Product Description

Readers can delve into the awesome world of archaeology to discover sinister tombs, sunken wrecks and hidden caves. This dead interesting guide has bucketfuls of archaeological facts and hilarious cartoons|

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #45298 in Books
• Published on: 2009-05-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

Customer Reviews

A good fun intro to scratchin' in the dirt...
This an entertaining introduction to the art and science of archaeology. It's accurate (as far as it goes) and gets the message across in cartoons and friendly, fun to read text. Aimed at ages about ten years and up, it enthuses with abandon and get a good mix between the real science (carbon-14 dating, ground penetrating radar), interpretation of finds (what am I looking at - a bone or a stick?), and the desktop analysis before and after a dig. Throw in a mummy or two, some skulls, treasure, buried bodies - all the good stuff is here. Also mentions the role of the amateur - eg, Schliemann who found the city of Troy (remember the Trojan Horse?) by reading Homer's ancient Greek legends and then draped his wife in the gold and jewels he found. Good old Heinrich. Enormously enjoyable.

`This `dead interesting' guide is the perfect read if you `dig' old places and want to unearth some secrets!'
`First came ruthless treasure hunters seeking ancient plunder.
Next there were heroes who found the secrets (and curses) of long-forgotten tombs.
Now we use computers to bring the past to life.

Follow daring underwater archaeologists into the cave of death, discover a person's face from their skull and uncover the grisly secrets of bog bodies and prehistoric poo'.
Plus `delve' into the past yourself with our guide to being a time detective.

If you have read the `Horrible Science' series of books, you will be aware of the way in which Nick Arnold puts knowledge across, in a humorous way. This book is no exception.

`Archaeology is dead awesome.......that's because it is about dead people and how they lived in the past. It's about dead ruins - overgrown and abandoned to the bats and snakes, or buried in the earth.............And when archaeologists dig up ancient remains they come as close as anyone can to bringing dead people to life and talking to them about the past.
Of course, archaeologists don't `really' chatter to skeletons or mumble to mummies - if they did you might think there was something odd about them.........'

The colourful, humorous cover opens to 158 pages, split over 10 chapters:-

Introduction
Dodgy diggers
Secret sites
Enormous excavations
Murky marine archaeology
Terrible tombs
Dead interesting people
Fascinating finds
Revealing reconstructions
Epilogue: No future in the past?

Black and white illustrations/cartoons throughout.