Past Lives: Unlocking the Secrets of Our Ancestors - Softcover

Ian Wilson was born in London in 1941 and educated at Emanuel School, Wandsworth, and Magdalene College, Oxford, where he graduated in History in 1963. His previous books include THE TURIN SHROUD, which became a worldwide bestseller when published in 1978 and JESUS: THE EVIDENCE (1984), a companion to the major three-part TV series of the same name and another bestseller. THE BLOOD AND THE SHROUD was published in 1998. His biography of Shakespeare, SHAKESPEARE: THE EVIDENCE was published in 1993 and THE BIBLE IS HISTORY in 1999. All of his books have attracted critical acclaim.

Despite the supernatural-sounding title, this profusely illustrated volume is a solid, well-researched examination of new techniques for reconstructing the appearance of our ancestors, whether ancient or recent. The book offers a series of case studies that examine efforts by historians and reconstruction artists to give faces to the skulls of various longdead individuals. Here we meet an English farmer who died more than two millennia ago; Robert the Bruce, the fourteenth-century Scottish king; a Minoan priestess, dead for 3,600 years; and many others. We also meet the experts who, using a combination of science and artistic guesswork, bring these faces in history back to life. It's a fascinating subject--in learning more about what humans looked like in the distant past, we can also learn more about how they lived--and Wilson tells the story well, with some dramatic flair but mostly with solid scholarship. Recommended for readers with special interest in history, archaeology, and the forensic sciences. David Pitt
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