We all would’ve learnt about ancient civilisations in history. But what do we really know about them? Why did people abandon those sophisticated civilisations? These may be questions for archeologists, but as a history seeker I’ve always had these questions in mind.

The Four Lost Cities - we follow the exploration of four ancient forgotten civilisations along with the author Annalee Newitz. Newitz explores the rise and fall of four ancient cities, each the center of a sophisticated civilization: the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük in Central Turkey, the Roman vacation town of Pompeii on Italy’s southern coast, the medieval megacity of Angkor in Cambodia, and the indigenous metropolis Cahokia, which stood beside the Mississippi River where East St. Louis is today.

With fascinating details, archeological insights and rich cultural background, this is how ancient history should be written. Anyone who is interested in history would like this book. The author is a cohost of Hugo award winning podcast Our Opinions are correct! She is the author of Future of another timeline that will interest time travel enthusiast and scifi lovers alike!!

Thank you Netgalley & publisher for the eARC in exchange for an honest opinion!

A rich, heavily textured book. The first section, on the Neolithic Çatalhöyük, was particularly interesting to me: what archaeology and anthropology reveal about the way people lived when they first began to live together in a settled way. The details of the burials - keeping dead family close, under your floor - moved me and have stayed with me, although I read this book several months ago. It opened a door into a vanished time and a vanished way of life. Angkor, too, was particularly well-handled and described here. This is an excellent book: the granular detail of scientific discovery is specific but never dry, and without ever taking her feet from the ground or launching into unearned flights of fancy, Newitz manages to show us a great deal about both what was commonly thought about these civilisations, what is now known, and how we know what we know; the process and evidence through which we have learned what life was like in them, and how they came to be. They come back to life.