Photographs and text document life in Biblical times, surveying the clothing, food, and civilizations of a wide variety of cultures, including the Israelites, Babylonians, Persians, and Romans.

Using innovative linguistic techniques, along with methods from palaeobiology and other fields, this book shows that spinning and pattern weaving began far earlier than has been supposed. Cloth making was an industry that consumed more time and effort, and was more culturally significant to prehistoric cultures, than anyone previously assumed. The textile industry is in fact older than pottery, and perhaps even older than agriculture and stockbreeding....

"For half a millennium, throughout almost the entire medieval period, the Catholic church sanctioned military campaigns against what it perceived as its enemies. The rise of Islam and its spread across large parts of the Middle East, Asia, North Africa and even the peripheries of Europe, saw Muslim warriors seize the Holy Land, occupy Jerusalem and threaten Constantinople. In response, Pope Urban II advocated a crusade to retake the Holy Land -the...

In a beautiful volume featuring more than 170 maps and photographs, Mystery of the Ancient Seafarers follows the latest pursuits of National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Robert D. Ballard as he searches for clues to the ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean. An immediate tie-in with the 2004 PBS special, Ballard's excavation focuses primarily on the story of the Phoenicians--traders who ruled Mediterranean commerce for 1,000 years, then disappeared....

An archaeologist recounts expeditions he has led in which he and his colleagues discovered many ancient ships that had been under water for centuries.