Dick Teresi is a co-founder of Omni magazine and recently the author of Lost Discoveries: The Ancient Roots of Modern Science—From the Babylonians to the Maya (Simon & Schuster, $27). He chooses his favorite books that celebrate the scientific achievements of past civilizations.
Primal Myths by Barbara C. Sproul (HarperSanFrancisco, $18). Long before we envisioned the big bang, the Mesopotamians, Indians, Egyptians, and others attributed the universe to a “great cosmic copulation.” Sproul documents the creation myths of more than 100 ancient civilizations, demonstrating that we moderns are less original than we think.
Number by Tobias Dantzig (out of print). Dantzig traces the use of numbers from the Sumerians onward. Albert Einstein called this “the most interesting book on the evolution of mathematics which has ever fallen into my hands.” He also said it had a “wonderfully lively style.” I go along with Albert.
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Ecological Imperialism by Alfred W. Crosby (Cambridge University Press, $18). Forget Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel. Crosby was the first to ask the question, Why are European emigrants and their descendants “all over the place?” The answer is biology.
The Exact Sciences in Antiquity by Otto Neugebauer (Dover, $10). A pioneer scholar shows why the Hellenistic world owed its knowledge of math and astronomy to the Babylonians and the Egyptians, and how Copernicus relied on Islamic astronomers to reorganize the universe.
The Lost Cities of Africa by Basil Davidson (Little Brown & Co., $22). A rich chronicle of sub-Saharan Africa, including the fabulous kingdoms of Kush and Meroë, 1,500 years before European ships came to African shores.
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