This is a hybrid paperback book launch with limited in-store seating and the option to attend online. The event is free but registration is required for both in-person and virtual attendance.
Please click here to register for the VIRTUAL event. The link required to attend will be emailed to registrants prior to the event.
Please click here to register for the IN-PERSON event. Note the important event details on the RSVP form.
This event includes a book signing. If you would like a signed book but can't attend in person, you may order a signed copy online below. If you would like to have your book personalized, please order online or call the store at least two hours before the start of the event. When ordering online, use the comments field to provide a name for personalization, e.g. “To Paul.” NOTE: We do our best to get books personalized when requested but personalization is not guaranteed.
If you decide to attend and to purchase books, we ask that you purchase from Malaprop's. When you do this you make it possible for us to continue hosting author events and you keep more dollars in our community. You may also support our work by purchasing a gift card or making a donation of any amount below. Thank you!
In 1863, a French politician and adventurer heard a rumor of biblical treasures beneath Jerusalem. At the time, Jerusalem was a venerable backwater, not the thriving religious center we think of today. Archaeology itself was in its infancy--more a pastime for treasure-hunting aristocrats than a legitimate scientific discipline. But when Louis-Felicien Joseph Caignart De Saulcy found a stone sarcophagus inside an ancient tomb, explorers from England, Germany, and Russia followed in his footsteps, competing with one another to make the next big find. De Saulcy's dig gave rise not only to a new field; it opened a Pandora's Box, turning Jerusalem into the most disputed piece of land on Earth
Andrew Lawler is the author of three books, Under Jerusalem: The Buried History of the World’s Most Contested City, The Secret Token: Myth, Obsession, and the Search for the Lost Colony of Roanoke, a national bestseller, and Why Did the Chicken Cross the World?: The Epic Saga of the Bird that Powers Civilization. As a journalist, he has written more than a thousand newspaper and magazine articles from more than two dozen countries. His byline has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, National Geographic, Smithsonian, and many others. He is contributing writer for Science and contributing editor for Archaeology. Andrew’s work has appeared several times in The Best of Science and Nature Writing.
Laurel Taylor is Senior Lecturer in the Departments of Art and Art History and of Ancient Mediterranean Studies at UNC Asheville. She teaches a wide variety of courses on material culture, art history and archaeology. Her research interests include funerary ritual and commemoration and rural archaeology. Dr. Taylor’s current archaeological fieldwork is at the Etruscan and Roman site of Cetamura del Chianti, Italy. Dr. Taylor has also directed excavations at the UNC Asheville field school at Palazzaccio, a Roman period farmhouse located outside of Lucca, Italy, and part of the UNESCO ‘Project of 100 Roman Farms’. Previously Dr. Taylor worked with the University of Pennsylvania and Cornell's excavations at a palace of Herod the Great in Caesarea Maritima, Israel and has published preliminary studies on the mosaic and fresco remains from the palace. Dr. Taylor is president of the Western North Carolina chapter of the Archaeological Institute of America. Her publications include a wide range of topics, from gender studies to craft in the ancient world to funerary ritual and monuments. She currently serves as the co-chair for the Etruscan Interest Group (2019-2021) for the Archaeological Institute of America.
