AMERICA'S ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS

Though the highly developed pre-Colombian civilizations of the Americas have long fascinated scholars, their alien (non-European) natures and the lack of Rosetta Stones that would unlock their languages have proven grave barriers to total knowledge of their flourishing world. Now, a husband and wife team has sought to correlate Aztec and Incan legends, gods and artifacts to those of the ancient Sumerians of the Middle East--to prove that there was definite contact in the pre-Christian era between the old Mediterranean world and the ""Land Beyond the Western Sea"" mentioned repeatedly in Sumerian stone tablets. They have found the coincidence of princely names, the legend of the Plumed Serpent with a very similar Middle Eastern god: and they have discovered what appear to be Sumerian coins, etc. in the New World. And in the course of propounding their pet theory, the Verrill provide the reader with an excellent, detailed picture of the ancient Americas, their highly developed civilizations and their unbelievable achievements. For those readers who last spring raised Gods, Graves and Scholars to the best seller lists, this should be a welcome sequel.