Treasure Hunting, Sort Of.

Kean, Sam.  The Museum of Lost Things: True Tales of Fabled Treasures, Legendary 

        Cities, and Mythical Creatures Lost to Time.  Washington, D.C.: National Geographic 

        Partners, 2026.  ISBN: 9781426223860

 

Do you enjoy armchair archeology?  If so, Sam Kean has a deal for you!  In The Museum of Lost Things, he provides the reader with a plethora of lost items to explore and 

 

After an introduction to set the stage of being in a literary museum, Sam Kean opens with a chapter on lost graves such as Alexander the Greats, Egyptian mausoleums, and a host of others.  Then the reader is escorted to a room filled with lost cities - Troy being the major focus.  After lost cities, we visit lost people with a examination of the Dorak-Yortan cultures of Anatolia in Turkey, Then there are the lost relics such as the scrolls discovered at Nag Hammadi (Egypt). Anyone up for deciphering lost languages - Linear B, hieroglyphics, and cuneiform.  Lost bones, especially the Peking Man bones, have their own room.  There is also a room for lost civilizations such as the Mohenjo-daro of India.  A whole room discussing lost knowledge caused by the destruction of libraries at Alexandria and elsewhere with an interesting discussion on who really destroyed the Library!  For the treasure hunters, there is a room for lost gold with Kankan Musa, the Lion of Mali highlighted.  Then there is the room of lost art with  Leonardo da Vinci and his many unfinished projects on display.  Out of  World War II comes a room of lost loot specifically the Amber Room from the Catherine Palace in Pushkin (Soviet Union).  The room for lost technology examines the finding of the Antikythera Device.  and the final room is host to lost species such as the coelacanth.and the ivory-billed woodpecker. Sam Kean finishes the book with an afterword discussing what future archeologists and geologists might find out about us from what we are leaving behind.  He also provides the reader with a list of his sources for those who want to delve deeper into various topics.

 

If you have read Sam Kean's books before, you know that he provides an easy reading book filled with tidbits of interesting information.  His Museum of Lost Things fits that mold perfectly!