Gods, Graves & Scholars: The Story of Archaeology 
asked by potato on November 9, 2006 12:36 PM
C.W. Ceram visualized archeology as a wonderful combination of high adventure, romance, history and scholarship, and this book, a chronicle of man's search for his past, reads like a dramatic narrative. We travel with Heinrich Schliemann as, defying the ridicule of the learned world, he actually unearths the remains of the ancient city of Troy. We share the excitement of Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter as they first glimpse the riches of Tutankhamen's tomb, of George Smith when he found the ancient clay tablets that contained the records of the Biblical Flood. We rediscover the ruined splendors of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the wonders of the ancient wold; of Chichen Itza, the abandoned pyramids of the Maya: and the legendary Labyrinth of tile Minotaur in Crete. Here is much of the history of civilization and the stories of the men who rediscovered it.
Reviews
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If there's an archeologist inside you struggling to get out, here's an inspiring book.
This is an old book and much has happened in the field since its publication, but since this book presents the stories behind past archeological discoveries, that is not a crucial weakness.
It's great strength is the writing. Author C.W. Ceram (actually German journalist Kurt Wilhelm Marek) has a knack for turning drudgery into the sort of adventure that stirs the romantic dreamer in us. An intellectual's idea of adventure.
I haven't been the same since I first read it.
This is an old book and much has happened in the field since its publication, but since this book presents the stories behind past archeological discoveries, that is not a crucial weakness.
It's great strength is the writing. Author C.W. Ceram (actually German journalist Kurt Wilhelm Marek) has a knack for turning drudgery into the sort of adventure that stirs the romantic dreamer in us. An intellectual's idea of adventure.
I haven't been the same since I first read it.
reviewed by mountaindew on November 23, 2006 11:27 AM
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Nice, fun, but superficial book which makes heroes of treasure hunters who destroyed half of the artifacts that they were digging for because of poor technique, put thousands of years old treasure around their wife's neck to take a picture, and secretly smuggled entire treasures out of the country where they were found (read: Schliemann). Does not mention scholars who built their work on other scholars' work but took all the credit. This would be a good book for a child under 12, but for anyone older than that, it is too much "popular" and not enough "science" and does make heroes out of antiheroes.
reviewed by bugger on November 23, 2006 4:08 PM
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This wonderful book was first published in 1953. Fifty years of new archeological discoveries and theories had elapsed.
Nevertheless it stands, undiminished, as magnificent introduction to Archeology and the Worlds of the Past: Egypt, Sumeria, Greece and Yucatan.
Mr. Ceram (pen name of the author) writes passionately about his subject.
The reader starts a discovery travel going along with amazing characters: with Schliemann in his search of Troy; with Champollion in search of the key for reading Egyptian hieroglyphs; with Carter and Howard for the unearthing of Tutankhamen's tomb. The list continues jumping from one era to other; from one continent to a different and distant one. They constitute a heterogeneous bunch united by a burning desire for knowledge, wild imagination and undaunted persistence to make their dreams real.
I first read this work when I was seventeen and discovering Europe. It helped me a lot to understand and appreciate the archeological treasures of European museums and sites.
It also instilled in me an unstoppable desire to "be there". In my adult years, I was fortunate to visit some of those places and always before starting a journey I went back to reread "Gods, Graves and Scholars".
One more feature: at the end of the book you will find useful chronologies, maps and genealogic charts, which will aid the reader to visualize easily the events described.
A book to enjoy and start a romance with the origins of our culture.
Reviewed by Max Yofre.
Nevertheless it stands, undiminished, as magnificent introduction to Archeology and the Worlds of the Past: Egypt, Sumeria, Greece and Yucatan.
Mr. Ceram (pen name of the author) writes passionately about his subject.
The reader starts a discovery travel going along with amazing characters: with Schliemann in his search of Troy; with Champollion in search of the key for reading Egyptian hieroglyphs; with Carter and Howard for the unearthing of Tutankhamen's tomb. The list continues jumping from one era to other; from one continent to a different and distant one. They constitute a heterogeneous bunch united by a burning desire for knowledge, wild imagination and undaunted persistence to make their dreams real.
I first read this work when I was seventeen and discovering Europe. It helped me a lot to understand and appreciate the archeological treasures of European museums and sites.
It also instilled in me an unstoppable desire to "be there". In my adult years, I was fortunate to visit some of those places and always before starting a journey I went back to reread "Gods, Graves and Scholars".
One more feature: at the end of the book you will find useful chronologies, maps and genealogic charts, which will aid the reader to visualize easily the events described.
A book to enjoy and start a romance with the origins of our culture.
Reviewed by Max Yofre.
reviewed by oden on November 28, 2006 3:46 AM