The thriteen-book series includes over 1200 illustrations. This volume covers: The Close of the Theban Empire (continued), The Rise of the Assyrian Empire, and The Hebrews and the Philistines - Damascus. According to Wikipedia: "Gaston Camille Charles Maspero (June 23, 1846 – June 30, 1916) was a French Egyptologist... Among his best-known publications are the large Histoire ancienne des peuples de l'Orient classique (3 vols., Paris, 1895-1897, translated into English by Mrs McClure for the S.P.C.K.), displaying the history of the whole of the nearer East from the beginnings to the conquest by Alexander..."