5 comments about An Illustrated Dictionary of the Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya.

1. One of THE definitive reference works for everyone even remotely interested in the cultures of ancient Mesoamerica, "Gods and Symbols" well comprises the most important as well as more specialized facts, covering all its subjects from Olmec to Aztec times in the same amount of detail. It's written to be accessible to both beginners and people more firm with the subjects, and certainly offers more than enough for both groups. However, although the cross-references are fine, the encyclopaedic, culture-jumping approach makes for a somewhat fractured read, and the sheer amount of information can prove overwhelming at times; it therefore could be useful to have some background knowledge beforehand that can help you place facts in a larger contextual framework when you need to. However, this hardly is a reason for criticism given the book's intent, and it doesn't stop it from being a highly readable standard work I can unhesitatingly recommend to just about anyone.



2. This is a great refereance book for the amature Mayanist. "Gods and Symbols" is filled with specialized facts, covering subjects from Olmec to Aztec times in good detail. It is readable for both beginners and experts. The amount of information can be overwhelming at times; it therefore is useful to have some background knowledge beforehand to be able to place facts in a larger contextual framework. However, the book's intent is to be a refereance work so this should be expected.



3. -- *VERY* COMPREHENSIVE; an excellent book: A "MUST BUY"
   
   Anyone serious about understanding the Aztec mind and social order should read both "Time and Sacrifice in the Aztec Cosmos" (K. A. Read) and also, "THE JADE STEPS" by Burr Cartwright Brundage (University of Utah Press; (c)1985; ISBN# 0-87480-247-4). FYI, Dr. Brundage has authored nearly a dozen extraordinarily well written and researched books on Aztec civilization; most are (sadly) tough to find.



4. This book is aimed more twards the Aztec then the Maya. They take a second seat. If your more into Mayan writing and symbols theres better books out there. Its still an interesting book to flip threw, buy a used one thats low priced.
   
   They need to take the Maya off the end of the title if they reprint it to be fair. Better books out there but its something to add to the Yucatan personal library. If you have read alot of the good books out there, your likely to be a little disappointed reading this one.



5. I enjoyed looking through this "dictionary," but I hope it is revised with separate sections on the Olmec, Maya, and Aztecs (the alphabetical format could be retained). As a "dictionary," it also should have been much longer (four or five hundred pages instead of two hundred).
   
   Nevertheless, the general reader interested in Mesoamerica will enjoy this book. I have a large collection of books on Mesoamerica, and I found several illustrations that I have not seen before. There is a fascinating picture of a jaguar skeleton with a jade ball in its mouth (Aztec).
   
   The illustration of a Maya dancer is also fascinating. "In a state of shamanic transformation, a May lord would take on an animal self or 'uay,' most commonly the jaguar."
   
   Another shows a "Maya figure wearing a War Serpent headdress." The fangs of the serpent rise above the figure's head.
   
   Still another shows "The monkey scribal gods painting a codex." The monkey-headed men are dressed like Maya scribes.
   
   I would recommend buying a used copy of this book.

3 comments about Who Owns Antiquity?: Museums and the Battle over Our Ancient Heritage.

1. Anyone who has ever been enthralled visiting one of the world's great archeological museums would benefit from James Cuno's book. So would archaeologists, museum directors, curators, antiquities dealers...and journalists who have signed on to the out-of-control drumbeat demonizing museums and collectors. Source country bureaucrats and power-wielders should read it as well, but they probably will not. Cuno's is a refreshing, insightful and intelligent counterpoint to mainstream misinformed denigration of the world's great archaeological museums. It convincingly argues that nationalistic retention laws for antiquities neither preserve sites nor objects, nor do they benefit the larger interests of civilization and mankind. There is probably more here than the non-specialist is interested in, but the beginning and end of the book are more than enlightening, and the reader can go back to middle chapters for background and revealing histories of the modern nations of Turkey, China and Italy. This book is an eloquent plea to save the inspiring fragments of mankind's long history which belong to us all. Cuno believes using them for nationalistic agendas is not the way.



2. Cuno is a defender of the so-called "universal museums", now called "encyclopaedic museums" and perhaps more correctly, imperialistic or totalitarian museums. The museum that never has enough of anything and seeks a total control of all cultural objects by all means, including the use of force by the army of the country where the museum is situated-Louvre, British Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago. These museums now lament the end of the imperialistic and colonial period in which they amassed most of their stock. This was the period when the Europeans could take virtually from any country whatever cultural object they desired. That period is, mercifully, at an end and Cuno and co are agitating for the return to that system, so-called partage system which enabled the Europeans to take away massive archaeological objects from countries like Egypt. Cuno labels those who seek the return of the stolen cultural objects as nationalists but what about those who fight to keep the objects in the museums of the West, are they internationalists or what?
   This new book does not advance in anyway the debate about the restitution of cultural objects. On the contrary, it will only help to solidify the known positions. That leading museum directors do not understand the desire of Africans and Asians to recover their stolen cultural objects, is a sad commentary on the cultural landscape of the world. The perspective would have appeared better without the addition of this book which will only serve as additional object for heated controversies and it comes from a museum director of one of the leading museums of the Western world.
   Kwame Opoku. 22 May,2008.



3. The book underlines the attitude behind Cuno's outspoken cultural superiority. In a recent AP interview, Cuno said: "Cuno: I think any of these modern nations can exercise a greater claim than any other nation on antiquities found within their jurisdiction. But not in terms of an identity with those ancient people. It is not on the basis that they are the modern heirs to the achievements of these ancient peoples, that they descend from them in any kind of continuous or natural way and that the modern culture is akin to the ancient culture."
   
   This is a century old canard that claims an ethnic group has only a tenuous tie to their ancestors. His words about a "continuous and natural" descent are offensive and bigoted, reminiscent of some particularly odious racial theories from the 19th century which read a mixture of bloodlines as reason enough to dispute strong connections with ancestral pasts. What, after all, does Cuno mean by "a natural way"? Is language not enough for him? That some nations use artifacts for political reinforcement of nationalist goals is not reason enough to dismiss a people's ethnic and cultural affinities with these same artifacts.
   
   Take the case of the Elgin marbles, for instance. He worries that cultural artifacts may be destroyed if located in a singular place. Yet Lord Elgin destroyed the marbles themselves in removing them, lost many in the Mediterranean, and the British Museum allowed patrons to spill wine on them during fundraisers. To insist on spreading the wealth of the Parthenon marbles is as smart as perhaps cutting Lincoln's face off the memorial and giving it to Singapore, or amputating the arm holding the torch on the statue of liberty, and sending it to Uruguay.

5 comments about How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs: A Step-by-Step Guide to Teach Yourself, Revised Edition.

1. This is a very interesting book, After the first chapter I was able to piece together my first hieroglyphics. It was Amazing!!! This book is like going to a classroom, each chapter advances you to a different level of reading Hieroglyphics. If you like Ancient Egypt, And want to understand more ...Then this is the book for you.



2. I've always been interested in this area but baulked at trying to learn Heiroglyphs as a hobby. No book can do the learning for you but the exercise based system in this book certainly makes it easier.
   
   Do the exercises, follow the lessons and practice. You'll be amazed at how quickly you will be able to recognise the individual glyphs in an inscription.
   
   If you want to learn heiroglyphs, then a well thumbed version of this book is a must for your bookshelf.



3. This book was absolutely worth it. I've studied Ogham as well as Mayan Hieroglyphs, and as an archaeologist I can say this this book is great for beginners.



4. This is a great book if you're going on a tour of Egypt and want to learn a little about hieroglyphics so you won't be completely illiterate while exploring the tombs - your guide on any official tour should be able to read them, but won't have time to explain everything. You won't get bogged down for months - it's geared for words and phrases you are likely to find in tombs.
   
   I studied the first three chapters then scanned and combined the tables in the back of the book into a two-sided, one-page cheat sheet to carry with me into the tombs. It made my trip much more enjoyable and people on our tour were always asking me what it said next to an interesting drawing - I could usually get at least the gist of it: "He's making an offering of beer and other things to a god...", etc.
   
   A great example is when our tour was at Luxor, in the Temple of Karnak, and I noticed that on many of those large pillars (it's a "forest" of pillars without a roof) the hieroglyphics for "life" (the ankh) and "give" (a tiny triangle in an isosceles triangle) were repeated over and over at ever higher places as you walked around the pillar. The temple was dedicated to the god Amun Re. Suddenly, I realized the meaning: while following those words, your eyes were being lifted to Amun Re, the Sun god, who "gave life" - it was as if someone from over 3000 years ago suddenly reached out and talked to me.



5. If you are interested in reading Egyptian hieroglyphs, this is really a good book to study. There is complete information about the nature of this kind of writing - a mixture of symbolic and phonetic writing - with a dictionary and exercises to test your newly acquired knowledge in deciphering coded message. Lots of fun.

5 comments about The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History, 1300-1850.

1. The author would have done well to refrain from extensive repetition of facts for in the end their use results in inconsistencies and make for annoying reading. The author probably refers to the great famine and the dates associated with the famine 500 times in different contexts. One is left with the impression that there were some scorching summers, some frigid ones, some dry ones, some rainy ones, etc. In the end one can not really discern what the weather was like during those years and how it contributed to the famine. The inconsistencies diminish the authors otherwise laudable attempts to show patterns of climate change and weather that influenced culture and civilization. A fascinating topic, but poorly executed book.



2. Well written and informative, THE LITTLE ICE AGE is an approachable book on climate change and its effect on European history.



3. While doing research for a school project, my son checked this book out of the library. When he was done, and before it needed to be returned, I decided to read it. It was time well spent.
   
   Contents:
   Preface
   Acknowledgments
   Author's Note
   Part One: Warmth and Its Aftermath
   Part Two: Cooling Begins
   Part Three: The End of the "Full World"
   Part Four: The Modern Warm Period
   Notes
   Index
   
   Brian Fagen's, The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History, 1300 to 1850, takes the reader to a specific period in time, during a significant climatic event. It is, arguably, the most important environmental in the last thousand years and one that may predict future events (even the current "climatic change"). Fagan, an archeologist, fleshes out the story using personal diaries, contemporary sources, and manual temperature and climate records. Adding current data, provided by a wide variety of sources, including analysis of ice cores and leading historians, he is able to present a very readable and interesting book on the effects of a major climate change on the population of the Earth (this not only includes humans, but also fish and animals).
   
   I think when you mention "global warming" or "climate change" in this day, most people think of rising temperatures. That is only a part of how the environment changes. In the period described in the book, you had areas that experienced extreme cold, scorching summers, and increased volcanic activities. All of these factor contributed to how humans interacted with each other and nature. One interesting fact was that the cod fisheries, very important to the time period, couldn't continue to live in the eastern Atlantic and moved to the western Atlantic. The effect was catastrophic to the known world. But what it brought was determined fisherman to the New World, following the cod, including the Pilgrims. Wild swings in temperature also meant that subsistence farmers weren't prepared for a season, or more, of bad crops. Some societies relied on one basic foodstuff. And when that crop crashed, you had the Irish Potato famine, the worst famine Ireland had ever seen. Another offshoot of the Little Ice Age was the development and use of technology and farming methods. While the English were able to adapt to new farming methods and techniques, the French didn't adapt at all. Fagan argues that this led to social breakdown and revolution in that country. All of this leads to Fagan's research to suggest that the current issues facing humanity started in 1850, when the American colonialists started cutting down trees and burning them, throwing large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. He finishes by saying the global warming only increases the wild swings in climate, making world weather extremely unpredictable to predict.
   
   No matter your thoughts on climate change, or global warming, this was a fascinating look at not only the weather during a specific timeframe, but also how the affected societies functioned. Fagan, drawing on contemporary writings and his access to historians, is able to weave an incredible narrative of the time. He has a nice ability to bring history alive and to present scientific findings in a very understandable manner. While the title may seem dry or uninteresting, the writing is not. It may not be part your normal reading, but the Notes are a wonderful look into Fagan's sources, some of them quite amazing.



4. Since Climate Change is now all the rage, and many partisans have taken decidely striden sides, this book may be a bit controversal. Dr Fagan is niether an Earth Scientist nor a Climatologist. However,he is a well known anthropologist with a decided interest in how Climate Change affects civilizations and individuals. This book was written for the layman and not for the professional climatologist.
   
   This book focuses mainly on how Climate Change -namely a cooling climate- wrought misery and hardship to the Europeans. The period 1315 to 1860 has been dubbed the Little Ice Age (LIA). The main thesis of The Little Ice Age is that a cooling climate does not just bring colder temperatures, but an entire host of extreme weather events(floods, droughts, scorching summers, as well as frigid winters). Unlike the Medieval Warm Period), where the climate was more or less very warm and tranquil (mild winters, hot summers, occaisonal rains), the Little Ice produced an entire spectrum of disasterous weather phenomenon. Dr Fagan gives plenty of charts, and graphs to butress his arguments. His focus is primairily on the North Atlantic Oscillation (a weather oscillation that controls the prevailing winds and storm track for much of Europe and the Atlantic. He also takes advantage of forensic meterologists from Oxford who, using ships logs, were able to recreate synoptic weather patterns for much of the Atlantic and North Sea during this time period.
   
   Dr Fagan's biggest success in this book is to write in vivid deatil the affect of the Little Ice on the individual. He recounts the histroy of the Great Famine (1315-1321), the catastrophic advanced of the Alpine Glaciers, the plight of the Norwiegian settlers in Greenland, as well as the role of climate in political affairs (The Spanish Armada, and French Revolution). As an anthropologist, Fagan's main concern is how humans lived and suffered during this period, and to his credit, he dug through farm journals, diaries, and mountains of forgotten documents to paint a very real narrative. Ultimately Climate Change is not about abstractions such as Principle Component Analysis or radiative forcing equations, but how it effects the individual. This book, paints in detail a tapestry of human suffering brought about by a cooling climate.
   
   This book predates the partisan bickery over Dr Mann's Hockey Stick graph. This is important as Mann -a professional climate scientist- argues that the Little Ice Age and the Medieval Warm Period were only local events to Europe. Mann's famous temperature reconstruction has, however, come under severe scrutiny from professional statisticians in recent years. Despite its fall from grace, many climatologists still abide by the conclusions of the Hockey Stick. As a result, many people will dismiss Dr Fagan's book as mere ancedotal evidence done by a non-professional.
   
   The biggest flaw in this book is that it was Eurocentric. Dr Fagan does extend his studies briefly into North America and New Zealand, where he gives evidence of the Little Ice Age in colonial times, as well as providing refrences to growth of New Zealand's Franz Joef Glacier from 1400-1850. The other flaw is the repitition. Readers may find his constant references to this drought or that famine a bit tedious. However, others may find that these repetions in detailing of human suffering only reinforce his thesis that cooling climate is very unhosptibale.
   
   Overall, this book was written for a layman. I think the reader should also buy his other book The Great Warming, and read them back to back. Both books serve as a good reference point when examining the human implications of Climate Change.



5. Interesting with several unique approaches. The problem for me rests with his intricate explanations of causes of climate changes from North Atlantic Oscillation,Sun spots,solar flares, ocean currents, polar melting, volcanoes. methane release, and a host of other causes. Yet,he speaks in unsubstantated conviction that todays warming is due to mans fossil fuel use. Then he concludes with "The Little Ice Age reminds us that climate change is inevitable, unpredictable, and sometimes vicious.I would ask him does he believe this is really caused by man?

5 comments about The Complete World of Greek Mythology.

1. I've been picking through the gamut of Greek myth texts for an introductory course, and I was fortunate to come across this beauty. It's not just a mythology text that the art historian can use, it's the ONLY classical myth "textbook" I have encountered that could legitimately appeal to art history classes. There are illustrations (usually color photos) on every page. The quality of the pages and binding itself is also really quality stuff. The narration is pretty standard. It's more of a summary text kind of thing than the various excerpts you find in other classical myth texts. I wouldn't use any of the other mythology texts, but this one makes a wonderful supplement to primary source material such as Homer, Hesiod and/or the tragedians. This thing raises the bar for the presentation of classical myth books.



2. Reminds me of a college text book. It's very informative, so be prepared. It's not just a collection of the myths.



3. This is a truly beautiful book, placing Greek myth in context. Well worth the price. The author's voice comes through quite nicely, and I do feel like I'm attending a lecture series at an art museum.



4. Good book for young children interested in this subject since pictures abound and captions tell a clear story. the text is more for late teens and above so the book has a good shelf life if bought when kids are young.



5. Somewhere amid the oodles of glossy photos of athlete-festooned kraters and oinochoes, I was hoping to discover some well narrated myths. My quest was frustrated. Not only does the book provide, at best, sketchy coverage of the thrilling heroic epics (e.g., Theseus, Perseus, Herakles), but one must hunt around for a sentence here and a paragraph there--even to reconstruct something as basic and tightly definable as the "birth of Zeus and overthrow of Kronos" story. That said, I feel strongly obliged to assign three stars merely because the volume is so overwhelmingly physically beautiful. Give this book wide berth and reach for either Schwab (a narrative cyclopedia) or D'Aulaire (a fun, richly illustrated--if purportedly juvenile--panorama). Graves isn't bad, either, but it's oriented toward the scholar of comparative evolution of mythosystems or some such, not for the seeker of glorious old tales, spicily woven; nor can you go wrong with Hamilton, though that's clearly showing its age.

5 comments about The Mystery of the Crystal Skulls: Unlocking the Secrets of the Past, Present, and Future.

1. Wow!!!! Great Book! I went to Mexico last year and visited Chichenitza and heard the stories of the crystal skulls and was entriged. This book (based on facts)takes you on an adventure of how some of the skulls were found and the effects they have on people. The history and native beliefs and also how scientifically; they are an enigma. I couldn't put this book down and I'm usually one of those people who starts to read and falls asleep in the middle of a chapter.... Not this book!!! It's great!! I highly recommend!!
   *Have we entered a time of quickening and separation??
   *Is 2012 the end or a beginning?



2. On Assignment with Adama: Mt. Shasta, Telos, Lemuria, and Sacred Earth Sites, Book I
   The Mystery of the Crystal Skulls has become a textbook for my students at our Shambhala Center in Mount Shasta and is referenced in On Assignment with Adama. It has been a guide book for me!



3. This book is an wonderful adjunct when seeing the movie, "Indiana Jones and the Mystery of the Crystal Skulls." The movie whets one's appetite to learn more about the real Mayan Legend of the 13 Crystal Skulls, that were originally found in Central America, but are now scattered all over the globe. Upon close examination of these skulls, scientists are baffled because since the skulls are made of clear quartz crystal, which takes hundreds of years to naturally form within the Earth.
   Crystal cannot be carbon dated, so the age of these skulls is impossible to discern. The crystal skulls could be as old as the Earth or even older, or they can be only a hundred years old.
   Nobody can test for sure....crystal is a carbonless element.
   ALSO to add to the mystery - how were the skulls carved?
   No one in antiquity could have possible carved these skulls from their raw and natural state; crystals being equisically fragile and very prone to breaking upon carving.
   The authors of the book were present when one actual crystal skulls was taken for analysis at the Hewlitt - Packard plant. Scientists at HP are used to working with crystal with all their computer products that they produce and sell worldwide.
   Scientists at HP were able to uncover one more potential clue to the mystery of the crystal skull. Other tests revealed the skull was made from a single piece of of natural quartz, but from "Piezo-electric" silicon dioxide, precisely the type of naturally occuring quartz so widely used in modern electronics.
   Piezo is a greek word which means, "to squeeze."
   Electose means, "To get a charge from."
   So it was revealed that this skull was alike a magnet, possessing both positve and negative charge.
   You will have to get the book and read it to understand the mulitfacet history of the crystal skulls and there are some wonderful color photos in the book, that show 12 or 13 crystal skulls.
   It was necessary for the authors to travel all over the world to meet with anthropologists, scientists, crystal experts and aboriginal leaders in their quest to write this interesting book.
   The only flaw is that the last 3 or 4 chapters are too repetitious in revealing possible theories of the skulls.
   I will strongly recommend this book to anyone who has an appetite to understand the deeper meaning behind the film, Indie 4.
   The movie veered way off the true meaning of the legends of the crystal skulls, because Hollywood needs to satisfy other needs to keep up with the movie box office.
   The date projected for all the skulls to reunite is 12/12/12/*
   Currently, all 13 skulls are far-flung from one another, scattered like dice all over the world.
   Each skull has a devoted care-taker that will be responsible to bring their own skull to a mutual agreed upon location; possibly in Belize or a part of Mexico that has those ancient Mayan Temples, sitting silently in the tropical jungle.
   Until that day, which is just around the corner from where we are sitting today, nobody has any real solid idea what type of information is contained within the crystal skulls.
   It could change the course of our world and our human destiny, and I will remain hopeful that it will all prove to be positive.
   12-12-12 is our big crystal day.
   Read this book to best understand what may be coming!!!!



4. An interesting book but it leaves many doubts and questions. Maybe, it should knowing the subject. I believe that more should have been said or examined about the true and most sophisticated skull of the lot. How was it created and when and by whom. Was it really not possible for humans to have created this skull? It was fun reading.



5. For me this book was a hard book to put down. It reads like a mystery book, your never sure what is going to happen next or where the writers are going to end up next. I feel it is an amazing ride with the writers into the world of the crystal skull world. They meet many different people with just as many different types of opinions on the subject of crystal skulls. I feel this is a good read for anyone who is wondering about the crystal skulls and some history too.

5 comments about The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World.

1. This is currently _the_ book on IE studies.
   
   In addition to the superlatives used by the other reviewers, I would add that this work is up to date (2007)and includes previously unavailable materials from Russia, the Ukraine and Kazakhstan. The author spent a great deal of time in these areas and understands the cultural differences in the archaeologal and anthropological methods used by those from the old Soviet block. He is careful to explain these differences.
   
   An enthralling book which will certainly be updated by future finds, but the broad conclusions are quite convincing.



2. This book is about pastoral cultures that flourished in the Pontic steppe region during the late Neolithic and Bronze ages. The author reviews the succession of cultural complexes that existed in that area during those periods and their interactions with neighboring cultures and eventually with the great civilizations of the ancient Near East. His account is based on archeological evidence that has been extensively developed by Soviet and Russian archeologists, as well as by the author himself.
   
   The author identifies the Pontic steppes as the area where the horse was domesticated, based on his own research into evidence of bit-wear on horse teeth found in the archeological record. He shows how the horse and later the wheel and wagon transformed the patterns of pastoralism that characterized the region in the fourth millenium BCE and how metallurgy became established there. It is fascinating reading for anyone interested in European and Eurasian pre-history, and the author's detailed account is persuasive on these topics.
   
   A principal focus of the book is the theory, which the author endorses, that the Pontic steppe area was the homeland of peoples who spoke Proto-Indo-European (PIE), the language that linguists posit as ancestral to most of the languages of Europe, including English, Latin, Greek and Russian, as well as of present-day Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, northern India and elsewhere. These languages are attested in writing and many of them are spoken today. The theory that they are derived from a common parent language, which is not attested in writing, is well established. It is based on correspondences among the sound systems (and, to a lesser extent, the grammars) of the various daughter languages that are too uniform and regular to be attributable to chance. The theory that the PIE homeland lay in the Pontic steppes, however, although shared by many, is more controversial than the author makes it out to be, especially among linguists.
   
   The author claims that the question of the PIE homeland has been resolved conclusively in the past ten years by archeological advances, but the evidence the author adduces for the Pontic steppe region as the PIE homeland is not new: it is based on "linguistic archeology," a method that was first brought to bear on the question in the mid-19th century. This method consists of identifying words in the PIE daughter languages that might be associated with a specific geographic area--trees, plants, animals, physical features, etc.--and that can be traced to a PIE origin (words that show up in more than one PIE sub-group), and then trying to associate those words with a specific geographical range.
   
   Many if not most linguists are uncomfortable with this method. Among other objections, words can change their meaning over time and it isn't necessarily clear that the meaning of an original PIE word was the same as the meaning of cognate words in the daughter languages. All we can be reasonably sure of is that at some period a word (or an element of a word)--one that is not preserved in any written form, however--must been ancestral to words in languages spoken at a substantially later date, for which we have a written record. The author of this book relies in particular on reconstructions of the PIE words for "salmon" and "beech," but these are old arguments that have been drawn into question, and there is no consensus. Another difficulty is that PIE could have had an extensive vocabulary that simply didn't survive into two or more of the daughter languages and the words that did survive could represent only a very limited sample. (A recent book that discusses these questions authoritatively is Indo-European Linguistics: An Introduction (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics).)
   
   In short, Indo-European linguists are generally wary of attempts to tie the PIE-speakers to a particular region by the method of linguistic archeology or any other method. Moreover, other scholars have proposed different regions for the PIE homeland--currently in serious competition with the Pontic steppes are Anatolia, the south Caucasus and other locations further east.
   
   There are also difficulties with the author's speculative suggestions about how the Indo-European languages spread from their assumed homeland in the Pontic steppes to the regions where they are found in historical times. He suggests that IE languages spread into Europe up the valleys of the Danube and other rivers flowing into the Black Sea by a process that he describes as "franchising": a group of IE-speakers would establish a stronghold in an area where speakers of other languages were settled and would offer the settled inhabitants protection and rights to participate in the IE-speaking community, and this would lead to the IE language becoming the dominant and prestigious language in the area and co-opting speakers of other languages. This seems plausible but entirely speculative; the author doesn't seem to offer concrete evidence that might support this model.
   
   He further suggests that IE-speakers might have migrated into Anatolia by boat, a suggestion also unsupported (and probably unverifiable) by archeological evidence and one that strains the limits of plausibility--but if you are trying to pin down the PIE homeland somewhere other than Anatolia, it is essential to get IE languages into Anatolia by some means or other, since we have extensive written evidence that they were widely spoken there by the first half of the second millenium BCE, when the the Hittite empire was at its zenith. (Moving the PIE homeland either to Anatolia itself or further east would allow more plausible theories about how this occurred, but there's no lingusitic evidence for any of these alternatives, either.)
   
   And there is apparently a lively (and politically charged) debate about how IE languages wound up in India and about whether there is any evidence in the archeological record for their assumed movement into the subcontinent (although IE-speakers obviously were there in ancient times, probably by no later than around 1500 BCE; how they got there is a different story). (This question is exhaustively but inconclusively aired in The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture: The Indo-Aryan Migration Debate.)
   
   In the end, the archeological record can tell us a lot about a material culture in a specific region at a particular moment in time, but, in the absence of writing, doesn't tell us anything about the languages spoken by human beings who participated in the material culture. A particular style of pottery doesn't tell us anything about the language spoken by the people who used it. How languages become dominant in an area and spread to other areas are topics that are not well understood, and it is probably true that each case has to be considered on its own facts. This would mean that much information about prehistoric languages, their distribution and diffusion is simply irrecoverable.
   
   In fairness, it should be noted that the author is aware of many of the difficulties with his linguistic theories and is at pains to address those difficulties. And I suspect he would be the last person to insist that his is the final word on the subject.
   
   In summary, this is a very thought-provoking book. Anyone passionately interested in PIE (and who isn't?) will want to read it. But it should be read critically.



3. This is an excellent and informative book, if a bit dry for the ordinary reader.



4. I'll play the Bad Guy here, offering a more critical review than the others. Not that I disagree with the favorable reviews -- but I think that readers should realize that the book is not quite as advertised.
   
   It starts off great with Part I, which is an excellent explanation of the linguistic questions associated with Proto-Indo-European. Anthony offers the latest results clearly and thoroughly. Unfortunately, Part I is only 120 pages long. Part II, 340 pages long, is the real meat of the book. And while Part II has lots of merit, it's not at all what the title or the subtitle suggest. Part II is best summarized as "A thorough summation of the archaeological results from the areas thought to be the homeland of the Proto Indo-European peoples". Here the author departs substantially from the subject matter as suggested by the title, subtitle, and Part I. We are subjected to endless detailed descriptions of archaeological digs all over southern Russia and Siberia. We are told (many times) what the percentage of sheep/goat bones, cattle bones, and horse bones were at every site. We are told the direction in which the bodies were placed in burial, how many flint tools of each type were found, and other details that are surely appropriate for a compendium of archaeological results, but not for the larger synthesis promised by the title and subtitle.
   
   I will concede that the author does thread a larger narrative through the endless site reports. There's a section, for example, on "The Economic and Military Effects of Horseback Riding", which explains the impressive idea that the real impact of horseback riding was that it made it possible for nomads to travel further from the river valleys while grazing their animals. Another example: "The First Cities and Their Connection to the Steppes", which describes the trading patterns that arose once cities appeared in Mesopotamia.
   
   But these delightful sections are lost in the numbing freshet of details. Here's a quote, from page 293:
   
   "The bronze tools and weapons in other Novosvobodnaya-phase graves included cast flat axes, sleeved axes, hammer-axes, heavy tanged daggers with multiple midribs, chisels, and spearheads. The chisels and spearheads were mounted to their handles the same way, with round shafts hammered into four-sided contracting bases that fit into a V-shaped rectangular hole on the handle or spear. Ceremonial objects included bronze cauldrons, long-handled bronze dippers, and two-pronged bidents (perhaps forks for retrieving cooked meats from the cauldrons). Ornaments included beads of carnelian from western Pakistan, lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, gold, rock crystal, and even a bead from Klady made from a human molar sheathed in gold (the first gold cap!)"
   
   The author simply couldn't make up his mind what kind of book he wanted to write. Let me speculate on how this chimera of a book could have been written: the author, having spent years with Russian archaeologists accumulating a huge store of information about their work, approaches the publisher with a great idea for a book. "These Russians have been digging up all sorts of wonderful things", he says, "but here in the West we don't know much about their work. I'd like to write a book putting all their results together into a coherent story."
   
   To which the publisher replies, "Sounds great, but what's the hook? We can't call this book 'A Summary of Results of Russian Archaeological Field Work Over the Period 1980 - 2000'. We need something sexier."
   
   Anthony: "Well, their research certainly sheds a lot of light upon the beginnings of the Indo-European peoples."
   
   Publisher: "Perfect! Let's make the book about how the Indo-European languages got started! That's always a good topic!"
   
   So Anthony writes some extra chapters to slap up front, and we get two books for the price of one:
   
   1. "Beginnings of the Indo-European Languages"
   and
   2. "A Summary of Results of Russian Archaeological Field Work Over the Period 1980 - 2000".
   
   Now, there's nothing wrong with this. However, buyers should be aware of the fact that three quarters of the book consists of site reports and only one-quarter deals with Indo-European languages.



5. This book is sort of rare for me, who generally reads items cover to cover. Some chapters of it were a complete treat, such as the summary of the methods of comparative linguistics. Other chapters gave you a wonderful feel for the methods scientists use to explore our past, but were far too detailed to be read in full unless you are actually a graduate student in the field.
   
   Loved it - but didn't read it all.

5 comments about The Last Days of the Incas.

1. 12 years ago, motivated by a pictorial in National Geographic, I traveled to distant Peru. It was a fascinating journey, but after reading this book, I wished that I had it before I went (impossible, of course). I took it as a reverse travelogue, making sense of the places I had gone to and where they figured into the historical and exploratory narrative.
   
   This book reads like a novel. In fact, I'd be surprised if it isn't ultimately converted into an HBO mini-series or the like. Interesting characters, from the puppet-turned-rebel Manco Inca, to the brash and vindicative Hernando Pizzaro, fill these pages and make them come to life. Revealed is an extra-ordinary account of the amazing conquest of a large and prosperous Empire by a small band of greedy Spanish outcasts.
   
   Written in lucid prose, with numerous quotes, from Incas, Spaniards, and even outside philosophers, Kim MacQuarries does an excellent job of reaching out to the reader and creating a fascinating historical account. Well organized, the book even concludes with a complete description of the archeological work of the modern period associated with the recounted events and makes those almost as fascinating as the events themselves.
   
   I couldn't recommend this book more highly.



2. I do not have much to add to what previous reviewers have said. I loved this book for its colloquial style and flowing narrative. The author did a great job detailing the life and deeds of Manco Inca, though, somewhat anti-climatically, he cut short the account of Gonzalo Pizzarro's (a major arch-villain) defeat and death. I personally recommend reading this book AFTER reading Prescott's account, in that it elucidates and magnifies the interwoven sories that make up this tragedy.
   P.S. I STILL do not understand how could the Spanish have survived if 50,000 warriors would have just rushed them (rushing like a crowd in a burning movie theater) or thrown SIMULTANEOUSLY stones and javelins at them. I just don't get it.......



3. 
   MacQuarrie is a great story teller, and he pulls you right in.
   
   He makes these historical events read like a novel. Part of the appeal is his presentation of Manco Inca and the Pizarro brothers. The author helps you understand the characters and once you do, you become absorbed in their times and troubles. Even the battle scenes, from which I normally cringe, are compellingly written. The contrasts in technology, religion, customs and values of the Spanish and Inca culture are marvelously described.
   
   The "Last Days" parts stand in contrast to the beginning and the ending which are about the exploration of the areas and the re-discovery of the sites. While these are interesting tales, they pale before the story, which MacQuarrie tells so well, of the last days of the Incas.



4. I love this book!! could not put it down,it went everywhere i go,well written(i kept my dictionary close by)love the language,the playing with words,how the author made the characters come alive and made u feel like you were a part of the struggle,i went through different emotions reading this book and had to remind myself that this is modern time and what in the past is in the past.Now i am in the research phase buying products from amazon,and investigation how i can visit.
   I raise my hat to you Kim,well done.
   Montgomery Croker



5. As a fan of John Hemming's The Conquest of Incas I was dubious that Kim MacQuarrie's work could begin to approach the level of Hemming's classic. Notwithstanding, I opened The Last Days of the Incas hoping I might glean an interesting insight or two. MacQuarrie's work quickly sent me shooting the rapids of Inca history. It is a breathtaking ride into the rich fabric of past events that make Peru such an enchanting venue today. Read this book and experience the sights, sounds and colors of Incas and Spaniards colliding on the stage that is Peru. Take the trip and you may be as pleasantly surprised as I was. I suspect that even John Hemming would enjoy the show.

5 comments about The End of Days: Armageddon and Prophecies of the Return (The Earth Chronicles).

1. total bull Krap
   
   book is boring.
   no start no ending no conclusion
   
   looks like the writer is lost in his own dreams..
   no proof or observations for what he says.
   
   plus if you havent read the egyptian bible the christan bible and the jewish bible by heart and remember everyline of it.
   
   
   you wont understand a damn thing..
   
   
   i woundlnt give any stars to it.
   but one is minimum
   
   thats what you get.
   
   wana read some good book
   
   
   try : beyond ufo's or the giza power plant.



2. FRAUD is a punishable criminal offense under all criminal codes and statues in this country,yet sitchen is a free man...is there no justice in the world?...He has committed fraud with his "EARTH CHRONICALS" series and what is really disturbing to me is,not his writing, but how many people believe this crap as if it is the truth....There is no Nibiru and the ANNANUKI are not gods...This whole story is just sad



3. Some readers wonder why they thoroughly believe everything Sitchin lulls them to believe is real, while they also wonder why there is no index, bibliography or source references in his works. Why? Because these books are NOT FACT! They are cleverly wrought fiction, that is why. Even if we are prepared to forget that just because we desperately need a mythos that we can believe in as real.
   
   Knowledge, cultural, rites, religious, civilizational bounties of Sumeria, Ancient Persia and Mesopotamia have been almost obliterated from the annals of easily discoverable Western scholarship, so someone like Sitchin can come along and invent the background and civilizational connections for us. He uses research of Samuel Noah Kramer, for example, who really did try -- and did a pretty good job at -- translating Sumerian cuneiform (and he has references in the back of his scholarly works. One thing that was discovered in the real Sumerian translations is that the Book Of Solomon from the Old Testament is a steal of the Songs of Inanna to her shepherd lover Dumuzi (aka Tammuz), that's right, not Hebrew, but Mesopotamian. It is time we discovered some true love again a little East of Jerusalem. It certainly needs to be remembered.
   
   Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory, where are you now just when we need you? (Yes, she's Greek, sadly I don't know the Sumerian equivalent. Although I would bet that the Sumerian "Me" that is retained all the way through the Epics of Gilgamesh to the later Babylonian translations, linguistically are connected to Mne-monsyne, Memory. That's right the "Me" may not be an extraterrestrial computer or device, but something mne-monic, that is, a psychotechnology of remembrance--of always re-me-mbering who one is and where one ultimately springs from -- the stars, yes, dear being, the stars. Written on Ishtar's girdle and about the crown of the head. These memories are not Western, though we desperately feed upon them.)
   
   Our solipsistic heritage still holds us back from embracing more of the world, and, I might add, being humbled by it, instead of merely following imaginative predilections based on our cultural conditioning. These, Sitchin largely serves and gives us reasons to nod and go back to sleep. For this, while relishing books of myth, history and reconstructions of the past, I keep clanging up against Sitchin's very focused, deliberate channelling of what he wants us to see and believe. Full marks to his intent, if you like to be led. There are others that truly must begin to see outside his square. Remember, no references cited because he is a lord of INVENTION, not an archeologist of fact. Then rest easy.



4. Don't let the bad publicity against Mr. Sitchin influence your mind.
   Many jealous people and especially failed writers hate him.
   We all understand that.
   There is a person in America who asked the authorities to put him in jail.
   Crazy!
   Only in America people massacre others with dirty words,
   personality assassination and personal hatred. What they do?
   They are incapable of writing successful books
   so they began to throw dirt from their mouth
   and snake-style criticism.
   
   Mr. Sitchin is a remarkable writer.
   
   Respected all over the world.
   
   I collect all his books.
   
   S. Mahdi, Cairo, Egypt.



5. Having read several of Sitchin's books before I read this one, I am amazed and so grateful that he has put all the elements of his work together into this one beautiful summary. Since the whole is greater than the parts, the book just brings our comprehension up to a new level. To my way of thinking, one cannot understand modern Middle Eastern politics without reading this book. In my own book, I praise Sitchin for his wonderful contributions to our knowledge of early world history.Seraphim Blueprint: The Power of Angel Healing

5 comments about 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School.

1. The book contains 101 ideas and concepts that are explained through text on one page and a simple -pen and ink- sketch on the opposite page. The concepts discussed vary widely from simple drawing techniques to positions of architectural theory through enlightened ideas of form and space composition. The book is a good use for students specially in 1st and 2nd years. And could work as a good reminder for graduated practitioners. But actually not a good use for researchers.
   
   You can end reading this book in less than 20 mins. However you will need to re-read it again and again to explore the ideas more.
   
   My advice to the reader: get use of it -but- not to take it for granted... After all there are some ideas that are controversial and anyone would adapt different "accepted" positions toward it.



2. Great little book that takes me back to my college days. It's fun and a great conversation piece.



3. This is one of those "learn everything in 10 seconds" books
   "catchy" but only superficial.
   A complete waste of money



4. This book has little tid bits that every student should know but its not going to make you a better student or give you to much more insight on architecture. You learn these things when the time comes. Its a cute book but not a whole lot to it.



5. Fantastic book for architecture students. Lots of short, simple lessons that make clear all the stuff my instructors never fully explained. What's a "parti?" What is postmodernism? What do positive and negative space have to do with anything? Those and a lot more, plus some well chosen quotes give you a lot to think about and build upon. Highly recommended purchase for beginning students and maybe architects too.