Pacaritambo

The ANCIENT GODS: the History and Diffusion of Religion in the Ancient Near East and the Eastern Mediterranean.
by E. O. James. B&W photo section plus B&W drawings throughout. Condition: NEW 2004 Castle Books hardcover & DJ (in mylar jacket). Content: This account of the religious history of the ancient world is essential for the proper understanding of the great living faiths, which, directly or indirectly, have arisen from or been influenced by this remarkable center. The last chapter(s) deal with the rise of the concepts of good and evil, and shows how the first ideas of the good life developed into Christianity. Fascinating book. [1 copy available]
$ 9.50 + $ 3.29 media shipping.

THE ELEMENTS OF EARTH MYSTERIES
by Philip Heselton. B&W illustrations. Condition: NEW 1998 Element (UK) softcover, reissue. Content: The term Earth Mysteries covers a wide range of topics including ley lines, dowsing, folklore and ancient sites. Here the author explains the use of analytical and intuitive methods to help investigate these phenomena. This book explains the role of earth energy; how to interpret folklore and legends attached to ancient sites; the purpose of such structures as stone circles; and more. [2 copies available]
$ 2.50 + $ 2.89 media shipping. Priority shipping available.

THE FIRST EDEN: The Mediterranean World and Man
by David Attenborough. Color photos & drawings illustrate. Condition: UNREAD 1990 Little, Brown hardcover & DJ (in mylar jacket), most likely a Book Club Edition. Tiny shelfwear to DJ edges - interior perfect. Content: Attenborough, in this lavishly illustrated volume, a TV tie-in, focuses on the cradle of Western civilization, tracing the life of the Mediterranean from salt bed to lush paradise and its ultimate exploitation. History, natural history and archeology come together in a narrative that portrays the changing attitudes of mankind toward the environment. Attenborough surveys early plant and animal life; he discusses climatic changes, noting that today the hostile season is summer. An examination of prehistoric cave drawings leads to the subject of animal gods and sacrificial worship. The domestication of the horse opened the doors to wars and migration; Attenborough chronicles the movements in both directions from the Huns to the Crusaders and, finally, looks at more recent despoliation. The final chapter locates pockets of Edenareas of preservation. [1 copy available]
$ 8.89 + $ 3.49 media shipping.

IN SEARCH OF THE IMMORTALS: Discovering the World's Mummy Cultures
by Howard Reid. Two wonderful color photo sections. Condition: UNREAD 1999 Headline Books Trade Paperback, first printing. Light tanning to page edges. Content: Reid, a documentary filmmaker and anthropologist living in England, sets out for exotic regions and vivifies ancient mummy-making cultures, artfully blending living and dead voices. He cites ancient scribes like Herodotus, Tacitus and the Babylonian author of the Gilgamesh epic, alongside accounts of and by the living descendents of mummy makers. Primarily, he seeks to understand "the paths that [these cultures] may have intended to tread beyond life" by examining "the bodies themselves, their attire and tomb accoutrements." Reid visits with the Maku in the Amazon to unravel the mystery of the Chinchorros of Peru, whose mummifying culture predates Egypt's. At a winter camp in southwest Siberia, he learns about the burial rites of the Kazakh nomads' warlord ancestors. He investigates the bog bodies of northern Europe; the peoples who established the Silk Route in China, whose mummies show evidence of an ancient European influence in the East; and the Guanches of the Canary Islands, who shared unexpected cultural links with the Egyptians. This intellectual adventure story focuses as much on life as on death; indeed, the way a culture regards death, the author implies, says much about how it regards life. The most interesting, IMHO, is the discussion of the "Celtic" mummies of China's Taklamakan Desert. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 10.49 + $ 3.19 media shipping. Priority shipping available.

MYSTERIES OF THE ANCIENT WORLD (TV Series Companion)
by Charles E. Sellier. Condition: Very Good 1995 Dell paperback third printing. Small edgewear with spine crease. Interior clean & tight. Content: Reviewer: "This book delved into every site on the planet that is shrouded in mystery. Charles Sellier is not only a brilliant researcher, but a very engaging writer. Each location had a separate section in the book, and Mr. Selliers did an amazing job covering each and every topic. He provided all of the legends/folklore surrounding each mystery, and then provided his own insight that he developed through his own personal research. He has personally visited almost (if not all) every site that he writes about, and includes the all the pecularities that he observed. Instead of telling you his opinion, or what he really thinks happened, he merely provides the reader with every possibility and observation he's made. He allows the reader the opportunity to contemplate the details and arrive at their own conclusions. Not only is this book informative and educational, but it is truly an engaging read." [1 copy available]
$ 3.50 + $ 2.94 media shipping. Priority shipping available.

PAST LIVES: Unlocking the Secrets of Our Ancestors (Archaeology)
by Ian Wilson. Wonderful color photos, B&W drawings, and maps illustrate. Condition: NEW 2002 Seven Dials (UK) large Trade Paperback (with flaps), no printing given. Glossy, heavy paper. Excellent! Content: Despite the supernatural-sounding title, this profusely illustrated volume is a solid, well-researched examination of new techniques for reconstructing the appearance of our ancestors, whether ancient or recent. The book offers a series of case studies that examine efforts by historians and reconstruction artists to give faces to the skulls of various longdead individuals. Here we meet an English farmer who died more than two millennia ago; Robert the Bruce, the fourteenth-century Scottish king; a Minoan priestess, dead for 3,600 years; and many others. We also meet the experts who, using a combination of science and artistic guesswork, bring these faces in history back to life. It's a fascinating subject--in learning more about what humans looked like in the distant past, we can also learn more about how they lived--and Wilson tells the story well, with some dramatic flair but mostly with solid scholarship. Recommended for readers with special interest in history, archaeology, and the forensic sciences. An overlooked gem for archaology students. Questions welcome. [2 copies available]
$ 6.89 + $ 3.39 media shipping. Priority & International shipping available.

PATTERNS IN PREHISTORY: Humankind's First Three Million Years (Second Edition)
by Robert J. Wenke. B&W photos, drawings, and charts illustrate. Condition: UNREAD 19898 Oxford University Press large Trade Paperback, fourth printing. One page edge shows wrinkling - most likely from shelving. The rest of the interior is clean & tight. Content: This is a comprehensive survey of world prehistory, from the origins of early hominids several million years ago to the evolution of the first great states and civilizations, focusing on the problem of formulating scientific explanations of the great cultural transformations of the past. In this edition, Wenke has completely updated the text to incorporate recent archaeological discoveries and to address the insights and limitations of the new wave of "post-processual" or "cognitive" archaeology. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 3.69 + $ 3.39 media shipping. .

UPPITY WOMEN OF ANCIENT TIMES
by Vicki Leon. B&W drawings illlustrate. Condition: NEW 1995 Conari Press softcover, first edition, first printing. Tiny, tiny edgewear to cover corners. Content: This book is a hoot - laugh through your history lesson. 200 pyramid builders, poets, princesses and other women in positions of power over the centuries are profiled in a series of biographies concentrating on unusual women. This is an excellent, fun title which is packed with information on women who influenced history and created lasting names for themselves. Okay, you've heard of Sappho, Nefertiti, maybe even the pharaoh Hatshepsut and the warrior queen Tomyris. But what about the murderous Macedonian queen Arsinoe, the Talmudic teacher Beruria, the Greek priestess Lysimache, or Audata-Eurydice, Philip of Macedon's horse-riding Illyrian queen? And then there is Kisaya, a Sumerian slave who sued for the right to choose her own husband. Leon has collected hundreds of historical women's names and the facts about the lives of those who bore them. Where very little is known, she fleshes out the text with fascinating cultural tidbits. Rendered in a zippy tone, such stuff makes delightful reading. History made interesting! [1 copy available]
$ 4.50 + $ 3.09 media shipping.