The Search for Civilization: Archaeology--A Secret History (Enhanced DVD)

Dr. Miles discusses the differences between written history and archeological studies. His quest to help you understand the foundations of some civilizations begins near Mount Vesuvius, where marble was uncovered in 1709. During this excavation, Herculaneum, a Roman theater buried since 79 A.D., was unearthed, along with the city of Pompeii by 1738. Miles crosses the Mediterranean and follows Napoleon's exploration of Egypt in 1798. The Rosetta Stone was discovered the following year, and museums were sponsoring public viewing of artifacts by the 19th century, when academia becomes involved with exploration, discovery, and collection. Technology begins to affect the studies, and photography and the process of dating artifacts becomes indispensable to collection and analysis of data. The discovery of cuneiform tablets reveals that civilization is much older than ancient Egypt and prompts archeological exploration to spread all over the globe. Miles' journey then shifts to Mexico and the ancient cities of Chiapas and Palenque in 1830, and the concept of independent ancient cultures existing all over the planet. The journey shifts again, back across the Atlantic and the Mediterranean to ancient remains in Turkey. Heinrich Schliemann, organizer of the Troy expedition, becomes the first to use stratigraphy to classify, correlate, and interpret stratified rock from dig test pits. From there Miles pursues Schliemann to Mycenaean Greece and demonstrates how he uses analytical chemistry to connect Troy and Mycenae. The last significant archeologist Miles discusses is General Augustus Henry Lane-Fox Pitt Rivers and his extremely carefully constructed excavation of Cranborne Chase, his meticulous storage of human remains during that dig, and the transformation of archeological technology since. 

The Search for Civilization: Archaeology--A Secret History

• Enhanced DVD
• ISBN: 978-0-81609-280-2
• Run Time: 52 Minutes
• Copy Right Date: 2013
• CC