Carved from cliffs and canyons, buried in desert rock and sand are pieces of the ancient past that beckon thousands of visitors every year to the American Southwest. Whether Montezuma Castle or a chunk of pottery, these traces of prehistory also bring archaeologists from all over the world, and their work gives us fresh insight and information on an almost day-to-day basis. Who hasn't dreamed of boarding a time machine for a trip into the past? This book invites us to step into a Hohokam village with its sounds of barking dogs, children's laughter, and the ever-present grinding of mano on metate to produce the daily bread. Here, too, readers will marvel at the skills of Clovis elephant hunters and touch the lives of other ancestral people known as Mogollon, Anasazi, Sinagua, and Salado. Descriptions of long-ago people are balanced with tales about the archaeologists who have devoted their lives to learning more about "those who came before." Trekking through the desert with the famed Emil Haury, readers will stumble upon Ventana Cave, his "answer to a prayer." With amateur archaeologist Richard Wetherill, they will sense the peril of crossing the flooded San Juan River on the way to Chaco Canyon. Others profiled in the book are A. V. Kidder, Andrew Ellicott Douglass, Julian Hayden, Harold S. Gladwin, and many more names synonymous with the continuing saga of southwestern archaeology. This book is an open invitation to general readers to join in solving the great archaeological puzzles of this part of the world. Moreover, it is the only up-to-date summary of a field advancing so rapidly that much of the material is new even to professional archaeologists. Lively and fast paced, the book will appeal to anyone who finds magic in a broken bowl or pueblo wall touched by human hands hundreds of years ago. For all readers, these pages offer a sense of adventure, that "you are there" stir of excitement that comes only with making new discoveries about the distant past.

In The University of Arizona Basketball Vault: The History Of The Wildcats, sportswriter Steve Rivera takes you through the century-plus history of Arizona basketball from the first game in the 1904-05 season through 2009-10, from Bear Down Gym to the McKale Center. This detailed "scrapbook" contains never-before-published photographs, artwork and memorabilia drawn from Arizona's athletic department and campus archives. Tucked into dozens of sleeves and pockets, fans will find reproductions of historic game programs, numerous postcards and photos. These fascinating replicas include a 1905 sheet of Arizona songs, a 1926 Fred Enke photograph, a 1933-34 team photo taken during an extended Midwest road trip, a 1946 NIT game program booklet, a 1948 Linc Richmond varsity letter certificate, a press pass from Arizona's 1988 West regional victory over North Carolina, a 1997 national championship poster and an Arizona "1997 National Champions" replica felt pennant.