Background
Adkins was born on April 6, 1955 in East Bourne, England.
Bristol BS8 1TL, United Kingdom
Adkins graduated from the University of Bristol with Bachelor of Arts degree in 1976.
Stag Hill, University Campus, Guildford GU2 7XH, United Kingdom
Adkins received Master of Philosophy from the University of Surrey in 1982.
(For over 25 years The Handbook of British Archaeology has...)
For over 25 years The Handbook of British Archaeology has been the foremost guide to archaeological methods, artefacts and monuments, providing clear explanations of all specialist terms used by archaeologists. This completely revised and updated edition is packed with the latest information and now includes the most recent developments in archaeological science. Meticulously researched, every section has been extensively updated by a team of experts. There are chapters devoted to each of the archaeological periods found in Britain, as well as two chapters on techniques and the nature of archaeological remains. All the common artefacts, types of sites and current theories and methods are covered. The growing interest in post-medieval and industrial archaeology is fully explored in a brand new section dealing with these crucial periods. Hundreds of new illustrations enable instant comparison and identification of objects and monuments - from Palaeolithic handaxes to post-medieval gravestones. Several maps pinpoint the key sites, and other features include an extensive bibliography and a detailed index. The Handbook of British Archaeology is the most comprehensive resource book available and is essential for anyone with an interest in the subject - from field archaeologists and academics to students, heritage professionals, Time Team followers and amateur enthusiasts.
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Adkins was born on April 6, 1955 in East Bourne, England.
Adkins graduated from the University of Bristol with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1976. She then received a Master of Philosophy from the University of Surrey in 1982.
Adkins has written a dozen books with her husband, Roy Adkins, since 1982. After twenty years of writing as a team, the couple has decided to pursue separate writing projects. In 2003 Lesley published her first book as sole author, Empires of the Plain: Henry Rawlinson and the Lost Languages of Babylon.
Lesley and her husband have been field archaeologists in England from the mid-1970's and in 1987 started their own archaeology consultancy. Their work has taken them to Europe, Egypt, and Asia Minor, with specialties in Greek, Roman, and Egyptian archaeology. They also teach and lecture on archaeological subjects and run a library of archaeological photographs from their home base in Devon, England. The Adkinses' books range from reference volumes such as the Dictionary of Roman Religion and the Handbook to Life in Ancient Greece to the narrative nonfiction genre, with The Keys of Egypt: The Race to Crack the Hieroglyph Code and Lesley's Empires of the Plain.
A reviewer for Booklist found the Handbook to Life in Ancient Greece to be well arranged into ten chapters and then subdivided into topics, with a nicely done bibliography and index, as well as photographs, drawing, and maps. The contributor particularly praised the table of place names, which gives the anglicized version of ancient Greek names, the Greek, the modern name, and the country, for comparison by students.
The Adkinses' The Keys of Egypt is the story of Napoleon's discovery of ancient hieroglyphs when he invaded Egypt in 1798 and the subsequent race to decipher the Rosetta Stone. It involves the fourteen-year quest of Jean-François Champollion, the brilliant teenage son of a poor bookseller in rural France, to be the first to break the code of the hieroglyphs. Hounded and brutally criticized after Napoleon's downfall and struggling with poverty and ill health, Champollion continued in his race with English physician Thomas Young to complete the task and win the fame and fortune promised to the victor. His success, in 1822, opened the Nile Valley of the ancient Egyptians to modern society after thousands of years shrouded in mystery.
A companion to The Keys of Egypt is the Adkinses' Little Book of Egyptian Hieroglyphs, which gives the beginner a fun and simple guide to learning the ancient symbols.
Lesley's Empires of the Plain is the story of nineteenth-century English soldier and adventurer Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, who spent a quarter of a century in Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, and India with the East India trade company and copied cuneiform scripts from a rock face at Bisitun in western Iran. Carved during the reign of King Darius of Persia, more than 2,000 years ago, the scripts ignited Rawlinson's exploration into the ancient kingdoms between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. He deciphered many inscriptions, competing with rival Edward Hincks, and uncovered the ancient world written about in the biblical Old Testament, proving that the people and places had really existed and had been documented long before the Bible was written. Rawlinson became famous for his discoveries of these once powerful empires.
(For over 25 years The Handbook of British Archaeology has...)
Lesley married Roy Adkins on August 12, 1978.