Author- Annalee Newitz (they/them)
Title- Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age
Publication date- February 2, 2021
Number of pages- 297; includes acknowledgement, notes, and index
Geographic setting- Çatalhöyük, Central Turkey; Pompeii, Italy; Angkor, Cambodia; Cahokia, North America; and their present day urban counterparts.
Time period- 7000 BCE in Çatalhöyük, Central Turkey; circa 91 BCE through 79CE in Pompeii, Italy; 500 BCE to the present day in Angkor, Cambodia; 900s through 1400s CE in Cahokia, North America.
Subject headings- Archaeology, Geography, History & Archaeology
Type- This book encompasses multiple types: history, social sciences, and travel narrative
Series note- This book is not part of a series
Book summary- Explore four great cities of human civilization that for present-day humans are often lost to the past. Part travelogue, part history, part archaeological dig, this book brings the cities of Çatalhöyük (Central Turkey), Pompeii (Itlay), Angkor (Cambodia), and Cahokia (North America) and their past inhabitants to life. Readers will learn about the earliest moments of human settlement, climate and geological changes that effect human ways of life, as well as the often deliberate abandonment that led to the ultimate destruction of these places. Readers will also explore what it means for a civilization to be lost. Author Annalee Newitz weaves hard fact into a fascinating and relatable history.
Reading elements-
Leisurely paced and reflective but the book won't overwhelm the reader with hard facts. Newitz's journalistic writing style keeps the book moving along.
Each "lost" city in this volume takes becomes a character, an organic entity, in these histories of past cities and their peoples.
While this book isn't highly narrative, there is a flow to the history of the content that keeps the book on the middle ground between highly narrative and hard fact book.
The intent of the author is to both educate and entertain, turning archaeological evidence, technique, and fact into a history that comes alive.
The book is highly focused on the history and archaeology of specific places, turning this subject matter into an intriguing story.
Each of the four sections begins with a hand-illustrated map of the city as it would have originally existed and these added details help the reader better engage with the text.
Newitz's journalistic writing style will help this book appeal to a range of non-fiction fans. Their lyrical style weaves hard fact into story making the reader want to turn the page to find out how the story goes and they are learning all the while.
The book is informative and light-hearted giving the book a neutral tone that allows the reader to learn and enjoy without being overwhelmed.
1-3 Annotation- Explore four great cities of human civilization that are often lost to the past. Part travellogue, part history, part archaeological dig, this book brings the cities of Çatalhöyük (Central Turkey), Pompeii (Itlay), Angkor (Cambodia), and Cahokia (North America) and their past inhabitants to life. Illuminated with hand-illustrated maps, this book weaves hard fact into an intriguing and relateble history of humanity.
Similar works-
The Invention of Yesterday: A 50,000-Year Investigation of Human Culture, Conflict, and Connection by Tamim Ansary- Despite the great breadth of information covered, this tome is a fascinating page-turner. Ansary combines history, archaeology, art history, linguistics, and more to create an incredible story of how humanity as we know it came to be. He also breaks down the commonly held notion that cities and cultures abruptly end instead examining the connections between civilizations proving that everything in life exists on a spectrum.
The Book: A Cover-to-Cover Exploration of the Most Powerful Object of Our Time by Keith Houston- While this book steps away from archaeology the storytelling style, turning history and fact into a page-turning story is very similar in Houston's work. Though focused on a specific object, the book, Houston still weaves in archaeology and the study of human civilizations to explore their connectedness as he attempts to determine how and why the book came to exist.
An Atlas of Extinct Countries by Gideon Defoe- This book also explores human civilizations that no longer exist pondering how they came to be and how they came to be destroyed. This book explains the past in a humorous tone aided by maps and atlases.
Reading the whole collection-
The Encyclopedia of Early Earth by Isabel Greenberg- this fictional graphic novel explores early Earth through an invented mythology. The book ponders geography, human connections, and the beginnings of history in a fun graphic style.
Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse- This fantasy novel, the first in a trilogy, contemplates an alternate history for North American Indigenous cultures weaving actual places and mythologies to create a magically realistic world.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider by SQUARE ENIX games- While any of the Tomb Raider games are likely to be enjoyed by fans of Four Lost Cities, has Croft uncovering artifacts and clues in "lost" Indigenous North American cities. Gamers play as Croft as they seek to find artifacts that help them create maps, learn languages, and understand cultures all while surviving in harsh landscapes and avoiding the "bad guys" so they can eventually be defeated.