Please note: I used the sources below for different purposes. If a book or article appears on this list, I got something useful out of it. I also think it’s interesting and is something you might like. A book’s appearance on this list does NOT mean that I endorse all the claims in the book. Nor does it mean the author of that book would necessarily endorse the version of the world portrayed in mine.
Anichenko, Zhenya. “Underwater Archeology in the Caspian: Past, Present, and Hopefully Future.” Printed in Azerbaijan International, Winter 2006 (14.4), pages 54 – 57. http://www.azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/ai144_folder/144_articles/144_zhenya.html (There actually is a old ruined tower on a promontory in the Caspian Sea, that legend says was built by giants.)
Anthony, David W. The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World. Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540, 2007. 553 pages incl. notes, index.
Bancroft, Lundy. Why Does He DO That?: Inside the Minds of Angry and Controlling Men. 2002: Berkley Books, New York. (This book helped me in creating the character of Endu. )
Bone, Michael, et al. Steppes: The plants and ecology of the world’s semi-arid regions. Copyright Denver Botanic Gardens, pub. by Timber Press, Inc., The Haseltine Building, 133 S.W. Second Avenue, Suite 450, Portland, Oregon 97204-3527. “The Central Asian Steppe,” pp. 32 – 85.
Chouinard, Patrick. Lost Race of the Giants: The Mystery of Their Culture, Influence, and Decline Throughout the World. 2013: Bear & Company, One Park Street, Rochester, Vermont, 05767. 200 pages, with index. (This book is less unified and more of an eclectic gathering of random evidence than is Van Dorn’s book below, but it confirms the evidence in Van Dorn’s book.)
Custance, Arthur. The Doorway Papers I: Noah’s Three Sons. 1975: Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan. 368 pages. Also available online at https://custance.org/library_menu.php#vol4 . (This book is a series of speculative essays that are intended seriously to integrate Biblical history, other ancient history, and the sciences including anthropology. Unlike most commentators who hold that Ham was the father of only sub-Saharan Africans, Custance postulates that Ham was the father of most of the peoples of the world except the Indo-Europeans (Japheth) and the Semitic peoples. Especially interesting are his arguments that Hamitic peoples have been responsible for originating all the technological innovation in humankind’s history.)
Dewhurt, Richard J. The Ancient Giants Who Ruled America: The Missing Skeletons and the Great Smithsonian Cover-Up. 2014: Bear & Company, One Park Street, Rochester, Vermont 05767. 357 pages, index, numerous photographs & newspaper article reproductions. (Amasses evidence of giant, usually red-haired, skeletons found throughout the U.S., often in association with technologically advanced structures or artifacts.)
Grant, Amy. “Cattails in the Kitchen — Tips for Using the Edible Parts of a Cattail.” Gardening Know How, https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/water-plants/cattails/edible-parts-of-cattail.htm
Hancock, Graham. Fingerprints of the Gods: The Evidence of Earth’s Lost Civilization. Three Rivers Press, New York, New York, 1995. 562 pages. (Hancock is a humdinger. We will deal with his books in blog posts.)
Hildinger, Eric. Warriors of the Steppe: A Military History of Central Asia, 500 B.C. to 1700 A.D. Sarpedon, 166 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. 241 pages plus Bibliography. (This book helped me, among other things, know how Hur made his recurve bow.)
Holly, Henry. “Cattail.” The Northwest Forager, https://thenorthwestforager.com/2014/04/17/cattail/amp/
Meltzer, David J. First Peoples in a New World: Colonizing Ice Age America. 2009, University of California Press, Berkeley, California, 94704. 446 pages. (This was my Bible for planning the outlines of The Strange Land.)
“Native American Bulrush (Cattail) Mythology,” http://www.native-languages.org/legends-cattail.htm
Nelson, S.D. Black Elk’s Vision: A Lakota Story. 2010: Abrams Books for Young Readers, an imprint of ABRAMS, 115 West 18th Street, New York, NY 10011, www.abramsbooks.com. (A beautiful children’s book about Black Elk, a historical person, illustrated with paintings and line drawings in a style inspired by Lakota art. Black Elk grew up in the Lakota tribe. At the age of nine, he was given a troubling vision that essentially invited his tribe to choose life rather than bitterness. He was present at the battle of Little Bighorn, and later traveled to England as a dancer in Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show. Although I did not draw on this book when writing my novel, Black Elk’s experience is comparable to those found in The Strange Land.)
Ostler, Nicholas. Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World. HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022, 2005. 615 pages. (Sumerian, p. 49 – 58.)
Rudgley, Richard. The Lost Civilizations of the Stone Age. 2000: Touchstone Rockefeller Center, New York, NY 10020. First published in the United Kingdom as Lost Civilizations of the Stone Age. 310 pages, including index, photo plates, and an extensive bibliography. (Rudgley offers abundant archaeological evidence that most supposedly modern human innovations are much older than recorded history, including chapters on science, writing, surgery, fire, mining, and music.)
Swancer, Brent. “The Strange Mysteries of the Caspian Sea.” Mysterious Universe, http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2015/04/the-strange-mysteries-of-the-caspian-sea/
Tracz, Orysia Paszczak. “The kalyna in Ukrainian folk medicine and folklore.” The Things We Do …, http://www.ukrweekly.com/old/archive/2001/220115.shtml (The kalyna is native to the Volga, where the tribe lives for a while in The Long Guest. It can be used to stop muscle cramps, e.g. to prevent a miscarriage.)
Van Dorn, Douglas. Giants: Sons of the gods. Waters of Creation Publishing, 1614 Westin Drive, Erie, CO 80516, 2013. 347 pages, includes plenty of endnotes. (Lays out a biblical and historical case for intermarriage between “gods” and humans before the Flood, for giants as their descendants, and the probable purpose of the Tower of Babel. I drew on it heavily for the background of The Long Guest, though the world I portray in TLG is actually pretty tame compared to the pre-flood world that the evidence in this book suggests. )
Out of Babel 