Featured Books On Ancient America
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Featured Books On Ancient America |
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In this section I will feature books, magazines, and videos on Ancient America. If you can suggest other items that have been useful to you, please use my comment page to send me your suggestions. The items described below are linked from the official Amazon.com site and the prices listed are the normal prices generated by their system. My relationship to them is that I get a small percentage of the sale price when you follow one of my links into their site to purchase an item. There is no additional markup for the Amazon.com items which I feature.
| 1421: The Year China Discovered America, by Gavin Menzies, puts the spotlight on ancient China as the preeminent naval and scientific power of the fifteenth century. Not only did they visit America before Columbus, they mapped the whole world and set the stage for the coming cycle of European exploration and colonization. I accept Menzies' theory that China sent an official expedition to North America (and every other continent) seventy years before Columbus, but I cannot accept the implication of the book's title that they therefore "discovered" America. The Phoenicians, the Romans, the Greeks, the Celts, the Basques, the Ainu, the Egyptians, the Norse, the Arabs, the ancient powers of India, the Polynesians, and every other sea-faring culture before that most certainly got to North and South America before fifteenth century China. Menzies has a web site at www.1421.tv/ where he features news about the books' impact world-wide and documents the huge response of additional clues and testimony which continue to pour in since the books release. The readers who have posted reviews in Amazon.com do not seem to be aware of the books' supporting web site or they choose not to mention it. One reader has the following comments on the book,"For many years there have been theories proposing that China discovered the world before Columbus, Magellan, Tasman et al. Now, following Louise Levathes' ground-breaking work 'When China Ruled the Seas', Mr.Menzies has drawn on her researches, supplementing them with his own material and, using his specialist nautical and navigational skills, has expanded our knowledge of Chinese exploration immensely... Much of his findings are surmise, backed by a healthy dose of extrapolation and hunch, but the circumstantial evidence is very convincing..." You can click the linked image at left to purchase this book from Amazon.com right now, or you can follow this link to see all reviews and information about the book in the Amazon.com site. | |
| The Zuni Enigma: A Native American People's Possible Japanese Connection, by Nancy Yaw Davis, presents evidence to support Dr. Davis' theory that the Zuni people of the American Southwest received some significant influx of Japanese genes and culture in the ancient past. One reader states the following about the book,"Anthropologist Nancy Yaw Davis was first struck by similarities between a chart of yin-yang cosmology and the Zuni religious system she had already mapped as a grad student in 1960. Gathering suggestive evidence from a variety of disciplines, from ceramics and linguistics to medical/genetic, she has taken 40 years to bring it all together in this book, so one could hardly accuse her of rushing to publish! Her thesis is that Japanese immigrants -- perhaps Buddhist priests, perhaps peasants fleeing persecution or seeking a better life -- crossed the Pacific and made their way to the Southwest interior by the late 13th century, to merge with the locals (Anasazi?) and give rise to the Zuni. Her evidence is all circumstantial, but quite suggestive, perhaps even persuasive." You can click the linked image at left to purchase this book from Amazon.com right now, or you can follow this link to see all reviews and information about the book in the Amazon.com site. | |
| Skull Wars: Kennewick Man, Archaeology, and the Battle for Native American Identity, by David Hurst Thomas, gives historical perspective to the conflicts that arise btween Native American tribes, academicians, and government interests when ancient artifacts are discovered anywhere in America. Kennewick Man is a recent case that Thomas uses to illustrate these conflicts, but the majority of the book is really focused on the evolution of cultrural relations between Native American tribes and Americans of European descent. One reader says the following about the book,"Skull Wars is a superb read - engagingly written and forcefully presented - it has relevance well beyond the anthropological and Native American communities. Thomas'interweaving of history, American socio-political history and the emergence of social sciences as practiced in the US is fascinating. He's packed an amazing amount of research into this volume. I learned much and disagree with little." You can click the linked image at left to purchase this book from Amazon.com right now, or you can follow this link to see all reviews and information about the book in the Amazon.com site. | |
| Ancient Encounters : Kennewick Man and the First Americans, by James Chatters, gives an inside account of the inception and development of controversy that surrounded the discovery of the remains of the so-called Kennewick Man on the Columbia River. Chatters is the anthropologist who was calle into classify the remains of Kennewick Man when they were first discovered. The average customer review is four stars. You can click the linked image at left to purchase this book from Amazon.com right now, or you can follow this link to see all reviews and information about the book in the Amazon.com site. | |
| Lost Cities of North & Central America (The Lost City Series), by David Hatcher Childress, focusses on the myths and evidence that accompany the many ancient ruins that he has visited in North and Central America. Childress is a wonderfully entertaining phenomenon in his own right and his books are a travelogue of his many adventures in the quest to reach and explore each site. One reader says the following about this book,"I received this book as a birthday present last month from a friend who has read a number of Childress's books. As we share an interest in anthropology and have visited some of the sites in New Mexico mentioned in this book, she thought I would enjoy it. And I did! This book is part travelogue, part archaeology text, and part collection of legends, folktales, and any odd theories he comes across. The mix makes for interesting reading. Childress is intelligent and well-informed but quirky as well. His observations on people he meets and life in the places he visits are at times insightful, funny, and strange." You can click the linked image at left to purchase this book from Amazon.com right now, or you can follow this link to see all reviews and information about the book in the Amazon.com site. | |
| Lost Cities and Ancient Mysteries of South America (Lost Cities Series), by David Hatcher Childress, recounts his adventures and discoveries in South America in the quest for ancient ruins on that continent. David goes boldly where most poor mortals would fear to tread. We are much safer in reading his books than we would be in actually journeying to any of the places he describes. One reader says the following about this book,"Childress' breezy travelogue takes us through a dozen different societies, ancient and modern, with a fair amount of speculation that most academics wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole: the lost continents of Atlantis and Mu and how they relate to the rise of Inca civilization; supposed alien visitors; Amazon dinosaurs still on the prowl; a tunnel system spanning the American continent; a half-dozen myths of missing gold-hordes... nothing here that would impress the professor, but it certainly is an entertaining read, and the theories about South America's ancient colonies, including the Irish (!), Egyptians and Romans, are fun to ponder over. Moreover, Childress' tone throughout places his book above the usual alternative-history exhortations, for he takes each and every story/legend with a grain of salt, even discrediting some by pointing to obvious discrepancies. By compiling these theories, he lets the reader sort through it all rather than try to hammer in a belief structure. The good-natured ease of the author's voice as he distills these legends/theories makes this tome a pleasant affair rather than tedious or obnoxious." You can click the linked image at left to purchase this book from Amazon.com right now, or you can follow this link to see all reviews and information about the book in the Amazon.com site. | |
| Lions in the New Land: The Epic Adventures of Friar Nicholas in the Enchanted Isles,by Gunnar Thompson, details evidence that a Frnciscan friar traveled to Norse America in the 14th century as an agent of the English crown. A portion of an editrorial review states the following, "We now have evidence in the form of a map and a manuscript, the Inventio Fortunatae, confirming that English Franciscans traveled to the New World at the very dawn of the Age of Discovery. At this point in time, the "New Land" was claimed as a sovereign realm under the aegis of King Magnus Eriksson—ruler of both Norway and Sweden. It is also clear that the Friar’s Map played a crucial role in early Portuguese and Spanish navigation." You can click the linked image at left to purchase this book from Amazon.com right now, or you can follow this link to see all reviews and information about the book in the Amazon.com site. | |
| The Lost Treasure of King Juba: The Evidence of Africans in America before Columbus,by Frank Joseph, provides evidence that a remnant of the north African kingdom of Mauretania fled a Roman campaign of destruction to North America. A portion of an editrorial review states the following, "In 1982 Russell E. Burrows, a treasure hunter in southern Illinois, stumbled on a cache of ancient weapons, jewels, and gold sarcophagi in a remote cave. There also were stone tablets inscribed with illustrations of Roman-like soldiers, Jews, early Christians, and West African sailors. These relics fueled a bitter controversy in the archaeological community regarding their authenticity, leading Burrows to destroy the entrance to the cave. Researching more than 7,000 artifacts removed from the cave before it was sealed, Frank Joseph explains how these objects came to be buried in the middle of the United States. It started with Cleopatra, whose daughter was made queen of the semi-independent realm of Mauretania, present-day Morocco, which she ruled with her husband, King Juba II. Following the execution of their son, Ptolemy, by Emperor Caligula, the Mauretanians rebelled against their Roman overlords and made their way into what is now Ghana. There they constructed a fleet of ships for a transatlantic voyage to a land where they hoped to rebuild their kingdom safe from Roman rule. They took with them a great prize unsuccessfully sought by two Roman emperors: Cleopatra's golden treasure and King Juba's encyclopedic library of ancient wisdom." You can click the linked image at left to purchase this book from Amazon.com right now, or you can follow this link to see all reviews and information about the book in the Amazon.com site. | |
| America B.C.,by Barry Fell, is a 347 page paperback that is currently out of print, as far as I know, but some copies of it are still available. In this volume Fell presents some of his evidence for a variety of cultural and linguistic influences that came to America from origins other than the Norse or later European sources found in the standard model. I have a personal copy of this book and other books by Fell, and I think his books should be read by everyone interested in the pre-Columbian history of America. Fell is criticised by the specialists in anthropology and linquistics for possible errors in particular details of his work, but as a pioneer in the diffusionist view of American history I think he helped to refocus our vision in a way that was sorely needed. You can click the linked image at left to purchase this book from Amazon.com right now, or you can follow this link to see all reviews and information about the book in the Amazon.com site. | |
| Ancient American [MAGAZINE SUBSCRIPTION] is a bi-monthly magzine (6 issues per year) that features non-standard research articles on the archaeology of the Americas. I have a personal subscription to this magazine and I consider it to be a valualbe window into the world of non-standard American archaeological research. The research and writing found in this publication varies in quality from the amateurish to the profession, but if you are interested in all of the research being done to document ancient American history then this magazine offers reports and theories that you will not see explored anywhere else. You can click the linked image at left to purchase this subscription from Amazon.com right now, or you can follow this link to see all reviews and information about this magazine in the Amazon.com site. |
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