Product Description

This book is concerned with rediscovering ancient sites through new technology. By means of such technologies as satellite- and land-based remote sensing images, the author examines the history and cultures of 20 civilizations, either lost to us completely or remaining only as ruins or oblique references in literary works. Specially commissioned computer-generated imagery recreates the sites of which there is barely a trace, thus enabling us to visit the people, their possessions and the buildings they inhabited, in civilizations from Angkor Wat in Kampuchea to Mahram Bilqis in the Yemen and Tiwanaku in Bolivia.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #829852 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10-31
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 192 pages

Review
This is one of the most enterprising and intriguing books about ancient history to appear this year. It describes how hi-tech equipment has been used to investigate 20 sites of archaeological interest in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, with the aim of learning more about the people who created these mysterious cultures. Austen Atkinson is a consultant producer for the Channel 4 series Lost Worlds, and he has also contributed articles to The Sunday Times and to radio and TV documentaries. Never before, however, has he enjoyed access to technology such as radar images from Nasa, the Russian Space Agency and other organizations. These images give a space-eye view of sites that not only shows their layout but also reveals much more about the people who built them, the methods of construction and their placing in the landscape. The main focus throughout, as the book moves from Chichen Itza through Pompeii, Babylon and Angkor Wat, is on the lifestyles of the peoples who inhabited these ancient settlements. As Atkinson says, only by piecing together an image of living, thriving communities can we begin to appreciate the legacy that our ancestors handed on. In a readable style that will appeal to the academic and armchair reader alike, he draws on conversations with archaeologists and scientists to show what problems the people of old confronted, how they overcame them and how they went about day-to-day life. The illustrations are sumptuous, the never-before-published images the stuff of dreams. This is a book you will want to keep and treasure. (Kirkus UK)

Synopsis
This book is concerned with rediscovering ancient sites through new technology. By means of such technologies as satellite- and land-based remote sensing images, the author examines the history and cultures of 20 civilizations, either lost to us completely or remaining only as ruins or oblique references in literary works. Specially commissioned computer-generated imagery recreates the sites of which there is barely a trace, thus enabling us to visit the people, their possessions and the buildings they inhabited, in civilizations from Angkor Wat in Kampuchea to Mahram Bilqis in the Yemen and Tiwanaku in Bolivia.

About the Author
Austen Atkinson's most enduring passion is history, and he has had a life-long obsession with lost civilizations and cities. He is an author, journalist, television scriptwriter and producer. Since the late 1980s, Austen has worked with BBC Worldwide, Radio Four, Discovery Communications and The Family Channel. He is a frequent contributer to the Sunday Times.

Customer Reviews

Bringing the past to life
Atkinson investigates the history of 20 civilizations around the globe that survive only as ruins or rumours, examining various facets of these cultures like their religion, environment, architecture, etc. New techniques like satellite remote sensing mages are combined with architectural disciplines to reveal the secrets of the past.

Part One The Americas deals with The Anasazi, Chichen Itza, Machu Picchu and Tiwanaku. Part Two The Mediterranean deals with Atlantis (Thera/Santorini in the author's view), Halicarnassus, Helike, Knossos, Pompei and Troy. Part Three The Middle East deal with Babylon, Mahram Bilqis, Nimrud Persepolis, Ubar in Arabia and Ur in Mesopotamia. Part Four Asia investigates Angkor Wat, Anuradhapura and Mohenjo Daro.

The text includes quotes from leading scientists and archaeologists on the cultures concerned. The book includes a full colour map of the 20 cultures plus photographs and beautiful reproductions of works of art. There are also impressive computer generated images, like the Tower of Babel and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The book concludes with a glossary, a further reading list and index.