Most believed it had begun when God placed Adam & Eve, fully formed, into the Garden of Eden. Archaeology changed all that. Besides revealing to us the treasures, tombs and cities of previously unimagined peoples, it has given us five million years of ancestors, transformed our ideas of who we are and where we come from, and has outlined our relationship with all other life on this planet. In Great Excavations, John Romer traces the history of archaeology from its inception in eighteenth-century Pompeii to the present day. He looks at the scientific advances made by key figures; tells the extraordinary stories of the personalities of archaeology s pioneers, scientists, adventurers and dreamers; deals with the big questions that continue to occupy archaeologists today; and examines how governments have used archaeology for their own political ends. This is a fascinating book, lavishly illustrated, that allows the world of archaeology to leap from the page straight into our imagination.