F. W. Hasluck (1878 1920) was an English archaeologist interested in the history of Asia Minor. Based in the British School of Athens for much of his career, he was appointed Assistant Director of the School between 1911 and 1915. After assisting with a survey of the city of Cyzicus and its surrounding area between 1902 and 1906, he published this history of the city as part of the Cambridge Archaeological and Ethnological Series in 1910. By charting the processes affecting the city from ancient to contemporary times, Hasluck provides an overall interpretation of its transformation through...

The Italian adventurer Giovanni Belzoni (1778 1823) is one of the most colourful and notorious figures in Egyptology. After the Napoleonic invasion of Egypt, European interest in the country, and especially in its antiquities, led to a demand for artifacts, the larger the better. Belzoni happened to be pursuing his two careers, as circus strong-man and hydraulic engineer, in Egypt in 1815, when he was asked to organise the transport of a 7-ton statue of Ramesses II from Thebes to the British Museum. After the success of this enterprise, he turned his attention to the discovery of other...

Sir Austen Henry Layard (1817 1894) was one of the leading British archaeologists of the nineteenth century. His excavations provided important evidence about ancient Mesopotamia, particularly about the Assyrian civilisation, and his books - part travel writing, part specialised archaeological studies - are beautifully evocative. First published in 1853, this two-volume study follows the earlier Nineveh and its Remains (1849). It describes Layard's second expedition to the Near East, in 1845, which led to the identification of Kouyunjik as the great Assyrian capital Nineveh. In this richly...

Sir Austen Henry Layard (1817 1894) was one of the leading British archaeologists of the nineteenth century. His excavations provided important evidence about ancient Mesopotamia, particularly about the Assyrian civilisation, and his books - part travel writing, part specialised archaeological studies - are beautifully evocative. First published in 1853, this two-volume study follows the earlier Nineveh and its Remains (1849). It describes Layard's second expedition to the Near East, in 1845, which led to the identification of Kouyunjik as the great Assyrian capital Nineveh. In this richly...

Where is Troy? For Heinrich Schliemann (1822 1890) the search for its exact location became a consuming passion. In 1869, when this book was first published, the existence of a real - as opposed to mythical - Troy was still disputed. The wealthy German businessman, linguist and speculator journeyed to Greece and Asia Minor in order to undertake excavations well before archaeology developed into a modern, scientific profession. This book describes his first expedition in 1868 to Corfu, Cephalonia, the Peloponnese and Ithaca. Schliemann was convinced that the mound of Hissarlik in Turkey was...

Heinrich Schliemann (1822 1890) published Mycenae, an account of his archaeological excavations of the ancient Greek cities of Mycenae and Tiryns, in 1878. Schliemann's astonishing finds revealed that the cities had a historical reality outside Homeric epic. His excavations uncovered many priceless treasures, most famously the 'death mask of Agamemnon' and the shaft graves, filled with pottery, carved stones, skeletons, gold, jewellery and weaponry. He also uncovered much about the layout and architecture of the two lost cities. The volume is generously illustrated with images of artefacts,...

Alfred Percival Maudslay (1850 1931) was a British colonial administrator and archaeologist who is widely considered the founder of modern Mesoamerican archaeology. After graduating from Trinity Hall, Cambridge, in 1872 Maudslay made his first visit to Guatemala before becoming a colonial administrator working in Trinidad and Fiji. After retiring from colonial service in 1880 he returned to Guatemala and began exploring and excavating major Mayan sites including Chichen Itza, Copan, Palanque and Quirigua. Maudsley pioneered scientific exploration and recording of these monuments, using...

Bernal Diaz del Castillo (1492 1584) was a foot soldier in the army of Mexico's conqueror Hernan Cortes, and participated in the campaigns that led to the fall of the Aztec empire in 1521. This 1928 translation of his journals derives from the 1904 edition by the Mexican historian Genaro Garcia - the first edition based on the original manuscript. Written as a corrective to accounts that overemphasised Cortes' exploits, Diaz's epic focuses on the experiences of the common soldier. The most complete contemporary chronicle of the Mexican conquest, this important historical document is also a...

Bernal Diaz del Castillo (1492 1584) was a foot soldier in the army of Mexico's conqueror Hernan Cortes, and participated in the campaigns that led to the fall of the Aztec empire in 1521. This 1928 translation of his journals derives from the 1904 edition by the Mexican historian Genaro Garcia - the first edition based on the original manuscript. Written as a corrective to accounts that overemphasised Cortes' exploits, Diaz's epic focuses on the experiences of the common soldier. The most complete contemporary chronicle of the Mexican conquest, this important historical document is also a...

Bernal Diaz del Castillo (1492 1584) was a foot soldier in the army of Mexico's conqueror Hernan Cortes, and participated in the campaigns that led to the fall of the Aztec empire in 1521. This 1928 translation of his journals derives from the 1904 edition by the Mexican historian Genaro Garcia - the first edition based on the original manuscript. Written as a corrective to accounts that overemphasised Cortes' exploits, Diaz's epic includes the experiences of the common soldier: hardship, thirst, long marches and unexpected attacks by rebels. The most complete contemporary chronicle of the...