Research Catalog

Title

Past lives : unlocking the secrets of our ancestors / Ian Wilson.

Author

Wilson, Ian, 1941-

Publication

London : Cassell, 2001.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

216 p. : ill. (chiefly col.); 26 cm.

Summary

"In this work, Ian Wilson shows how scientists have reconstructed the faces of our ancestors to give us a meaningful sense of what they looked like. Studies of bones and teeth can reveal much about each character's diet, which in turn sheds light on how they lived. Possessions found around the body can tells us even more about who these people were. Each of the four sections in the book contains a comprehensive introduction, allowing the reader to understand the historical context in which these people lived. Character by character, from prehistory to modern times, Ian Wilson's detective work and knowledge enables him to tell the very human stories of these past lives."--Jacket.

Subject

• Archaeology
• Forensic Anthropology
• Forensic anthropology
• Forensic sciences
• Human remains (Archaeology)

Genre/Form

Popular Work

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 208-210) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Part I : Before recorded history : Historical introduction : from earliest beginnings to the age of the first farmers -- Butcher from Beijing c.500,000 BC ; Aboriginal in Brazil c.9500 BC ; Oldest Texan c.8000 BC ; Cheddar caveman c.7150 BC ; Hunter who climbed too high c.3000 BC -- Part II : First civilisations : Historical introduction : from the earliest technologies to the era of the first money -- Sumer's fertility mistress c.2500 BC ; Priestess with blood on her hands c.1650 BC ; Priest of Amun c.1100 BC ; Horse-queen of the icy steppes c.500 BC ; Father of Alexander 336 BC -- Part III : Faces from the Roman era : Historical introduction : Rome from the republic's birth to the empire's fall -- Tuscan matriarch c.150 BC ; Severnside farmer c.150 BC ; Roman sailor c.7 BC ; Londinium pride c. AD 300 -- Part IV : Pre-modern age : Historical introduction : from plainchant to firepower -- Jorvick Viking c. AD 1000 ; King who tried again 1329 ; Unknown soldier in the Wars of the Roses 1461 ; Butcher of the Incas 1541 ; Tsar Ivan the Terrible 1584 ; Frenchman in the Americas 1686 -- Postscript : the future : what of the future?

ISBN

0304354740

LCCN

^^2001411451

OCLC

45828420

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library