A Pocket History of Human Evolution: How We Became Sapiens

A Pocket History of Human Evolution: How We Became Sapiens

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Few disciplines have experienced such significant changes over the last few years as has the study of prehistory. Thanks to the progress of genetics, we now know for instance that 40,000 years ago, we shared the planet with three other species of the Homo genus. As for new dating methods, they have taught us that Sapiens left its African cradle a good 100,000 years earlier than we had first imagined . . . Meanwhile, anthropology has tackled the issue of what is inherent to mankind: Is it the use of tools? The presence of a ‘large’ brain? Articulated language? Bipedalism? Empathy? All of which suggests the urgent need to take stock of our ancestors and to listen to the latest news on Homo Sapiens. Not only do the authors deliver a valuable overview of the latest findings on the topic, they also look at the future of our strange species. They offer a riveting account of the social animals that we are, migrants with a rapidly expanding population, who have forever transformed their environment.

 

The Archaeology of Ancient North America

The Archaeology of Ancient North America

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This volume surveys the archaeology of Native North Americans from their arrival on the continent 15,000 years ago up to contact with European colonizers. Offering rich descriptions of monumental structures, domestic architecture, vibrant objects, and spiritual forces, Timothy R. Pauketat and Kenneth E. Sassaman show how indigenous people shaped both their history and North America's many varied environments. They place the student in the past as they trace how Native Americans dealt with challenges such as climate change, the rise of social hierarchies and political power, and ethnic conflict. Written in a clear and engaging style with a compelling narrative, The Archaeology of Ancient North America presents the grand historical themes and intimate stories of ancient Americans in full, living color.

 

The Leopard's Tale: Revealing the Mysteries of Catalhoyuk

The Leopard's Tale: Revealing the Mysteries of Catalhoyuk

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A firsthand account of the discoveries at this seminal ancient site in Turkey, one of the first farming settlements in history.Çatalhöyük, in central Turkey, became internationally famous in the 1960s when an ancient town--thought to be the oldest in the world--was discovered there together with wonderful wall paintings and animals, including leopards, sculpted in high relief. The archaeological finds included the remains of textiles, plants, and animals, and some female terra-cotta figures that suggested the existence of a mother goddess cult.The initial excavation was interrupted in 1965, and answers to the riddles of this Neolithic site remained unresolved until Ian Hodder initiated a new campaign of research in the 1990s. Described by Colin Renfrew as one of the most ambitious excavation projects currently in progress, undertaken at one of the world's great archaeological sites, this has been a truly multidisciplinary undertaking, involving the participation of over one hundred archaeologists, scientists, and specialists. Hodder and his colleagues have established that this great site, dating back some 9,000 years, provides the key to understanding the most important change in human existence--the time when people moved into villages and towns, adopted farming as a way of life, and began to accept domination of one social group by another. Through meticulous excavation procedures and laboratory analyses, they peel back the layers of history to reveal how people lived and died and how they engaged with one another, with their environment, and with the spirit world.Full of insights into past lives and momentous events, The Leopard's Tale is superbly illustrated with images of the art, the excavations, and the people involved in this world-famous dig.

 

Britain BC: Life in Britain and Ireland Before the Romans

Britain BC: Life in Britain and Ireland Before the Romans

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Francis Pryor's radical re-examination of Britain and Ireland before the coming of the Romans, based on compelling new evidence recently uncovered by aerial photography, coastal erosion and advanced scientific techniques, reveals a much more sophisticated life among the Ancient Britons than has previously been supposed.It bounds along, wonderfully enlivened by Pryor's earthy enthusiasm. If you want to be introduced painlessly to the fascinating debates surrounding our British past, then Britain BC is the book for you - Barry Cunliffe, New ScientistFrancis Pryor is a modern field archaeologist with a reputation second to none. He has written a book as successful and exciting as its ambition is huge...lucid and engaging - Alan Garner, The TimesSplendid...a remarkable, imaginative and persuasive account of those other Britons before that [Roman] enslavement: its enthusiastic and confident approach deserves to be very influential - Christopher Chippendale, Times Literary Supplement

 

The Lost World of the Old Ones: Discoveries in the Ancient Southwest

The Lost World of the Old Ones: Discoveries in the Ancient Southwest

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In this thrilling story of intellectual and archaeological discovery, David Roberts recounts his last twenty years of far-flung exploits in search of spectacular prehistoric ruins and rock art panels known to very few modern travelers. His adventures range across Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and southwestern Colorado, and illuminate the mysteries of the Ancestral Puebloans and their contemporary neighbors the Mogollon and Fremont, as well as of the more recent Navajo and Comanche.

 

America's Lost Treasure

America's Lost Treasure

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This volume shows the successful recovery of artifacts from a ship that sank in 1857 carrying gold from the rich California mines.

 

Gods, Graves and Scholars: A Story of Archaeology, Second Revised Edition.

Gods, Graves and Scholars: A Story of Archaeology, Second Revised Edition.

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C.W. Ceram visualized archeology as a wonderful combination of high adventure, romance, history and scholarship, and this book, a chronicle of man's search for his past, reads like a dramatic narrative. We travel with Heinrich Schliemann as, defying the ridicule of the learned world, he actually unearths the remains of the ancient city of Troy. We share the excitement of Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter as they first glimpse the riches of Tutankhamen's tomb, of George Smith when he found the ancient clay tablets that contained the records of the Biblical Flood. We rediscover the ruined splendors of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the wonders of the ancient wold of Chichen Itza, the abandoned pyramids of the Maya: and the legendary Labyrinth of tile Minotaur in Crete. Here is much of the history of civilization and the stories of the men who rediscovered it.From the Paperback edition.