Description
Book SynopsisUntil recently, archaeology was concerned mainly with piecing together the material lives of our ancestors. In this ground-breaking book, master storyteller and respected archaeologist Brian Fagan explains how cutting-edge science can now take us beyond the artifacts,into the mystical realm of shamans and spirit mediums, ancestor worship, and ritual sacrifice. From the Nile''s black land to the Aztec''s world of the Fifth Sun, from Stonehenge to Jericho, Fagan describes how Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, Geographic Information Systems, Computer Automated Design-mapping and other sophisticated scientific methods are helping us to decode the religious and spiritual beliefs of our forebears. This new archaeology of the mind blends a wealth of scientific disciplines,from botany, zoology, and geology to neuropsychology, palynology, and nuclear physics. With vivid imagery and a transporting voice, Fagan revolutionizes our understanding of the inner lives of ancient people.
Table of Contents* The Archaeology of the Intangible * Dark Caves, Obscure Visions * San Artists in Southern Africa * Fertility and Death * Power and the Ancestors * Avebury: Landscapes of the Ancestors * Stonehenge and the Idea of Time * Two Livings: Agriculture and Religion * The Moundbuilders of Eastern North America * The Bull Beneath the Earth * A Shrine at Phylakopi * Divine Kings Along the Nile * Xunantunich: The Maiden of the Rock * The World of the Fifth Sun * Epilogue
