Author Description

Ivar Lissner, who dealt with the "great" civilizations of antiquity in his best-selling book, THE LIVING PAST, now lays before the reader a fascinating panorama of the strange peoples and cultures that once inhabited the earth but have since vanished from its surface, leaving only tantalizing hints of their way of life. THE SILENT PAST tells of the amazing Bronze Age culture that flourished on Sardinia 3,000 years ago; of the civilization that created a city on the site of Jericho, known to us from the Bible, 6,000 years before the birth of Christ; of the fabled Scythians of Roman history, who alone among ancient peoples resisted conquest by the dreaded Roman legions, of the men who built Avebury, Stonehenge and the other impressive monuments of the megalithic period. He has also investigated many of the legends of antiquity and by summing up the evidence of scores of sources, marshaled impressive answers to some of the ancient world's most famous riddles. Here is all that is known of the secrets of the oracles of Delphi and Dodona, of the location of the fabled King Solomon's mines, of the legendary city of Tartessus - of the story of Atlantis. Ivar Lissner ranges around the world, pausing on every continent to explore the lost and mysterious cultures of man. From the pages of THE SILENT PAST springs impressive evidence of the basic unity of man, and of his quest for spiritual values and the eternal life. THE SILENT PAST is exciting reading as a work of archaeology. It is also a profoundly moving spiritual document.