Archaeologists are increasingly staking a claim, and rightly, to being scientists as their disciplines include an expanding dependence upon evidence management and diagnostic tests. Thus, one might think of them as “scientific historians,” as their hypotheses and conclusions increasingly depend upon scientific insights and rigorous physical proofs. This increase in analytical rigor enhances the archaeologist’s traditional role of supplementing written history with material evidence, which often contradicts history written exclusively by elites. Most exciting of all are the possibilities to better understand the preliterate and the untranslatable civilizations, which are evidenced only by their ruins.
Recently, archaeology has expanded its activities to include more modern artifacts, dating up to the twentieth century. The consequence of this is to enrich written history with illustrative artifacts, to bring to light that which was overlooked, and to contradict historic misstatements.
The following list is selected from those who have advanced my understanding of the post-glacial period (Holocene) in the geographic arena of the Raising Up Pharaoh epic. This understanding includes: paleoclimatology, technology, flora, fauna, and material culture, as well as analysis of earlier and later stages of civilization—the essentials for interpolating, or extrapolating backwards into the story’s setting.
One final caveat regarding this list: Raising Up Pharaoh is a fictional account of what might have happened in a tiny and far distant sliver of time, and takes great liberties with what these archaeologists and other writers might theorize in their peer-reviewed and scientific profession. But, I owe these professionals a debt of gratitude for shining light on those dark, distant times, and igniting my imagination with a setting for a high-stakes epic romance and adventure.
Akkermans, Professor Dr. Peter
Albright, William Foxwell
Alizadeh, Abbas
Anthony, David A.
Ballard, Robert
Bass, George Fletcher
Bibby, Geoffrey
- Wikipedia
- Author of Looking for Dilmun
- New York Times Obituary
- Britannica
- Dilmun in Wikipedia
Breasted, James Henry
- “Wikipedia”
- Google pictures
- The Human Adventure 1934 film by Breasted
- (YouTube) “OI Lecture on Collecting Antiquities the Old-fashioned way.
Burke, Aaron A.
- Warfare in Levant and Ancient Israel.
- The History and Archaeology of Jaffa I (Monumenta Archaeologica 26)
- UCLA: Near Eastern Languages & Cultures
Carter, Robert.
Casson, Lionel
Castor, Alexis Q.
Cline, Eric H.
Dalley, Stephanie M.
Drews, Robert
Edwards, Iorwerth E. S.
Fagan, Brian
Jacobsen, Thorkild
James, T. G. H.
Kemp, Barry J.
Kenoyer, Jonathan Mark
- 2010 OI Lecture: Meluhha: the Indus Civilization and its Contacts with Mesopotamia
- Harappan Civilization .
Kenyon, Kathleen
Kramer, Samuel Noah
Lambeck, Kurt
Magoffin, Ralph Van Deman
Mazar, Amihay
Max Mallowan
McIntosh, Jane
Midant-Reynes, Béatrix
Mithen, Steven J.
Nissen, Hans Jörg
Oates, David
Oates, Joan
Peilstöcker, Martin
Petrie, Sir William Matthew Flinders
Postgate, Nicholas
Redford, Donald B.
Renfrew, Colin
Roaf, Michael
Romer, John
Rose, Jeffrey I.
Roux, Georges
Stager, Larry
Stein, Gil
Trigger, Bruce G
Wachsmann, Shelley
Weeks, Kent R
Wooley, Sir Leonard
- Wikipedia
- Encyclopedia Britannica
- Penn Museum, Obituary
- VIDEO: Treasures of the Royal Tombs at Ur
- VIDEO: The Standard of Ur
Zangger, Eberhard