The Bull of Minos

The Great Discoveries of Ancient Greece

Leonard Cottrell author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Published:30th Aug '09

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

The Bull of Minos cover

A story of two of the most heroic, and controversial, figures in archaeology: Heinrich Schliemann, who discovered the remains of Troy, and Arthur Evans who unearthed the great city of King Minos. Replete with drama and adventure, it tells of the 3,000-year old civilisations that were brought back to life.

The cities of Troy and Knossos are the stuff of legend. One, the city of Homer's "Iliad", of Paris, Hector and Helen; the other home to a king who built a labyrinth in which to hide his monstrous son. This is the story of two of the most heroic, and controversial, figures in archaeology: Heinrich Schliemann, who discovered the remains of Troy, and Arthur Evans who unearthed the great city of King Minos. Ranking alongside Carter's discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb, the discoveries at Troy and Knossos enabled a new understanding of Prehistoric Greece, the very dawn of civilisation.They also proved that what until then had only been myths and daydreams were actually real. The Cretans did indeed worship the cult of the bull. Achilles and Agamemnon really did live. Replete with drama and adventure, "The Bull of Minos" tells of the 3,000-year old civilisations that were brought back to life, of the extraordinary men who toiled in their dusty ruins and of the magic and mystery of life in a world of gods and warriors.

'The story of the heroic discoveries grips him and communicates itself to his readers, who must welcome a book both scholarly and easy, painstaking and alive.' - Freya Stark, Time and Tide; 'This book is a stimulating introduction to the Mycenaean Age of Greece.' - Sir John Forsdyke, Sunday Times; 'Cottrell has not only passionately studied the literature of Aegean archaeology, but he has visited most of the important sites and conveys vividly his sense of excitement and discovery.' - The Guardian; '[Cottrell is] at his best when communicating that fresh and fateful sense of life which must have prevailed in very ancient times when gods walked the earth like men. It is this feeling of epiphany which makes Mr. Cottrell's book a most worthwhile popularisation of its subject.' - E.B. Garside

ISBN: 9781845119423

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 248g

232 pages