The book covers two centuries of research on Anatolian civilisations, told as a biographical anthology of pioneers in the field. Each of these great explorers followed their own path, but all suffered a similar fate: ostracism, exclusion from the academic community, and ultimately obscurity. And while each was to experience their own particular failure, together they were able to gradually accumulate a wealth of information about the Luwian civilisation. The volume of data available eventually reached critical mass, and the Luwians – a people archaeology had previously overlooked – emerged from the shadows of time.