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This is an introduction to human prehistory written for complete beginners with a global perspective, written in a jargon-free style that covers 3 million years of the remote past from human origins to the first pre-industrial civilizations, balancing theoretical discussion with descriptions.
List of contents
Preface; Acknowledgments; A Note on Chronologies and Measurements; Part I Prehistory: 1. Introducing World Prehistory; Part II The World of the First Humans: 2 Human Origins; 3. African Exodus; Part III The Birth of the Modern World: 4 Diaspora, 5 The Origins of Food Production; 6 The Earliest Farmers; 7 Chiefs and Chiefdoms; Part IV The First States (Preindustrial Civilizations): 8 State-Organized Societies; 9 Mesopotamia and the Eastern Mediterranean World; 10 Egypt and Africa; 11 South, Southeast, and East Asia; PART V Preindustrial States in the Americas: 12 Lowland Mesoamerica; 13 Highland Mesoamerica; 14 Andean States; Epilogue; Glossary of Technical Terms; Glossary of Archaeological Sites and Cultural Terms; References; Index.
About the author
Brian M. Fagan is a Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, USA. He graduated from Cambridge University. His many books include eight bestselling undergraduate texts on archaeology (with Nadia Durrani), with whom he also wrote Climate Chaos: Lessons on Survival from our Ancestors.
Nadia Durrani, FSA, read archaeology and anthropology at Cambridge University before taking a PhD in archaeology from University College London. An editor and author within archaeology, she has collaborated widely with Brian Fagan including as co-author of Bigger Than History: Why Archaeology Matters.
Summary
This is an introduction to human prehistory written for complete beginners with a global perspective, written in a jargon-free style that covers 3 million years of the remote past from human origins to the first pre-industrial civilizations, balancing theoretical discussion with descriptions.
