I have been in love with archaeology ever since I can remember. Of course, I went through that fascination with the dinosaur that all children go through, but with me it wasn't so much the animal as it was the idea that we could still find out so much about them after all this time. I am, of course, interested in Native American archaeology, but my greatest passion has always been the middle dynasties of ancient Egypt.
When I was about seven or eight, I saw a book at my local library (not the children's section) that really put things in focus for me. After a hard fought battle between the Librarian, who was insistant that such a book wasn't appropriate for an eight year old girl, and my aunt who was equally insistant that I should read what I wanted to, I brought home the copy of "Gods Graves and Scholars" by C. E. Ceram and read it cover to cover. After I had checked it out for the sixth or seventh time, the Librarian suggested it might be better if I had my own copy, that way someone else could check out the book if they wanted. So, my father ordered a copy for me and everybody was happy. I still have my copy, although the pages are yellow and brittle and more than a little faded. The book, unfortunately, is now evidently out of print. It was written in a very non-technical entertaining style which made the subject of Egyptology very enjoyable. I am sad that I can't offer a link to purchase it, it is still one of my favorites and has introduced more than one generation to the subject.
Although my son's passion is the Roman and Greek civilization, he, too, waited for hours in a line to view the "Treasures of Tutankhamon" when they came to San Francisco. While others crowded around the famous golden death mask, I was looking at (and I was almost alone) one of the tiny figures of Selket that had guarded a corner of the Pharoah's shrine. The expression on her face....of such tender concern, brought tears to my eyes. It wasn't all the gold for me, it was the art. My son can say all he wants about the realism of Roman and Greek art, and he is right, the statues and paintings are wonderfully realistic. But, to me, the figures are just as cold as the marble they are carved from, they do not have the heart and the soul of Egyptian art. Sorry, it's just a matter of personal preferance. If you want to see what I mean, find a copy of "Egyptian Mythology © 1968 by Veronica Ions, the Hamlyn Edition (unfortunately, this too is out of print) and turn to page 81. There is Selket and, over 7000 years later, you can still see the tears.
There are two other books that I highly recommend and that I consider instrumental in "getting me hooked" and these are Temples, Tombs and Hieroglyphs : A Popular History of Ancient Egypt
by Barbara Mertz ( Paperback / Published 1990) and The Lost Pharaohs : The Romance of Egyptian Archaeology
by Leonard Cottrell (Hardcover Published 1969) . The latter is a special order by Amazon, so allow a little time for delivery. I have to point out that these two books may be different from the copies I have, my edition of "Temples, Tombs and Hieroglyphs" is the 1964 Delta edition, and my copy of "The Lost Pharoahs" is the British Pan Piper edition © 1950. Barbara Mertz has another book on Egyptology available, Red Land, Black Land : Daily Life in Ancient Egypt (Paperback / Published 1990), that, although I don't have it in my collection, I have read and highly recommend.
Leonard Cottrell has a number of books still in print and I have listed them below, along with other recommended readings on the subject of Archaeology. While Barbara Mertz seems to have specialized in the Egyptian Civilization, Leonard Cottrell writes on Archaeology in general, including the Minoan, Greek, Roman, Mesopotamian and Chinese Civilizations. Particularly facinating among these is "Reading the Past, The Story of Deciphering Ancient Languages".
 Other Books by Cottrell
- Hannibal : Enemy of Rome
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- Leonard Cottrell / Paperback / Published 1992
- Bull of Minos
- Leonard Cottrell / Hardcover / Published 1976
(Special Order)
- Lost Pharaohs
- Leonard Cottrell / Hardcover / Published 1988
(Special Order)
- The Lost Pharaohs : The Romance of Egyptian Archaeology
- Leonard Cottrell / Hardcover / Published 1969
(Publisher Out Of Stock)
- The Anvil of Civilization.
- Leonard. Cottrell / Paperback / Published 1957
(Hard to Find)
- The Bull of Minos : The Discoveries of Schliemann and Evans
- Leonard Cottrell / Hardcover / Published 1984
(Hard to Find)
- Five Queens of Ancient Egypt
- Leonard Cottrell / School & Library Binding / Published 1969
(Hard to Find)
- Great Leaders of Greece and Rome
- Leonard. Cottrell / School & Library Binding / Published 1966
(Hard to Find)
- Hannibal Enemy of Rome
- L. Cottrell / Hardcover / Published 1961
(Hard to Find)
- Lady of the Two Lands: Five Queens of Ancient Egypt.
- Leonard. Cottrell / Hardcover / Published 1967
(Hard to Find)
- Land of the Pharaohs
- L. Cottrell / Library Binding / Published 1978
(Hard to Find)
- Lost Cities
- L. Cottrell / Paperback
(Hard to Find)
- Lost Civilizations (International Library)
- Leonard Cottrell / School & Library Binding / Published 1974
(Hard to Find)
- Reading the Past; The Story of Deciphering Ancient Languages
- Leonard. Cottrell / Hardcover / Published 1971
(Hard to Find)
- The warrior Pharaohs
- Leonard Cottrell / Unknown Binding
(Hard to Find)
- The Warrior Pharaohs.
- Leonard. Cottrell / Library Binding / Published 1969
(Hard to Find)
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General Archaeology
- A Biographical Dictionary of Ancient Egypt
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- A. Rosalie David, et al / Paperback / Published 1996
- Bodies from the Past (Digging Up the Past)
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- Robin Place / Hardcover / Published 1995
- Bodies of Evidence : Reconstructing History Through Skeletal Analysis
- Anne L. Grauer (Editor) / Paperback / Published 1995
- Finding the Lost Cities
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- Rebecca Stefoff / Hardcover / Published 1997
- Fingerprints of the Gods
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- Graham Hancock / Paperback / Published 1996
- Time Detectives : How Archaeologists Use Technology to Recapture the Past
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- Brian Fagan / Hardcover / Published 1995
- Women in Archaeology
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- Cheryl Claassen (Editor), Cheryl Classen / Paperback / Published 1994
- Women in Prehistory
- Margaret Ehrenberg / Paperback / Published 1990
- 100 Greatest Archaeological Discoveries
- Hardcover / Published 1997
(Special Order)
- The Adventure of Archaeology
- Brian M. Fagan / Hardcover / Published 1985
(Publisher Out Of Stock)
- American Archaeology Past and Future
- David Meltzer, et al / Paperback / Published 1986
- Stones and Bones! : How Archaeologists Trace Human Origins (Buried Worlds)
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- Lerner Geography Department / Library Binding / Published 1994
- Stones, Bones, and Ancient Cities
- Lawrence H. Robbins / Hardcover / Published 1990
- Stones, Bones, and Ancient Cities : Great Discoveries in Archaeology and the Search for Human Origins
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- Lawrence H. Robbins / Paperback / Published 1992
- The Early History of the Ancient Near East, 9000-2000 B.C.
- Hans J. Nissen, et al / Paperback / Published 1990
- Early Man and the Cosmos
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- Evan Hadingham / Hardcover / Published 1984
- Early Man and the Cosmos
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- Evan Hadingham / Paperback / Published 1985
- Earth Memory : Sacred Sites, Doorways into Earth's Mysteries
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- Paul Devereux / Paperback / Published 1992
- Earth's First Steps : Tracking Life Before the Dinosaurs
- Jerry MacDonald / Hardcover / Published 1995
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Egyptology
- Egypt Greece and Rome : Civilization of the Ancient Mediterranean
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- Charles Freeman / Hardcover / Published 1996
- The Egyptian Book of the Dead : The Book of Going Forth by Day
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- Raymond Oliver Faulkner (Translator/Editor) / Hardcover / Published 1994
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- Egyptian Heaven and Hell
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- E. A. Budge, A. E. W. Budge / Paperback / Published 1988
- Egyptian Life (British Museum)
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- Miriam Stead / Paperback / Published 1986
- Egyptian Mummies
- Carol Andrews / Paperback / Published 1984
- Egyptian Pyramid
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- Elizabeth Longley / Hardcover / Published 1997
- Egypt : Antiquities from Above
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- Marilyn Bridges, Penelope Lively / Hardcover / Published 1996
- Egypt : Land of the Pharaohs (Lost Civilizations, No 1)
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- Hardcover / Published 1992
- Egypt : Splendors of an Ancient Civilization
- Alberto Siliotti, Alerto Siliotti / Hardcover / Published 1996
- Akhenaten : The Heretic King
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- Donald B. Redford / Paperback / Published 1987
- Secrets of the Great Pyramid
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- Peter Tompkins, Livio Catullo Stecchini / Hardcover / Published 1997
- The Face of Tutankhamun
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- Christopher Frayling (Editor) / Paperback / Published 1992
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Native American
- Cherokee Archaelogy
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- Bennie Keel / Paperback / Published 1988
- Chaco Canyon : Archaeology and Archaeologists
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- Robert H. Lister, Florence C. Lister / Paperback / Published 1984
- The Cheyenne (Peoples of America)
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- John H. Moore / Hardcover / Published 1996
- Choctaw Genesis 1500-1700 (Indians of the Southeast)
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- Patricia Galloway / Hardcover / Published 1995
- The Dream Seekers : Native American Visionary Traditions of the Great Plains (The Civilization of the American Indian Series , Vol 213)
~ Ships in 2-3 days
- Lee Irwin / Paperback / Published 1996
- Exploring Ancient Native America : An Archaeological Guide
~ Ships in 2-3 days
- David Hurst Thomas / Hardcover / Published 1994
- Fifty Years of Southeastern Archaeology : Selected Works of John W. Griffin
- John W. Griffin, Patricia C. Griffin (Editor) / Hardcover / Published 1996
- Emil W. Haury's Prehistory of the American Southwest
- Emil W. Haury, et al / Paperback / Published 1992
- Dynamics of Southwest Prehistory (Smithsonian Series in Archaeological Inquiry)
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- Linda S. Cordell, George J. Gumerman (Editor) / Paperback / Published 1993
- Early Archaic Indian Points and Knives
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- Robert W. Edler / Paperback / Published 1989
- The Archaeology of William Henry Holmes (Classics of Smithsonian Anthropology)
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- David J. Meltzer, Robert C. Dunnell (Editor) / Paperback / Published 1992
- Architecture and Power in the Ancient Andes : The Archaeology of Public Buildings (New Studies in Archaeology)
- Jerry D. Moore / Hardcover / Published 1996
- Creations of the Rainbow Serpent : Polychrome Ceramic Designs from Ancient Panama
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- Mary W. Helms / Hardcover / Published 1995
- The Day Before America
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- William H. MacLeish, Will Bryant (Illustrator) / Hardcover / Published 1994
- Hidden Cities : The Discovery and Loss of Ancient North American Civilization
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- Roger G. Kennedy / Hardcover / Published 1994
- Indian Art of Ancient Florida
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- Barbara A. Purdy, Roy C., Jr Craven (Photographer) / Hardcover / Published 1996
- Living the Sky : The Cosmos of the American Indian
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- Ray A. Williamson / Paperback / Published 1987
- The Mimbres : Art and Archaeology
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- Jesse Walter Fewkes, Jesse Walter Fewkwes / Paperback / Published 1989
- Prehistoric Astronomy in the Southwest
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- J. McKim Malville, Claudia Putnam / Paperback / Published 1993
- Pyramids of Tucume : The Quest for Peru's Forgotten City
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- Thor Heyerdahl, et al / Hardcover / Published 1995
- Teotihuacan : An Experiment in Living
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- Esther Pasztory / Hardcover / Published 1997
(Special Order)
- Copper Artifacts in Late Eastern Woodlands Prehistory
- Claire Garber Goodman, Anne-Marie Cantwell (Editor) / Hardcover / Published 1984
(Special Order)
- Domestic Architecture, Ethnicity, and Complementarity in the South-Central Andes
- Mark S. Aldenderfer (Editor) / Hardcover / Published 1993
(Special Order)
- Domestic Ceramic Production and Spatial Organization : A Mexican Case Study in Ethnoarchaeology (New Studies in Archaeology)
- Philip J. Arnold / Hardcover / Published 1991
(Special Order)
- Ideology : And Pre-Columbian Civilizations (School of American Research Advanced Seminar Series)
- Arthur A. Demarest, Geoffrey W. Conrad (Editor) / Hardcover / Published 1992
(Special Order)
- Native American Bows (Special Publications / Missouri Archaeological Society, No. 5)
- T. M. Hamilton / Paperback / Published 1982
(Special Order)
- The Painted Rock of California : LA Piedra Pintada : A Legend
- Myron Angel / Paperback / Published 1979
- Pre-Columbian Collections in European Museums
- Anne-Marie Hocquenghem (Editor) / Hardcover / Published 1988
(Special Order)
- Prehistoric Basketry of the Lower Pecos, Texas (Monographs in World Archaeology, No 6)
- Roberta McGregor / Paperback / Published 1992
(Special Order)
Read more about this title...
- Rock Art of the Southern Black Hills : A Contextual Approach (The Evolution of North American Indians)
- Linea Sundstrom / Hardcover / Published 1991
(Special Order)
- Southwestern Pottery : An Annotated Bibliography and List of Types and Wares
- Norman T. Oppelt / Hardcover / Published 1988
(Special Order)
- Stone, Bone, Antler, & Shell : Artifacts of the Northwest Coast
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- Hilary Stewart, Ki-Ke-In (Introduction) / Hardcover / Published 1996
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Greek
- Schliemann of Troy : Treasure and Deceit
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- David A. Traill / Hardcover / Published 1996
- Schliemann of Troy : Treasure and Deceit
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- David A. Traill / Paperback / Published 1997
- The Search for Ancient Greece (Discoveries Series)
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- Roland Etienne, et al / Paperback / Published 1992
- Approaches to Greek Myth
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- Lowell Edmunds (Editor) / Paperback / Published 1990
- The Archaeology of Greece : An Introduction
- William R. Biers / Hardcover / Published 1996
- Artemis : Goddess of the Hunt and Moon (Little Wisdom Library)
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- Manuela Dunn-Mascetti / Hardcover / Published 1996
- Athena : Goddess of War and Wisdom (Little Wisdom Library)
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- Manuela Dunn-Mascetti / Hardcover / Published 1996
- Athenian Myths and Institutions : Words in Action
- William Blake Tyrrell, Frieda S. Brown / Paperback / Published 1991
- The Decipherment of Linear B
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- John Chadwick / Paperback / Published 1990
- Did the Greeks Believe in Their Myths? : An Essay on the Constitutive Imagination
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- Paul Veyne / Paperback / Published 1988
- Fate, Love, and Ecstasy : Wisdom from the Lesser-Known Goddesses of the Greeks
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- John A. Sanford / Hardcover / Published 1995
- The Goddess : Mythological Images of the Feminine
~ Usually ships in 24 hours
- Christine Downing / Paperback / Published 1996
- Gods and Heroes; Story of Greek Mythology : The Story of Greek Mythology
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- Michael Foss / Paperback / Published 1995
- Greece : Temples, Tombs, & Treasures (Lost Civilizations)
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- Time-Life Books (Editor) / Hardcover / Published 1994
- Greek and Egyptian Mythologies
- Yves Bonnefoy, Wendy Doniger (Translator) / Paperback / Published 1992
- The Greek Gods
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- Bernard Evslin, et al / Paperback / Published 1995
- Greek Mythology : An Introduction
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- Fritz Graf, Thomas Marier (Translator) / Hardcover / Published 1993
- Greek Myths
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- Olivia Coolidge / Hardcover / Published 1949
- The Greek Myths Vol 1
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- Robert Graves / Paperback / Published 1991
- Greek Myths
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- Robert Graves / Paperback / Published 1992
- Greek Myths (The Legendary Past)
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- Lucilla Burn / Paperback / Published 1991
- Greek Myths : Gods, Heroes and Monsters : Their Sources, Their Stories and Their Meanings
- Ellen Switzer, Costas / School & Library Binding / Published 1988
- Greek Painted Pottery
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- R. M. Cook / Paperback / Published 1997
- Classical Greece : Ancient Histories and Modern Archaeologies (New Directions in Archaeology)
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- Ian Morris (Editor) / Paperback / Published 1994
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Roman
- Early Rome and Latium : Economy and Society C. 1000 to 500 Bc (Oxford Classical Monographs)
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- Christopher John Smith / Hardcover / Published 1996
- The Cults of the Roman Empire (Ancient World (Oxford, England).)
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- Robert Turcan, Antonia Nevill (Translator) / Paperback / Published 1996
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Other
- The Druids (Ancient Peoples and Places Series)
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- Stuart Piggott / Paperback / Published 1985
- Empires Beyond the Great Wall : The Heritage of Genghis Khan
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- Adam T. Kessler, Adam T. Kellser / Paperback / Published 1997
- Empires Beyond the Great Wall : The Heritage of Genghis Khan
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- Adam T. Kessler / Hardcover / Published 1994
- Stone Age Farmers Beside the Sea : Scotland's Prehistoric Village of Skara Brae
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- Caroline Arnold, Arthur P. Arnold (Photographer) / School & Library Binding / Published 1997
- Celtic Britain
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- Charles Thomas / Paperback / Published 1997
- Celtic Goddesses : Warriors, Virgins and Mothers
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- Miranda Green / Hardcover / Published 1996
- China's Buried Kingdoms (Lost Civilizations)
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- Editors of Time Life Books / Hardcover / Published 1993
- The Celtic World
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- Miranda J. Green (Editor) / Paperback / Published 1996
(20%)
- Celts and the Classical World
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- David Rankin / Paperback / Published 1996
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