Past Crimes: Archaeological and Historical Evidence for Ancient Misdeeds

by Julie Rosemary Wileman

Today, police forces all over the world use archaeological techniques to help them solve crimes - and archaeologists are using the same methods to identify and investigate crimes in the past. This book introduces some of those techniques, and explains how they have been used not only to solve modern crimes, but also to investigate past wrongdoing. Archaeological and historical evidence of crimes from mankind's earliest days is presented, as well as evidence of how criminals were judged and punished. Each society has had a different approach to law and order, and these approaches are discussed here with examples ranging from Ancient Egypt to Victorian England - police forces, courts, prisons and executions have all left their traces in the physical and written records. The development of forensic approaches to crime is also discussed as ways to collect and analyze evidence were invented by pioneer criminologists. From the murder of a Neanderthal man to bank fraud in the 19th century, via ancient laws about religion and morality and the changes in social conditions and attitudes, a wide range of cases are included - some terrible crimes, some amusing anecdotes and some forms of ancient lawbreaking that remain very familiar.

Genres: History, True Crime, Nonfiction, Archaeology

256 pages, Hardcover

First published April 30, 2015

Reviews

[Georgi_Lvs_Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

First thoughts on Past Crimes… engrossing and exhilarating.

‘It was recently reported that a skeleton found in northern Spain, some 7,000 years old, had surviving DNA which showed that this man has dark skin and hair, and blue eyes; he was also lactose intolerant and ate little starch in his diet.’

I was honestly amazed with this book, very interesting and to know that so much history can be revealed even from thousands and thousand of years ago is just astounding.

Past Times has without a doubt added many more books to my TBR!

The only issue I had was that pages were missing, the words hadn’t printed onto the paper. I did buy this second hand so I’m not sure if this was a one off or not. So from pages 120 - 154 I had to deal with a lot of missing information. Therefore it missed out in a 5 star rating.

Apart from that, this was a great read and for any history and true crime readers I recommend this one.

‘Forensic archaeologists work at disaster scenes such as air crashes and tsunamis to identity the dead. In addiction they also investigate ancient crimes, using modern forensic science to shed light on murders that took place centuries ago.’

[Margaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad book, but a little light on for detail for me. Was hoping for something a little more in depth.

[Ki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and entertaining.

[Captain Dunsel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting and clearly written, but lacking a clear focus.