September 2015, Templar, 112 pages, Hardback, Review copy
Content: historical images and facts
Book summary
Welcome to the museum! Here you will find a collection of objects from
ancient civilisations. Objects of beauty, functionality, war, life,
death and burial. As you wander from room to room, explore the
magnificence of what civilisations have left behind over thousands of
years of human history!
Nayu's thoughts
I've
possibly said this before, but I took my degree in Ancient History
(technically I 'read' Ancient History, but I never understood that
bizarre terminology when talking about degrees). Show me mere
pot fragments and I'll go gooey-eyed, envisioning the past lives which
the pot feature in.
It is a big book, just a
smidge longer (height) than from the top of my middle finger to my
elbow, and the length of my forearm for the width, which makes it a
heavy tome. Heavy is relative as part of my medical condition is that
I have little strength, so almost everything is heavy. Either way
it's not one you can pop in your bag, but it's more of a reference
book.
I love how all the different ancient eras are explored, looking
at a few key artefacts of the time. It's an exciting read, for
history geeks (I used to be one and kind of still am one, I guess!)
and also if you don't think much of history yet. It's fascinating
seeing what those before us used for decorations and daily lives, as
it gives us a glimpse into their mindset, and how they viewed life. There
are hundreds of thousands of ancient artifacts, it must have been
hard to narrow down which to include in Historium
but the collection chosen provides a wide variety of what's out
there.
There's some general information about the particular time and
people looked at, as well as finer details about the images shown. My
personal favourites are an Egyption scarab necklace (item #26 under
Ancient Egypt)
because it's simple and pretty, despite me not being a
jewellery person, and perhaps inevitably an intricately decorated
Chinese pot (item #9).
 |
| I love the simple elegance of the black and white, with highly detailed pattern. |
I find some of the exhibits a bit freaky, but
considering I scare easily it's not entirely surprising. This is
definitely a taster of the delights that artefacts from the ancient
world provide, and will hopefully get many more interested in the
past.
Suggested read
Another great history book is Archaeology Detectives by Simon Adams (Children's, Non-fiction, 10/10E)
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