This is a compelling journey through the lives of those intrepid excavators and decipherers who revealed buried cities, lost civilizations and forgotten scripts to the modern world.

200 years of archaeological research, excavation and thought are told entertainingly and knowledgeably by some of the world's greatest living archaeologists through the life stories of seventy of the greatest pioneers, setting little-known names beside the giants in the field. This fascinating book is full of intriguing anecdotes, personal accounts and revealing insights.

Editor, Brian Fagan is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at the University of California,Santa Barbara.