It is all too easy to see the ruins of former civilizations as ruins made up of piles of rubble. Sometimes submerged or obscured by our view, sometimes dry and dusty and surrounded by the paraphernalia of tourism, we may visit them, stand beside or even on them, but can we imagine our forebears going about their daily business there?In Lost Civilizations Austen Atkinson looks at the history of twenty civilizations, either lost to us completely, or surviving only as ruins or oblique references in literary works. He never loses sight of the one constant element in history: it is human beings that make up a civilization. Piecing together the disparate sources of information currently available to us, he conjures up a picture of a living, breathing community, and highlights the contemporary concerns of its citizens which strike a chord with us today.Lost Civilizations is the first book to combine new technologies such as satellite and land-based remote sensing images with archaeological discoveries to reveal the secrets of civilizations past. Specially commissioned computer-generated imagery recreates the sites of which there is barely a trace.This book will appeal to anyone with an interest in the exploitation of historical material through new technology. Read Less