The Assyriologist George Smith (1840-76) was trained originally as an engraver, but was enthralled by the discoveries of Layard and Rawlinson. He taught himself cuneiform script, and joined the British Museum as a 'repairer' of broken cuneiform tablets. Promotion followed, and after one of Smith's most significant discoveries among the material sent to the Museum - a Babylonian story of a great flood - he was sent to the Middle East, where he found more inscriptions which contained other parts of the epic tale of Gilgamesh. In 1875, he published a history of Assyria for the 'Ancient History...

A pioneering Egyptologist, Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie (1853 1942) excavated over fifty sites and trained a generation of archaeologists. In this 1909 handbook, ranging in coverage from the prehistoric period to the Roman era, he examines a sample of the work of Egyptian painters, sculptors and diverse craftsmen, touching on such topics as statuary, architecture, jewellery, pottery and textiles. Beginning with a discussion of the meteorological, religious and political factors that influenced Egyptian artistic responses, the book contains 140 illustrations of the most striking works...

The archaeologist D. G. Hogarth (1862 1927) was, when he died, keeper of the Ashmolean Museum and president of the Royal Geographical Society. He was instrumental in launching T. E. Lawrence's career, employing him at Carchemish and encouraging him to learn Arabic. This book, published in 1896 and described by Lawrence as 'one of the best travel books ever written', relates a journey through Ottoman Turkey, with additional chapters on Egypt and Cyprus. It combines a highly readable account of the practicalities and pitfalls of archaeology with Hogarth's (often unsympathetic) opinions on...

The archaeologist D. G. Hogarth (1862 1927) was, when he died, keeper of the Ashmolean Museum and president of the Royal Geographical Society, whose gold medal he was also awarded. This 1910 book is his account of various episodes in his career from 1897, when he covered the Cretan revolt against Turkey for The Times, to his 1907 excavations in Asyut, Egypt. A mixture of travel writing and archaeological reporting the volume also contains an academic report on the excavation of Carchemish this book, a follow-up to his A Wandering Scholar in the Levant (also reissued in this series), and...

A pioneering Egyptologist, Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie (1853 1942) excavated over fifty sites and trained a generation of archaeologists. Originally published between 1902 and 1904 for the Egypt Exploration Fund, this three-volume set of reports documents the excavations that Petrie initiated at one of ancient Egypt's most sacred sites, the necropolis at Abydos. These reports follow on from the findings published in The Royal Tombs of the First Dynasty (1900) and The Royal Tombs of the Earliest Dynasties (1901), both of which are reissued in this series. Volume 1 presents a detailed...

A pioneering Egyptologist, Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie (1853 1942) excavated over fifty sites and trained a generation of archaeologists. Originally published between 1902 and 1904 for the Egypt Exploration Fund, this three-volume set of reports documents the excavations that Petrie initiated at one of ancient Egypt's most sacred sites, the necropolis at Abydos. These reports follow on from the findings published in The Royal Tombs of the First Dynasty (1900) and The Royal Tombs of the Earliest Dynasties (1901), both of which are reissued in this series. Volume 2 accounts for the...

A pioneering Egyptologist, Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie (1853 1942) excavated over fifty sites and trained a generation of archaeologists. His meticulous recording of artefacts and his sequence dating of pottery types found in Egypt and Palestine made Near Eastern archaeology a more rigorous and scientific discipline. This fully illustrated report of 1900 on the royal tombs at Abydos, capital of Upper Egypt, covers the first dynasty (c.3100 c.2900 BCE). Although Petrie acknowledges that it is only a preliminary report of ongoing work, he gives detailed descriptions of six tombs and the...

Among the leading Egyptologists of his day, Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie (1853 1942) excavated over fifty sites and trained a generation of archaeologists. This single-volume reissue brings together two of his well-illustrated excavation reports. The first, originally published in 1896, covers the work undertaken in 1893 4 at Koptos (modern-day Qift), a key settlement in Upper Egypt on the Nile's east bank. This includes a chapter on classical inscriptions by David George Hogarth (1862 1927). The second report, first published in 1909, discusses recent archaeological work around Qurna...

Sir Arthur John Evans (1851 1941) famously excavated the ruins of Knossos on Crete and uncovered the remains of its Bronze Age Minoan civilisation (as described in his multi-volume work The Palace of Minos at Knossos, also reissued in this series). But he had already visited the island prior to this: in 1894, during his first trip, he found examples of an ancient pictographic writing system that pre-dated the Phoenician alphabet later adapted by the Greeks. First published in 1895, this work, illustrated with examples throughout, documents and describes these discoveries, and demonstrates...

A pioneering Egyptologist, Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie (1853 1942) excavated over fifty sites and trained a generation of archaeologists. Now reissued in two volumes are the four excavation reports, published between 1931 and 1934, covering his extensive dig at Tell el-Ajjul in Palestine. The reports scrupulously record the finds of artefacts dating from the Copper Age and extending to the Hyksos period. Descriptions of the working party's struggles against malaria and the elements highlight Petrie's devotion to his work. Volume 1 combines the first two reports, first published in...