Books in Digging Up the Past. series

Delving into one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world, The Valley of the Kings is a fascinating account of the modern discovery of Egyptian tombs. Stuart Tyson Smith and Nancy Stone Bernard provide a history of excavation in Egypt, an analysis of its findings, and discuss the preservation challenges scientists and archaeologists face today. Filled with stunning artifacts and pictures of archaeologists at work -- from 80 years ago when Howard Carter first looked into King Tut's tomb to the recent excavation by Kent Weeks's team of KV5 -- Valley of the Kings brings to life the experience of sifting through rubble and suddenly finding unimaginable treasures that reveal how an ancient people lived. An interview with Stuart Tyson Smith, who worked on the massive Theban Mapping Project -- a ten-year endeavor to document the tombs -- and was a consultant for the movies Stargate, The Mummy, and The Mummy Returns, is a first-person story of what it's like to be an archaeologist and what he has to tell young people interested in archaeology as a career.

New Mexico, northwestern corner. Here, amidst the greasewood bushes and clouds of dry, sandy soil, are the silent ruins of colossal mud and wooden houses, a mysterious remnant of an ancient civilization. In Chaco Canyon , readers learn about the discovery of these amazing structures and follow generations of archaeologists as they uncover the secrets of the canyon's past. A veritable early Native American detective story, the book includes numerous sidebars on archaeological techniques, timelines, related sites, photographs and illustrations of the sites and artifacts, and a fascinating interview with archaeologist Gwinn Vivian who grew up in the canyon.

Buried beneath modern Mexico City lie the remnants of a nearly 700-year old city that the Spanish conqueror Hernan Cortes described as the most beautiful in the world. During the time of the Aztecs, Tenochtitlan was located in the middle of a shining blue lake and was home to more than 200,000 people. Tenochtitlan was bigger, cleaner, and more elegantly laid out than any European city of its time. The Spanish, fearful of a religion that included human sacrifice, tried to destroy any evidence of this magnificent city. They eventually conquered Tenochtitlan, and Mexico City quickly grew in its place. Archaeologists typically discover the remains of a city and then try to learn about its culture. With Tenochtitlan, archaeologists were faced with the opposite task. Through thousands of documents, historians knew about the culture, people, and buildings of Tenochtitlan; they just needed to uncover the city. In 1790, workers paving the main plaza of Mexico City found their first clue: a three-ton statue of a goddess wearing a skirt of rattlesnakes. But it was not until the discovery of the Great Temple in 1978 that archaeologists could start a true, long-term excavation of Tenochtitlan. Archaeologists have since found more than 9,000 artifacts and evidence of numerous buildings. In this book, Leonardo Lopez Lujan, who has been excavating Tenochtitlan since 1980, and co-author Judy Levin uncover the culture and history of Tenochtitlan that the Spanish tried so hard to destroy.