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The discovery of material remains from the recent or the ancient past has always been a source of fascination, but the development of archaeology as an academic discipline which interpreted such finds is relatively recent. It was the work of Winckelmann at Pompeii in the 1760s which first revealed the potential of systematic excavation to scholars and the wider public. Pioneering figures of the nineteenth century such as Schliemann, Layard and Petrie transformed archaeology from a search for ancient artifacts, by means as crude as using gunpowder to break into a tomb, to a science which drew from a wide range of disciplines - ancient languages and literature, geology, chemistry, social history - to increase our understanding of human life and society in the remote past.

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150 results in Cambridge Library Collection - Archaeology

Page 1 of 8

Narrative of a Residence in Koordistan, and on the Site of Ancient Nineveh
  • With Journal of a Voyage down the Tigris to Bagdad and an Account of a Visit to Shirauz and Persepolis
  • Volume 2
  • Claudius James Rich
  • Published online:
    05 June 2016
    Print publication:
    25 September 2014
    First published in:
    1836
  • Well versed in oriental languages and antiquities, and possessed of an 'insatiable thirst for seeing new countries', Claudius James Rich (1786/7–1821), the East India Company's resident at Baghdad, set out for Kurdistan in 1820 despite his delicate health. Before he succumbed to cholera the following year, he had visited and described many historic locations in present-day Iraq and Iran. His written account has long stood as an important early record of the region's geography, culture and archaeology. This two-volume work was edited by his widow and published, with maps and other illustrations, in 1836. Rich's Narrative of a Journey to the Site of Babylon in 1811 (1839), including his two archaeological memoirs, is also reissued in this series. Volume 2, including descriptions of the site of ancient Nineveh, covers the return to Baghdad. Extracts from various letters give an account of Rich's journeys to Shiraz and Persepolis.

Ruins of Desert Cathay
  • Personal Narrative of Explorations in Central Asia and Westernmost China
  • Volume 1
  • M. Aurel Stein
  • Published online:
    05 June 2016
    Print publication:
    02 October 2014
    First published in:
    1912
  • In this two-volume work, published in 1912, the Hungarian-born archaeologist Marc Aurel Stein (1862–1943) describes his second expedition to the deserts of Chinese Turkestan in 1906–8. (His account of his first expedition, Sand-Buried Ruins of Khotan (1903), is also reissued in this series.) Stein intended this account to be read by non-specialists, and, like his previous book, it is highly illustrated and full of interesting details about his journey and the people he met en route, as well as of the important archaeological discoveries which still link his name with the civilisation of this remote and dangerous area. In Volume 1, Stein describes the problems of setting up the expedition and the excitement and perils of the route, which took him through the tribal areas of the North-West Frontier and the kingdom of Afghanistan, ending with his arrival at the western extremity of the Great Wall of China.

Assyria
  • From the Earliest Times to the Fall of Nineveh
  • George Smith
  • Published online:
    05 June 2016
    Print publication:
    25 September 2014
    First published in:
    1875
  • 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 from the Monuments' series. Using biblical accounts as well as the Akkadian documents in clay and stone then being excavated in the area, Smith traces the history of the Assyrian empire from its origins until the fall of Nineveh in 612 BCE. Several other books by Smith are also reissued in this series.

Ruins of Desert Cathay
  • Personal Narrative of Explorations in Central Asia and Westernmost China
  • Volume 2
  • M. Aurel Stein
  • Published online:
    05 June 2016
    Print publication:
    25 September 2014
    First published in:
    1912
  • In this two-volume work, published in 1912, the Hungarian-born archaeologist Marc Aurel Stein (1862–1943) describes his second expedition to the deserts of Chinese Turkestan in 1906–8. (His account of his first expedition, Sand-Buried Ruins of Khotan (1903), is also reissued in this series.) Stein intended this account to be read by non-specialists, and, like his previous book, it is highly illustrated and full of interesting details about his journey and the people he met en route, as well as of the important archaeological discoveries which still link his name with the civilisation of this remote and dangerous area. In Volume 2, Stein describes the discovery of the caves near the great trading post of Dunhuang which contained - walled up and almost perfectly preserved - manuscripts, sculptures, silk cloths, and the Diamond Sutra, the earliest complete and dated example of a printed book, hidden by Buddhist monks nine hundred years previously.

A Commentary on the Cuneiform Inscriptions of Babylonia and Assyria
  • Including Readings of the Inscription on the Nimrud Obelisk, and a Brief Notice of the Ancient Kings of Nineveh and Babylon
  • Henry Creswicke Rawlinson
  • Published online:
    05 June 2016
    Print publication:
    25 September 2014
    First published in:
    1850
  • This publication released to a wider audience the work on Assyrian inscriptions of Sir Henry Rawlinson (1810–95), who had begun his career in the East India Company in Persia and Afghanistan, where his exceptional linguistic skills were recognised. He had been studying the monumental, trilingual (in Old Persian, Elamite and Babylonian) Behistun inscription of Darius the Great since 1836, and, building on the earlier research of Georg Friedrich Grotefend, delivered a summary of his progress in decipherment to the Royal Asiatic Society early in 1850. He intended to follow it up with a longer book, but was anxious to gain credit for primacy (which was questioned at the time and still remains controversial), and so published this short work in March 1850. It states Rawlinson's theories, and offers a linguistic and archaeological background to his work, along with his interpretation of king lists and other inscriptions.

Travels and Researches in Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Chaldea, and Armenia
  • Volume 1
  • William F. Ainsworth
  • Published online:
    05 June 2016
    Print publication:
    12 November 2015
    First published in:
    1842
  • The surgeon William Ainsworth (1807–96) acted as the geologist of the 1835 Euphrates Expedition, his account of which is also reissued in this series. Great interest was aroused by the scientific and archaeological findings of that journey, and a further expedition was funded, ostensibly to make contact with the Nestorian Christians of the region, but covertly to make further mineralogical investigations. Ainsworth was the leader of the expedition, and his two-volume account was published in 1842. Starting from Istanbul in 1839, Ainsworth took a route through Asia Minor, northern Syria, Kurdistan, Persia and Armenia, returning to Istanbul in 1840. The expedition was regarded as unsuccessful, as Ainsworth had massively overspent on the budget originally allotted by the sponsors, and his secret activities were discovered by the Ottoman authorities, but the work remains a vivid account of the area. Volume 1 covers events up to the battle of Nezib in 1839.

A Primer of Assyriology
  • Archibald Henry Sayce
  • Published online:
    05 June 2016
    Print publication:
    19 February 2016
    First published in:
    1894
  • Archibald Henry Sayce (1845–1933) became interested in Middle Eastern languages and scripts while still a teenager. Old Persian and Akkadian cuneiform had recently been deciphered, and popular enthusiasm for these discoveries was running high when Sayce began his academic career at Oxford in 1869. This 1894 work, published by the Religious Tract Society, is an introduction for a popular readership to the world of ancient Assyria. Beginning with the geography of Mesopotamia and with the early archaeological discoveries in the region, Sayce next describes the decipherment of the cuneiform inscriptions and tablets, and the knowledge gained from them, especially about the history of the region, and government and organisation, before describing religion, literature, and what can be deduced about everyday life. An appendix gives weights and measures, lists of kings and gods, and a chronological table linking events known from the archaeological record to accounts in the Old Testament.

Mémoire sur l'écriture cunéiforme assyrienne
  • Paul-Émile Botta
  • Published online:
    05 June 2016
    Print publication:
    25 September 2014
    First published in:
    1848
  • The son of an Italian historian, Paul-Émile Botta (1802–70) served France as a diplomat and archaeologist. While posted as consul to Mosul in Ottoman Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq), he excavated several sites, becoming in 1843 the first archaeologist to uncover an Assyrian palace at Khorsabad, where Sargon II had ruled in the eighth century BCE. As nobody could yet read the cuneiform inscriptions, Botta thought he had discovered Nineveh, and an enthused French government financed the recording and collecting of numerous artefacts. Many of the marvellous sculptures were put on display in the Louvre. Botta devoted himself to studying the inscriptions, and this 1848 publication, a contribution towards the later deciphering of the Akkadian language, presents a tentative catalogue of cuneiform characters that appear to be used interchangeably. Of related interest, Henry Rawlinson's Commentary on the Cuneiform Inscriptions of Babylonia and Assyria (1850) is also reissued in this series.

Travels and Researches in Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Chaldea, and Armenia
  • Volume 2
  • William F. Ainsworth
  • Published online:
    05 June 2016
    Print publication:
    12 November 2015
    First published in:
    1842
  • The surgeon William Ainsworth (1807–96) acted as the geologist of the 1835 Euphrates Expedition, his account of which is also reissued in this series. Great interest was aroused by the scientific and archaeological findings of that journey, and a further expedition was funded, ostensibly to make contact with the Nestorian Christians of the region, but covertly to make further mineralogical investigations. Ainsworth was the leader of the expedition, and his two-volume account was published in 1842. Starting from Istanbul in 1839, Ainsworth took a route through Asia Minor, northern Syria, Kurdistan, Persia and Armenia, returning to Istanbul in 1840. The expedition was regarded as unsuccessful, as Ainsworth had massively overspent the budget originally allotted by the sponsors, and his secret activities were discovered by the Ottoman authorities, but the work remains a vivid account of the area. Volume 2 describes the journey through Armenia, and the return via Trebizond.

A Pilgrim's Scrip
  • Reginald Campbell Thompson
  • Published online:
    05 June 2016
    Print publication:
    19 February 2016
    First published in:
    1915
  • The Assyriologist and archaeologist Reginald Campbell Thompson (1876–1941) studied Hebrew at Cambridge and upon graduation moved into the department of Egyptian and Assyrian antiquities at the British Museum, where he developed remarkable skill in matching fragments of cuneiform tablets and transcribing their texts. He excavated at Nineveh and later produced a definitive edition of the trilingual inscription of Darius at Behistan in Iran. This 1915 work describes Thompson's life 'in the field' at various sites in Egypt, the Sudan and western Asia. The difficulties and dangers of travel, the encounters with local people, and the management of an excavation are all described with enthusiasm and in melodramatic terms. Thompson lovingly records the daily life and traditions of the pre-1914 Middle East, perhaps feeling that he was witnessing a world that would soon be radically changed by the war. His Semitic Magic (1908) is also reissued in this series.

Notes during a Visit to Egypt, Nubia, the Oasis, Mount Sinai, and Jerusalem
  • Frederick Henniker
  • Published online:
    05 June 2016
    Print publication:
    25 September 2014
    First published in:
    1823
  • In 1820, the English traveller Sir Frederick Henniker (1793–1825) set out for Egypt, which he would explore for nearly three years. He sailed up the Nile, calling it 'the least romantic, but most useful of rivers', stopping off at many places along the way. His adventures were varied: he was the first known person to climb to the apex of the Pyramid of Khafre at Giza, and he acquired a second-century coffin that is now in the British Museum. He claimed to have met Egypt's khedive, Muhammad Ali Pasha, with whom he discussed English horses and military campaigns. Heading next to Mount Sinai and Jerusalem, he was brutally attacked by bandits on the road to Jericho, leaving him injured and naked. He recovered and continued his journey through the Middle East and back to England, where he published this lively and often amusing account of his adventures in 1823.

Narrative of a Residence in Koordistan, and on the Site of Ancient Nineveh
  • With Journal of a Voyage down the Tigris to Bagdad and an Account of a Visit to Shirauz and Persepolis
  • Volume 1
  • Claudius James Rich
  • Published online:
    05 June 2016
    Print publication:
    25 September 2014
    First published in:
    1836
  • Well versed in oriental languages and antiquities, and possessed of an 'insatiable thirst for seeing new countries', Claudius James Rich (1786/7–1821), the East India Company's resident at Baghdad, set out for Kurdistan in 1820 despite his delicate health. Before he succumbed to cholera the following year, he had visited and described many historic locations in present-day Iraq and Iran. His written account has long stood as an important early record of the region's geography, culture and archaeology. This two-volume work was edited by his widow and published, with maps and other illustrations, in 1836. Rich's Narrative of a Journey to the Site of Babylon in 1811 (1839), including his two archaeological memoirs, is also reissued in this series. Volume 1, including a biographical sketch of the author, covers the journey to and time spent in Kurdistan, closing with the author's 'sorrow at bidding adieu to its interesting people'.

Prehistoric Man
  • Researches into the Origin of Civilisation in the Old and the New World
  • Volume 1
  • Daniel Wilson
  • Published online:
    05 December 2015
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1862
  • The Scottish archaeologist and anthropologist Daniel Wilson (1816–92) spent the latter part of his life in Canada. Published in 1862, this is a seminal work in the study of early man in which Wilson utilises studies of native tribes 'still seen there in a condition which seems to reproduce some of the most familiar phases ascribed to the infancy of the unhistoric world'. He believed that civilisations initially developed in mild climates and judged the Mayans to have been the most advanced civilisation in the New World. Twentieth-century anthropologist Bruce Trigger argued that Wilson 'interpreted evidence about human behaviour in a way that is far more in accord with modern thinking than are the racist views of Darwin and Lubbock', and it is in this light that this two-volume work can be judged. Volume 1 covers such important areas as the development and use of metals and 'the architectural instinct'.

Prehistoric Man
  • Researches into the Origin of Civilisation in the Old and the New World
  • Volume 2
  • Daniel Wilson
  • Published online:
    05 December 2015
    Print publication:
    15 November 2012
    First published in:
    1862
  • The Scottish archaeologist and anthropologist Daniel Wilson (1816–92) spent the latter part of his life in Canada. Published in 1862, this is a seminal work in the study of early man in which Wilson utilises studies of native tribes 'still seen there in a condition which seems to reproduce some of the most familiar phases ascribed to the infancy of the unhistoric world'. He believed that civilisations initially developed in mild climates and judged the Mayans to have been the most advanced civilisation in the New World. Twentieth-century anthropologist Bruce Trigger argued that Wilson 'interpreted evidence about human behaviour in a way that is far more in accord with modern thinking than are the racist views of Darwin and Lubbock', and it is in this light that this two-volume work can be judged. Volume 2 covers topics ranging from ceramic arts to the influence of interbreeding and migration upon civilisations.

Masterpieces of Greek Sculpture
  • A Series of Essays on the History of Art
  • Adolf Furtwängler
  • Edited and translated by Eugenie Strong
  • Published online:
    05 November 2015
    Print publication:
    26 August 2010
    First published in:
    1895
  • Adolf Furtwängler (1853–1907) was a prominent German archaeologist and art historian specialising in classical art. He was appointed assistant Director of the Königliche Museen zu Berlin in 1880, a position he held until 1894 when he was appointed professor of Classical Archaeology in Munich. He is best known for developing the Kopienkritik approach to studying Roman sculpture, which he introduces in this volume first published in 1885 and translated into English by Eugenie Strong in 1895. Kopienkritik is a methodology which assumes that Roman sculptures are copies of Greek originals, and that by studying the Roman copies the original Greek sculpture can be reconstructed. This approach dominated the study of classical sculpture in the twentieth century and remains influential despite repeated criticism. Furtwängler compares the styles of known classical Greek sculptors with Roman statues to uncover the original sculptor in this defining example of the Kopienkritic approach.

The Topography of Rome and its Vicinity
  • Volume 2
  • William Gell
  • Published online:
    05 November 2015
    Print publication:
    02 February 2012
    First published in:
    1834
  • The antiquary Sir William Gell (1777–1836) was most famous for his two books on the archaeological discoveries at Pompeii (also reissued in this series) but his interest in the topography of classical sites resulted in several other publications, including this two-volume work, first published in 1834. The work was intended to accompany a map (available to download at http://www.cambridge.org/9781108042109) of the territory of ancient Rome, for which the field research and surveying activities were carried out in 1822. It provides alphabetical entries (from Abbatone to Zagarolo) on all the sites in Rome and its environs, with their modern names and populations, and their significance in ancient history and literature. Volume 2 also contains essays on the history and languages of ancient Italy, and supplements to various entries, where new discoveries had been made during the course of the work's preparation.

The Topography of Rome and its Vicinity
  • Volume 1
  • William Gell
  • Published online:
    05 November 2015
    Print publication:
    02 February 2012
    First published in:
    1834
  • The antiquary Sir William Gell (1777–1836) was most famous for his two books on the archaeological discoveries at Pompeii (also reissued in this series) but his interest in the topography of classical sites resulted in several other publications, including this two-volume work, first published in 1834. The work was intended to accompany a map (available to download at http://www.cambridge.org/9781108042109) of the territory of Ancient Rome, for which the field research and surveying activities were carried out in 1822. It provides alphabetical entries (from Abbatone to Zagarolo) on all the sites in Rome and its environs, with their modern names and populations, and their significance in ancient history and literature. Volume 2 also contains essays on the history and languages of Ancient Italy, and supplements to various entries, where new discoveries had been made during the course of the work's preparation.

Biblical Researches in Palestine and the Adjacent Regions
  • A Journal of Travels in the Years 1838 and 1852
  • Volume 2
  • Edward Robinson, Eli Smith
  • Published online:
    05 September 2015
    Print publication:
    02 April 2015
    First published in:
    1867
  • American philologist Edward Robinson (1794–1863) is considered a founding figure in the field of biblical geography and archaeology. In 1838 he explored Palestine with Eli Smith (1801–57), a Yale graduate and Protestant missionary, and co-author of Missionary Researches in Armenia (also reissued in this series). Smith had settled in Beirut and was proficient in Arabic. The authors succeeded in identifying many biblical locations, and the original edition of their book, structured as a travel journal, was published in 1841. It was awarded the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society the following year. Robinson and Smith returned to Palestine in 1852 and published an enlarged edition in 1856. This reissue is of the 1857 third edition, which was slightly abridged but contained new maps and plans. Volume 2 describes their visits to Gaza, Hebron, Nazareth, Tyre and Beirut, and the religious communities of the region, Christian and Muslim.

Retrospections, Social and Archaeological
  • Volume 3
  • Charles Roach Smith
  • Edited by John Green Waller
  • Published online:
    05 September 2015
    Print publication:
    02 April 2015
    First published in:
    1891
  • Charles Roach Smith (1806–90) had a prosperous career as a druggist. His shop was in the City of London, then undergoing major excavation and redevelopment, and he began to collect the artefacts being uncovered around him. With a widening interest in all aspects of the past, Smith began to publish notes on his collection as well as antiquarian observations. (His Illustrations of Roman London is also reissued in this series.) This three-volume work, published 1883–91, reviews his activities as an excavator, collector, and co-founder of the British Archaeological Association. Pen-portraits of fellow enthusiasts and descriptions of ancient buildings and ruins are interspersed with accounts of infighting in the Association, and biting criticism of local and national authorities who refused to take on responsibility for Britain's archaeological heritage. Volume 3, published posthumously, includes Smith's accounts of his later life in Kent, and his antiquarian visits to France.

Biblical Researches in Palestine and the Adjacent Regions
  • A Journal of Travels in the Years 1838 and 1852
  • Volume 1
  • Edward Robinson, Eli Smith
  • Published online:
    05 September 2015
    Print publication:
    02 April 2015
    First published in:
    1867
  • American philologist Edward Robinson (1794–1863) is considered a founding figure in the field of biblical geography and archaeology. In 1838 he explored Palestine with Eli Smith (1801–57), a Yale graduate and Protestant missionary, and co-author of Missionary Researches in Armenia (also reissued in this series). Smith had settled in Beirut and was proficient in Arabic. The authors succeeded in identifying many biblical locations, and the original edition of their book, structured as a travel journal, was published in 1841. It was awarded the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society the following year. Robinson and Smith returned to Palestine in 1852 and published an enlarged edition in 1856. This reissue is of the 1857 third edition, which was slightly abridged but contained new maps and plans. Volume 1 includes lively accounts of Cairo, Suez, Mount Sinai and Jerusalem, accompanied by historical background and topographical details.

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