King Arthur and the Holy Grail, the lost tomb of Alexander the Great and the story of Atlantis: the human past is full of unsolved mysteries. In The Seventy Great Mysteries of the Ancient World twenty-eight leading authorities draw on modern science and the latest research to explore some of archaeology's most baffling controversies and enigmas, from our origins to the mysterious collapse of powerful civilizations. Was there ever a Garden of Eden? What became of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel and what is the significance of megaliths or the Aboriginal Dreamtime? Myths and Legends From Jason and the Argonauts to the Ark of the Covenant, from the Trojan War to Maya myth. Mysteries of the stone age How did language evolve? What happened to the Neanderthals? Who were the first Australians? Was there a mother goddess cult? The Iceman: shepherd or shaman? How did they build Stonehenge? Ancient civilizations Were the Egyptians black Africans? How did they erect pyramids and obelisks? Bog bodies: murder victims or sacrifices? The lost legions of Rome; The mystery of the Nazca lines. Tombs and lost treasuresThe puzzle of Egypt's Tomb 55; The lost tomb of Alexander the Great; The hidden treasure of the Dead Sea; The tomb of Christ. Ancient and undeciphered scripts From the origins of the alphabet to the Indus script, from the Etruscan alphabet to runes and rongorongo. The fall of civilizations From the collapse of Minoan civilization to the fall of Rome, from El Niños to catastrophic impacts from outer space. Packed with evocative photographs and informative diagrams, maps and plans, The Seventy Great Mysteries of the Ancient World is a unique guide to some of the most contentious issues of the human past, offering a window on vanished worlds.