Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon.
Explores the growth of Greek medicine from the early references in Homer to the flowering its Hippocrates and subsequent influence on the Islamic world and early modern Europe.
This is not the Alexandria in the Nile Delta, but rather Alexandria 'Beneath the Mountains', in Afghanistan, discovered by a wandering scholar and archaeologist called Charles Masson in 1833... read more
Just 28 when he found Nineveh, Layard later witnessed the Charge of the Light Brigade and reported on the Indian Mutiny: his life was action-packed. This new biog argues that he was deeply r... read more
The distinguished archaeologist looks at 15 'scenes' in Britain over the last million years, to understand the changing daily routines of people and their impact on the landscape.
SJ, a Swedish linguist, draws on recent research to argue that, rather than being something peculiar to Homo sapiens, language may have in fact originated among the Neanderthals.
An investigation of the people behind the art: how did the Greeks and Romans view their own bodies? What were their ideas of perfection and ugliness and how were these used in art? Some illu... read more
Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt was the French archaeologist who, in the 1960s, faced down both de Gaulle and Nasser to dismantle and move a dozen temples - including the vast Abu Simbel - t... read more