Book Reviews

The Egyptian Book of the Dead was known in ancient Egypt as `The Book of Coming Forth by Day' and contains spells and prayers to help the deceased in navigating the safest route to the afterlife in the Field of Reeds. Composed c. 1550 BCE...

Ancient Egypt: An Illustrated Reference To the Myths, Religions, Pyramed And Temples Of The Land Of the Pharaohs by Lorna Oakes and Lucia Gahlin is among the best books on ancient Egypt I have ever read. The prose is light and well written...

The Silk Road was a network of trade routes, formally established during the Han Dynasty of China, which linked the regions of the ancient world in commerce. As the Silk Road was not a single thoroughfare from east to west, the term 'Silk...

Another heavyweight offering from the Oxford Handbook series which covers technology in the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations. As with other books in the series, each chapter is written by a specialist in their field giving a comprehensive...

In the 3rd century a girl of uncommon abilities was born in the desert wilderness of Syria. Rescued from death by her courageous mother, Zenobia masqueraded as a boy to stay alive. She grew up to become one of the toughest, deadliest women...

The names of John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood are forever linked to the Maya and Mayan studies as the two great explorers who documented the ruins from Copan in the south to Chichen Itza in the north. The stories told by Stephens...

The Maya of Mexico and Central America have continuously inhabited the lands comprising modern-day Yucatan, Quintana Roo, Campeche, Tabasco, and Chiapas in Mexico and southward through Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador and Honduras. The `Mysterious...

The Popol Vuh is a religious text of the Maya people. Written down between 1701 and 1703 by the Spanish priest Francisco Ximenez, from much older source material, the book tells the story of the creation of the world, of human beings, and...

The Hidden Life of the Ancient Maya by Clare Gibson is a very comprehensive and easy to read volume which covers key aspects of the Maya Civilization. Beautiful photographs of Mayan art and architecture accompany the text which provides accurate...

Kathleen Freeman was a writer who paid close attention to detail and was able to bring the past alive through her prose (as in her The Greek City States which is a personal favorite and highly recommended). In her Ancilla to Pre-Socratic...