From Black Land To Fifth Sun The Science Of Sacred Sites

by Fagan, Brian

• ISBN13: 9780738201412
• ISBN10: 0738201413
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-04-09
• Publisher: Basic Books

Summary

Until recently, archaeology was concerned mainly with piecing together the material lives of our ancestors. In this groundbreaking book, master storyteller and respected archaeologist Brian Fagan explains how cutting-edge science can now take us beyond the artifactsinto the mystical realm of shamans and spirit mediums, ancestor worship, and ritual sacrifice. From the Nile's black land to the Aztec's world of the Fifth Sun, from Stonehenge to Jericho, Fagan describes how Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, Geographic Information Systems, Computer Automated Design-mapping and other sophisticated scientific methods are helping us to decode the religious and spiritual beliefs of our forebears. This new "archaeology of the mind" blends a wealth of scientific disciplinesfrom botany, zoology, and geology to neuropsychology, palynology, and nuclear physics. With vivid imagery and a transporting voice, Fagan revolutionizes our understanding of the inner lives of ancient people.

Author Biography

Brian Fagan is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. A former Guggenheim Fellow, he has written many internationally acclaimed popular books about archaeology, including The Little Ice Age, Floods, Famines, and Emperors, and The Long Summer. He lives in Santa Barbara, California.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
The Archaeology of the Intangible	p. 1
Dark Caves, Obscure Visions	p. 23
San Artists in Southern Africa	p. 51
Fertility and Death	p. 70
Power and the Ancestors	p. 100
Avebury: Landscapes of the Ancestors	p. 115
Stonehenge and the Idea of Time	p. 143
Two Livings: Agriculture and Religion	p. 166
The Moundbuilders of Eastern North America	p. 184
The Bull beneath the Earth	p. 220
A Shrine at Phylakopi	p. 251
Divine Kings along the Nile	p. 270
Xunantunich: "The Maiden of the Rock"	p. 302
The World of the Fifth Sun	p. 332
Epilogue	p. 367
Guide to Further Reading	p. 374
References	p. 383
Index	p. 386
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