Prehistory: The Making of the Human Mind

by Professor Lord Colin Renfrew (Author)

• New

  Paperback
  2008

  $11.88

  A brief and original prehistory of the world

  Prehistory covers human existence before written records, i.e. most of human existence. But it also refers to the discipline through which we scrutinize prehistoric times. PREHISTORY begins by looking at the discovery of a remote human past and the subsequent dramatic growth of the study of prehistory: early archaeology; geology; Darwin's ideas of evolution; cave paintings; fossil discoveries of human ancestors; museums and collections; radiocarbon dating and DNA analysis.

  Renfrew challenges the conventional assumption of an all-important 'human revolution' 40,000 years ago - when Homo Sapiens first appeared in Europe - and suggests that the key developments were much later. The author's case-studies range widely, from Orkney to the Balkans, from the Indus Valley to Peru, from Ireland to China, and provide fresh insights on landmark monuments such as the Egyptian pyramids, the Valley of the Kings, Stonehenge and the sacrificial burial pyramids at Teotihuacan in Mexico. The book closes with a fascinating chapter on the transition from Prehistory to History, on early writing systems.

• Used

  Hardcover
  2007

  $3.35

  Prehistory covers human existence before written records, i.e. most of human existence. But it also refers to a field of study, the discipline through which we scrutinize prehistoric times. This book begins by looking at the gradual discovery only 150 years ago of a remote human past going back tens of thousands of years and the subsequent dramatic growth of the study of prehistory: early archaeology; geology; Darwin's ideas of evolution; cave paintings; fossil discoveries of human ancestors; museums and collections; and then in the 1950s radiocarbon dating and, in the 1980s, DNA analysis. Colin Renfrew then looks at current issues and problems in prehistory. He challenges the conventional assumption of an all-important 'human revolution' 40,000 years ago - when Homo sapiens first appeared in Europe - and suggests that the key developments were much later. The author's case-studies range widely, from Orkney to the Balkans, from the Indus Valley to Peru, from Ireland to China, and provide fresh insights even on such landmark monuments as the Egyptian pyramids and the Valley of the Kings, Stonehenge and the sacrificial burial pyramids at Teotihuacan in Mexico. The book ends with a fascinating chapter, the transition from Prehistory to History, on early writing systems.