This is the fullest and most authoritative single-volume account of archaeology from the earliest discoveries to the great excavations of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Lavishly illustrated throughout and global in scope, it tells the story of those explorations which have helped shape our knowledge of the past. From early digging in Greece and the Near East, through the part played by archaeology in the 'discovery' of the Americas, to the unearthing of sites in Africa, Scandinavia, the former Soviet Union, and Australasia, the book describes individual events as part of a connected narrative amounting to a thorough history of the subject for general readers. It is the first general history of archaeology written by a team of specialists and the first history to cover every part of the world. The book is complete with time-period charts, lists of archaeological events, and a full index.