"Archaeology at Its Best",
a review by Carroll Quigley in The Washington Sunday Star, xxxx
1962,
of a book:
THE SILENT PAST: The Mysterious and Forgotten Cultures of the World,
by Ivar Lissner.
New York: G. P. Putnam, 1962
"Archaeology at Its Best"
THE SILENT PAST: Mysterious and Forgotten Cultures of the World.
By Ivar Lissner.
G. P. Putnam; $6.95.
Bookstores have been flooded in recent years with journalistic
rehashes of archaeological reports. This volume is one of the best of them. In
40 brief chapters it seeks to present the historical background for some of the
world's most famous excavations. Some of these, such as the Sardinian nuraghi,
the cave temples of Tun-Huang, the Scythian Kurgans, and King Solomon's iron
smeltery at Ezion-Geber are welcome additions to more familiar chapters
concerned with Malta's temples, Brittany's megaliths, the Canaanite alphabet, or
the Mycenaean Linear B. There is good correlation between archaeological and
historical evidence, the author's imagination is not unduly held in check,
illustrations are plentiful and good, and an excellent bibliography is included.
—Carroll Quigley
