Centuries of Darkness: Challenge to the Conventional Chronology of Old World Archaeology

Centuries of Darkness: Challenge to the Conventional Chronology of Old World Archaeology

by Peter James (Author), I. J. Thorpe (Author), J.A. Frankish (Author), N. Kokkinos (Author), R. Morkot (Author)

Synopsis

The Old World has confronted archaelogoists with many riddles, perhaps the most tantalising of which is the Dark Age, an economic and cultural recession so devastating it lasted for 400 years from 1200 to 800 BC. Or did it? The dates for the Near East and Mediterranean are derived from the highly regarded chronology of ancient Egypt, but could not that itself have been miscalculated? This is the pioneering theory proposed by Peter James in an intricate piece of scholarly detective work. Deciphering the clues from papyri and pottery, he and his team of experts search layer by layer throught he excavated treasures of a vast area from Spain to Iran and from Denmark to Sudan, until they reach Egypt, the root of the labyrinthine riddle. It is here that they unearth 250 years of 'ghost history'. Once these are eliminated, fresh perspective is thrown on not only the reality of the Dark Age, but also on the Trojan War, the foundation of Rome, the origin of the Greek alphabet and the Golden Age of Solomon. Centuries of Darkness is a masterpiece of archeological reasoning which will revolutionise our view of the ancient world.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 434
Edition: 1st Edition
Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd
Published: 25 Apr 1991

ISBN 10: 022402647X
ISBN 13: 9780224026475

Author Bio
Peter James graduated in ancient history and archaeology at Birmingham University and is now engaged in postgraduate research at University College, London. He is the editor of the periodical Studies in Ancient Chronology, and has contirbuted articles to New Scientist and Current Archaeology. I.J. Thorpe graduated at Reading University and received his PhD on prehistoric Britain from London University. He is currently directing fieldwork projects in Cumbria and Denmark, and has published papers on prehistoric astronomy, burial papers and chronology. Nikos Kokkinos graduated at the Institute of Archaeology, London, and is now Dorothea Gray Senior Scholar at St Hugh's College, Oxford. He was a contributor to Chronological Studies for Jack Finegan (1989) and is the author of Jesus the Galilean (in Greek, 1980). Robert Morkot graduated in ancient history and Egyptology at University College, London. He is the G. A. Wainwright Research Fellow in Near Eastern Archaeology at Oxford Unirsity and is currently preparing the excavation reports of Sesibi (Egypt Exploration Society) and Faras (Oxford University). John Frankish, Aegean archaeologist, graduated at Liverpool Univeristy before taking up research studies at University College, London, and the British School at Athens. Between 1987 and 1989 he received a scholarship from the Greek goverment for fieldwork in Crete.