The Penguin Book of Lost Worlds Vol: 1 by Leonard Cottrell
Two centuries have seen whole worlds salvaged from the sand and jungle of time by archaeology.
Forgotten dynasties, which flourished for a spell or an age, have been gradually reconstructed to disclose the savage splendour of civilizations older than Greece or Rome.
The Penguin Book of Lost Worlds describes, in text and pictures, seven separate 'worlds" which have been recovered for history. The reality of their temples and palaces, inscriptions and utensils, is concrete evidence of the genius of people once relegated to fable and travellers' tales.
This first volume contains the full story of Egypt, as we now know it; of Mesopotamia, from the Sumerians to the fall of Babylon; and of the Harappa civilization which arose in the Indus Valley four thousand years ago.
The cover shows a detail of a banqueting scene from a fragment of Theban wall painting, about 1400 B.C., in the British Museum