MAGIC SPADES

The Romance of Archaeology. By R. V. D. MAGOFFIN and EMILY C. DAVIS, Henry Holt and Company, New York. 1929.

Of making many books on archaeloogy there is no end; but this account will not demand the much study which the Preacher declares a weariness of the flesh. Up to the minute, it performs for archaeology that cinematic service which Durant performed for philosophy and Wells for history. Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Hittite, Greek, Roman, Viking, Mayan, Aztec, Inca, Esquimo civilizations—the amazing discoveries of which have been appearing so tantalizingly in the dailies—are synthesized here. The hardships, the thrills, the glorious rewards of excavation are recounted in a tale which will fascinate equally ephebe and aged councilor at the city gates. The authors know their fields, one the Old World, the other the New, and have the reporter's instinct for the dramatic. They tell their tale lightly, almost gaily (we pray that a difference in taste in jokes may not prove too great a strain on the affections of the reader!) and 144 excellently chosen photographs illumine the text. Indubitably this book is destined for the list of non-fiction best sellers.

Department of Greek and Latin.