Past Worlds : Atlas of Archaeology

by Collin Renfrew and Colin Renfrew

Past Worlds is an archaeological reconstructin of the human story, using hundreds of maps, illustrations and meticulous reconstructions of ancient sites. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0681502630
• ISBN13: 9780681502635
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: Borders Group, Inc.
• Length: 319 Pages
• Weight: 4.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 10.8" x 14.3"

Customer Reviews

Meg's view of "Past Worlds"

I ran across this book in a class I was teaching (as a substitute). It so fascinated me that I ordered it. My daughter took one look at it and insisted I give it to her for Christmas. I am now ordering another one for me. It is a "window to our world" - little peeks here and there of our ancestors and the art and tools that they created. A "coffee table book" well worth having.

A gem of a book for the layperson

I picked this up on clearance at Borders on a whim. It's turned out to be one of my favorite books in my (extensive) collection. Covering human society and settlement from the earliest hunter/gatherers to 1800 AD, this book is packed with well-organized information and even more packed with visuals. Photographs of artifacts, interesting charts and graphs, and lots of color-coded maps make up every page of this oversized book. It is divided into sections of time and, within those time periods, further divided into area of the world. Each area of the world gets roughly equal representation-- more weight isn't given to Europe, for example, than to Africa. The focus is on 6,000 BC to 500 AD, but there is a good degree of information on both sides of that timespan as well. When I read this book, I feel transported back into, as the title suggests, past worlds. I especially love the large maps that give a feel for what areas, such as Europe (where my ancestors came from), were like thousands of years ago-- retreating ice, "wild animals" (such as tigers and hippopotami) as far north as London, and rough tribal boundaries rather than today's carefully drawn political delineations. The well-researched, interesting information and thorough treatments of different subject areas tell you a lot of love went into creating this book. I would highly recommend it to anyone with a hobbyist's interest in history or archaeology.

Great Reference Material

This book has a bunch of great pictures of artifacts, maps, and info on the ancient civilizations of the world. Contains sections on peoples from all corners of the Earth. Granted, the section devoted to each civilization is small, but there are so many of them jammed into the covers of this gigantic-sized color book. If you want more expansive and detailed information on a particular ancient civilization, then look elsewhere. If you want a summary from an archaelogoical perspective of many civilizations, then get this one.