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The Mesopotamian riddle : an archaeologist, a soldier, a clergyman, and the race to decipher the world's oldest writing / by Hammer, Joshua,1957-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."It was one of history's great vanishing acts. As early as 3500 BCE, scribes in the mud-walled city-state of Sumer used a reed stylus to press tiny wedge-shaped symbols into clay. For three thousand years, the script chronicled the military conquests, scientific discoveries, and epic literature of the grand kingdoms of Mesopotamia-Assyria, Babylon, the mighty Achaemenid Empire -- along with precious minutia about everyday life so long ago. But as the palaces of these once great kingdoms sank beneath the desert sands, the meaning of these characters was lost. London, 1857. Colossal sculptures of winged bulls and alabaster bas-reliefs depicting cities under siege and vassals bearing tributes to Biblical kings lined the halls of the British Museum. In the Victorian era's obsession with the triumph of human progress, the mysterious kingdoms of ancient Mesopotamia -- the very cradle of civilization -- had captured the public imagination. Yet Europe's best philologists struggled to decipher the strange characters. Cuneiform seemed to have thousands of symbols -- with some scholars claiming each could be pronounced in up to eight, nine, even ten different ways. Others insisted they'd cracked the code and deciphered inscriptions that corresponded precisely to the Old Testament -- proving the veracity of the Word of God. Was it all a hoax? A delusion? A rollicking adventure through the golden age of archaeology, The Writing on the Wall tracks the decades-long race to decipher the oldest script in the world. It's the story of a swashbuckling young archaeologist, a suave British military officer, and a curmudgeonly Irish rector, all vying for glory -- from the ruins of Persepolis to the opulence of Ottoman-era Baghdad -- in a quest to unearth the relics of lost civilizations and unlock the secrets of humanity's past"--
Subjects: Assyriology; Cuneiform inscriptions.; Cuneiform writing.;

Travel thru history. [videorecording] / by TMW Media Group,distributor.;
In this episode of Travel Thru History we visit a city in the Southeastern US that you can hear from miles away. It's rightfully called Music City but you know it as Nashville, Tennessee. We dig deep into the city's past and find that there's more than just a vibrant music scene. There's a melody of Civil War history. First, we take in the magnificent Belmont Mansion. This thirty-six room summer home lies on the campus of Belmont University and is now a museum that boasts the incredible art collection of the original owners. Then we head to the home of the hero of the Battle of New Orleans, 7th US President Andrew Jackson's Tennessee mansion, known as The Hermitage. Next, we learn why Nashville is called the "Athens of the South." And every Athens needs its Parthenon, and Nashville doesn't disappoint. They have an exact replica of the Parthenon built in Ancient Greece. Then we're trekking uphill to the ruins of Fort Negley. Nashville was a city divided as we learn how this star-shaped fort was occupied during the Civil War. We couldn't visit Nashville without stopping by the Grand Ole Opry, the show that made country music famous!E.DVD.
Subjects: Nonfiction television programs.; Documentary television programs.; Travelogues (Television programs);
For private home use only.

Bog queen : a novel / by North, Anna,author.;
"From the author of instant New York Times bestseller Outlawed, a gripping, epoch-bridging story of a young anthropologist's monumental discovery, and the clash of civilizations it sets off-both ancient and contemporary-over the fate of the land that holds us. When a body is found in a bog in northwest England, Agnes, an American forensic anthropologist, is called to investigate. Agnes has always been more comfortable with the dead than the living, but this body is not like any she's ever seen. Though its bones prove it was buried more than two thousand years ago, it is almost completely preserved. The mystery of the Iron Age body draws the attention of numerous groups with competing interests: the archaeologists who want to study the surrounding bog, the peat-cutters who want to profit from the land's resources, and a group of environmental activists and neo-pagans who demand the body be returned to its resting place and that the moss-layered bog-a marvel of carbon capture on a warming planet-be left undisturbed. Then there's the moss itself; a complex repository of artifacts and remains, with its own dark stories to tell. As Agnes is drawn into the controversy stirred by the body and its habitat, she must face not only the deep history of what she has unearthed, but also the relationships she has forsworn in her bid for independence. Vividly flashing between the uncertainty of post-Brexit England and the druidic order of Celtic Europe at the dawn of the Roman era, Bog Queen brims with climate urgency and ancient wisdom as it connects across time two gifted, farsighted young women learning to harness their strange strengths in a landscape more mysterious and complex than either can imagine"--
Subjects: Psychological fiction.; Novels.; Bog bodies; Bog conservation; Bogs; Celts; Druids and druidism; Women forensic anthropologists;

Dinner with King Tut : how rogue archaeologists are re-creating the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes of lost civilizations / by Kean, Sam,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Whether it's the mighty pyramids of Egypt or the majestic temples of Mexico, we have a good idea of what the past looked like. But what about our other senses: The tang of Roman fish sauce and the springy crust of Egyptian sourdough? The boom of medieval cannons and the clash of Viking swords? The frenzied plays of an Aztec ballgame ... and the chilling reality that the losers might also lose their lives? History often neglects the tastes, textures, sounds, and smells that were an intimate part of our ancestors' lives, but a new generation of researchers is resurrecting those hidden details, pioneering an exciting new discipline called experimental archaeology. These are scientists gone rogue: They make human mummies. They investigate the unsolved murders of ancient bog bodies. They carve primitive spears and go hunting, then knap their own obsidian blades to skin the game. They build perilous boats and plunge out onto the open sea -- all in the name of experiencing history as it was, with all its dangers, disappointments, and unexpected delights. Beloved author Sam Kean joins these experimental archaeologists on their adventures across the globe, from the Andes to the South Seas. He fires medieval catapults, tries his hand at ancient surgery and tattooing, builds Roman-style roads -- and, in novelistic interludes, spins gripping tales about the lives of our ancestors with vivid imagination and his signature meticulous research"--
Subjects: Archaeology; Experimental archaeology.; Senses and sensation.;

How to be : life lessons from the early Greeks / by Nicolson, Adam,1957-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."What is the nature of things? Must I think my own way through the world? What is justice? How can I be me? How should we treat each other? Before the Greeks, the idea of the world was dominated by god-kings and their priests, in a life ruled by imagined metaphysical monsters. 2,500 years ago, in a succession of small eastern Mediterranean harbour-cities, that way of thinking began to change. Men (and some women) decided to cast off mental subservience and apply their own worrying and thinking minds to the conundrums of life. These great innovators shaped the beginnings of philosophy. Through the questioning voyager Odysseus, Homer explored how we might navigate our way through the world. Heraclitus in Ephesus was the first to consider the interrelatedness of things. Xenophanes of Colophon was the first champion of civility. In Lesbos, the Aegean island of Sappho and Alcaeus, the early lyric poets asked themselves 'How can I be true to myself?' In Samos, Pythagoras imagined an everlasting soul and took his ideas to Italy where they flowered again in surprising and radical forms. Prize-winning writer Adam Nicolson travels through this transforming world and asks what light these ancient thinkers can throw on our deepest preconceptions. Sparkling with maps, photographs and artwork, How to Be is a journey into the origins of Western thought. Hugely formative ideas emerged in these harbour-cities: fluidity of mind, the search for coherence, a need for the just city, a recognition of the mutability of things, a belief in the reality of the ideal--all became the Greeks' legacy to the world. Born out of a rough, dynamic--and often cruel--moment in human history, it was the dawn of enquiry, where these fundamental questions about self, city and cosmos, asked for the first time, became, as they remain, the unlikely bedrock of understanding."--
Subjects: Heraclitus, of Ephesus.; Homer; Sappho; Civilization, Western;

We're all in this together ... : so make some room / by Papa, Tom,author.; Papa, Tom.Essays.Selections.;
"Stand-up is all well and good, but observational humor that's funny and warm may work best in books. And Tom Papa, whose loyal audiences are packed with "date night" couples of all ages, has perfected the form. In We're All In This Together, Papa's thirty-seven short essays tackle these universal American topics, among others: -Love for Your First Car ("To Buy or Lease") -The Truth about Personal Hygiene ("How You Know When It's Time to Go") -Date Nights ("Will You Go Out with Me?") -Unfamiliar Hotel Rooms ("Why Nothing Works") -Pets ("Cats-Ancient Menace") -Drinking ("There's no Cure for a Hangover") -Ducking your Family, even Though you Love Them ("The Lesson of Mark Twain's Cigars") Tom Papa's books make readers laugh, but--crucially--feel better about themselves while doing it."--
Subjects: Essays.; American wit and humor.; Conduct of life; Interpersonal relations;

The longbow, the schooner & the violin : wood and human achievement / by De Villiers, Marq,author.;
Includes bibliographical references.The English longbow, made of rare yew wood, unmatched for accuracy, speed of fire, and deadliness, shifted Europe's balance of power in the Middle Ages. Schooners, those "able handsome ladies" of the sea, inaugurated a new era of global trade, carrying high-value cargoes of tea and spice to Europe and America with unmatched speed and reliability. The violin, individual examples of which have personalities and histories as brilliant as the performers who play them, brought Western music to the pinnacle of expressiveness. These three iconic artifacts exemplify the inventive ways human ingenuity has employed wood - one of our most extraordinary natural substances - to change its culture and history. In this sweeping and beautifully-written history, award-winning author Marq de Villiers explores our relationship with wood, from ancient times to the present, from the forest to the workshop. Wood, he writes, has always been an essential companion to human development, and its most remarkable applications may still be ahead.
Subjects: Material culture.; Technology and civilization.; Technology; Wood; Woodwork;

The almightier : how money became God, greed became virtue, and debt became sin / by Vigna, Paul,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."The complete story of how we came to worship money, and how we can stop greed from destroying everything. The pursuit of wealth is considered an essential function of human nature, and greed is an unspoken civic virtue. Many of us revere billionaires and Wall Street rain-makers, then complain about "the system" being rigged, and wonder why the country doesn't seem to work for the little guy anymore. Some blame the Deep State for income inequality and corruption, and others blame capitalism, but the truth is that these issues have much deeper roots: our devotion to money is a manmade invention that has transformed over thousands of years to replace religion as the foundation of our society, and it is tearing civilization apart. In The Almightier, journalist Paul Vigna uncovers the forgotten history of money, tracing the uneasy and often accidental alliance between wealth and religion as it developed from ancient city-states to today's secular world, where religious devotion has receded and greed has stepped in to fill the void. Through engaging anecdotes, original research, and fresh perspectives on the causes of the many challenges we face today, Vigna makes a compelling argument that money has no power apart from the power we give it. We can build a better future, where we don't need to choose between helping others and getting ahead. But we can't repair the damage that greed has done until we understand how it took over our world in the first place"--
Subjects: Avarice.; Money; Money; Money; Wealth;

Oathbringer / by Sanderson, Brandon.;
Dalinar Kholin's Alethi armies won a fleeting victory at a terrible cost: The enemy Parshendi summoned the violent Everstorm, which now sweeps the world with destruction, and in its passing awakens the once peaceful and subservient parshmen to the horror of their millennia-long enslavement by humans. While on a desperate flight to warn his family of the threat, Kaladin Stormblessed must come to grips with the fact that the newly kindled anger of the parshmen may be wholly justified. Nestled in the mountains high above the storms, in the tower city of Urithiru, Shallan Davar investigates the wonders of the ancient stronghold of the Knights Radiant and unearths dark secrets lurking in its depths. And Dalinar realizes that his holy mission to unite his homeland of Alethkar was too narrow in scope. Unless all the nations of Roshar can put aside Dalinar's blood-soaked past and stand together--and unless Dalinar himself can confront that past--even the restoration of the Knights Radiant will not prevent the end of civilization.
Subjects: Fantasy fiction.; Kings and rulers; Imaginary wars and battles; Imaginary places; Magic;

Into Iraq / by Palin, Michael,author.;
Includes bibliographical references.In March 2022, Michael Palin travelled the length of the River Tigris through Iraq to get a sense of what life is like in a region of the world that once formed the cradle of civilisation, but that in recent times has witnessed turmoil and appalling bloodshed. It was a journey of sharp, often brutal contrasts. At one moment he would be exploring the old streets of Baghdad or the ancient ruins of Babylon. At the next he would be visiting the war-torn city of Mosul, or learning about the horrific Speicher massacre in Tikrit. Now he shares the journal he meticulously kept during his trip, in which he describes the very varied places he visited, the people he met and the impressions he formed of a country that few outsiders now venture to see. Illustrated throughout with colour photographs taken on the trip, and permeated with his warmth and humour, this is a vivid and varied portrait of a complex country.
Subjects: Biographies.; Travel writing.; Personal narratives.; Palin, Michael;

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