While researching my novel A Partial History, I read a lot of archaeology textbooks and books intended for the average reader. I discovered that I'm really enamored with the ancient world.

"The ancient world" -- what does that mean, exactly? To me, it means preliterate civilizations. From the time hairy monkeys first started walking upright to the Myceneans. Perhaps I'm fascinated with this pre-history because there's such fertile grounds for the imagination to wander around in. In modern times, interesting bits and pieces, fragments of the ancient world, occasionally come to light and are wondered over. Archaeologists write abstruse papers about them, publish in journals so obscure that they're, for all practical purposes, nonexistent, and get into blood feuds over potsherds and the angle of the hook on the end of an ape's femur.

I want to keep track of these delightful bits of trivia -- document them somewhere. And where better than here?