Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology, 5/e
Kenneth L Feder,
Central Connecticut State University
ISBN: 0072869488 Copyright year: 2006
New to This Edition
The treatment of the history and archaeology of ancient Egypt has been combined and greatly expanded in an exciting new chapter (9) that focuses on the evolution of Egyptian civilization and includes a detailed discussion of the development of the pyramid as a monument to the deceased pharaoh.
The discussion of the historical and archaeological investigation of the initial human settlement of the New World and of the evidence of the exploration and settlement of the New World by people from the Old has been entirely reorganized, combined into a single chapter (5), and made more succinct. New material includes a detailed discussion of the Piri Reis Map and the claim made in a recent popular book by author Gavin Menzies that the Chinese discovered and settled the New World some seventy years before the first Columbus expedition.
The story of the Cardiff Giant (Chapter 3) is now much more firmly grounded within a general discussion of archaeological fraud; it addresses the recent exposure of the Fujimura debacle in Japan and details the ways in which Connecticut archaeologists exposed the Pachaug Forest archaeological fakes.
A detailed discussion of Ryan and Pitman's hypothesis that the biblical flood story was inspired by a catastrophic, post-Pleistocene infilling of the Black Sea is presented in chapter 11.
Chapter 1 details new surveys of levels of student acceptance of extreme claims about the human past.
Chapter 2 includes an updated discussion of the science behind the solution of the childbed fever mystery.
All of the "Best of the Web" sections have been updated, and this edition offers brief descriptions of each site. This website, provides links to all the "Best of the Web" sites listed in the book and offers an updated "Video Companion Guide."
The discussion of Creationism has been expanded and now includes a discussion of the theory of Intelligent Design.
To obtain an instructor login for this Online Learning Center, ask your local sales representative.
If you're an instructor thinking about adopting this textbook, request a free copy for review.
2006 McGraw-Hill Higher Education