Archaeology Magazine - June 1957 - 69

ulate much speculation.However, they
have too ambitious a format for the
present material: one is deluded into
expectingadvanced syntheseswhen, in
fact, one receives a series of short reports on scattered or inconclusivedata.
Chapters XII and XIII, on caves
still under investigation, describe important stratigraphie sequences. At
Hagfet et-Tera Levalloiso-Mousterian
(with indication of Aterian and a very
moot transitional phase) underlies two
blade industries.,the one an Oranian
facies, the other perhaps ancestral to
it. This sequence needs fuller illustration and clarification of arguments
about conflicting findings. Hagfet edDabba, well presented, has five horizons of a Capsian-like blade industry
in developmental sequence involving
east Mediterranean influence. Hauah
Fteah, un-illustrated and treated mostly
in a footnote, proves that in this region this Capsian tradition precedes
the Oranian. Carbon 14 dates on these
and a Neolithic horizon provide a time
scale.
Chapter XIV, on the sketchy Palaeolithic finds of the two provincesflanking Cyrenaica, gives evidence of the

Exciting

The

same industries but no proven sequences. In Sirtica are dunes with a
distinctive pre-Neolithic geometric microlith and bladelet industry, not here
illustrated, for which the author proposes the name "Sirtican." In Tripolitania Middle Palaeolithic and Aterian
are associatedwith fluvial deposits,and
a late or post-Capsian midden is sampled. Only the Aterian is illustrated.
Chapter XV treats North Libyan
Neolithic surface sites. To give these
meaning the author digresses to distant Egypt. There are sharp typological
contrasts east and west of Sirtica, as if
that coastal region had been a barrier
and not a highway.
Hypothesesinclude over-all similarities during the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic and increasingly specialized
industries as conditions localized circulation in Upper Palaeolithic and
later times. The volume will certainly
be a guide to this terra incognita for
some time to come, providing a framework of natural and cultural events
to which later finds may be related.
Bruce Howe
Peabody Museum
Harvard University

"information
N.Y.TIMESBOOK
REVIEW

Forgotten

G.
THEANCIENT
MAYA,
by SyLVANUS
Morley. Third Edition, revised by
George W. Brainerd. x, 494 pages,
57 figures, 102 plates, 10 tables. Stanford University Press, Stanford 1956
$10.00
In its first two editions this ambitious volume proved successfulbeyond
all expectations,in spite of its idiosyncrasies and prolixity. A revised edition is thus extremelywelcome,particularly since it is the work of another
Maya scholar who was equally well
versed in things Maya and had a somewhat broader perspective.
Certain changes from the previous
editions are at once noticeable: fewer
pages make the book more manageable, and the oversizecharts and drawings are gone or reduced to page size.
But nearly all the original illustrations
remain, with excellent additions such
as the Palenque tomb and the Bonampak murals. Reduction of the text
has been accomplishedby dropping a
few sections and by skilful editing.
But the style of presentation is still
basicallyMorley's,with only four chapters drastically revised: "The Old Em-

for 4500

years

Mountains

Pharaoh

by LEONARD COTTRELL
ROMthe early grave robbers to the fabulous
F discoveries of
today- "A fascinating story.
. . . All of the famous Egyptologists appear in
these pages, not as dry-as-dust technical experts,
but as explorers investigating the most monuT
mental tombs ever erected by man. „-John
Barkham, Saturday Review Syndicate. 24 pages
of photos, diagrams.
$5.00

pyramid
by B. M. ZAKARIA GONEIM
brilliant young Egyptian archaeologist
Thegives us a step-by-step account of the study,
the search and the actual excavation that led to
one of the most important discoveries of our
time- the pyramid of Sekhem-khet at Saqqarah,
l°st i*1 the shifting desert sands. His is an
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more than 45 centuries to enter [this] Egyptian
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$3.50
photos, diagrams.

Order from your bookseller, or from RINEHART& COMPANY,INC. 232 MadisonAvenue,NewYork16

149

Archaeology Magazine - June 1957

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - June 1957