HANDS ON THE PAST

The English title, The World of Archaeology: ""The Pioneers Tell their Own Story,"" more accurately conveys the content and purpose of this fascinating book than does the American title. And to anyone to whom Ceram's own Gods, Graves and Scholars opened the door to a past brought to life by archaeology, this book is a natural. The stories behind the discoveries of world-known statues are told by the men responsible for unearthing them: the Venus de Milo, the charioteer of Delphi, the Hermes of Praxiteles, the Bull of Minos, the Elgin marbles in the British Museum are a few among the many. Pompeii and Herculaneum, Mycaenae, the Stoa of Athens, Knossos, each takes on new meaning. Then there is Egypt--the tombs, the pyramids, the Tutankhamen creasure, Abu Simbel. Ancient scriptures come to life with Babylon, Nineveh, the discovery of the Gilgamesh Epic, the graves of Ur, the Dead Sea Scrolls. Central and South America--Uxmal, Chichen Itza, Palenque, etc.--exert new allure. Final sections on new methods of archaeology--from the air, beneath the sea, through photogrammetry, even computer decipherment--merely hint at what the future holds. The words of the pioneers communicate a contagious immediacy and a sense of co-discovery. A fine companion volume to his earlier success.