This massive (in every sense) work was the result of a lifetime study of a specific area of Bolivia and its archaeological history. The first 2 volumes were published in 1945, running to 404 pages of text with 300 illustrations; here we have two more volumes, bound in one tome, with text in Spanish and English, and a myriad of illustrations, some in colour, many in monochrome. The English text reads slightly oddly, perhaps having been translated by someone not entirely familiar with the language, but the book offers an extraordinary wealth of information and theory about the origins of man in the Americas. Arthur Posnansky (1873-1946) was a quixotic, flamboyant, and swashbuckling character - a naval officer, a businessman, engineer, explorer, ship\'s navigator, director of a river navigation company, entrepreneur, and a scholar. He dedicated nearly 50 years of his life to the study of the Andean past, which resonates through the history of Bolivian archaeology, developing a hyperbolic narrative of Tiwanaku as the ’cradle of American man’ and tirelessly promoting it in Europe and the Americas. He was not, however, trained as an archaeologist, and theories were based on little concrete information but he defended them with enviable passion. Although some dismiss him as a misguided, self-appointed champion of Tiwanaku, his life and times are very relevant to both understanding popular views and scholarly interpretations of the site.Our book is in good condition, its huge size perhaps preventing too much regular use. The exterior shows only minimal signs of wear - slight rubbing of corners and top & tail of spine - and inside, the binding is firm with no loose pages. Pages are somewhat browned (only the endpapers and pages of monochrome photographs are bright), but all are clean, and all illustrations are present and correct. This is a very heavy book, and postage cost will be commensurate.