Mixed Harvest: Stories from the Human Past

by Rob Swigart

Overview

In unforgettable stories of the human journey, a combination of storytelling and dialogue underscore an excavation into the deep past of human development and its consequences. Through a first encounter between a Neanderthal woman and the Modern Human she called Traveler, to the emergence and destruction of the world's first cities, Mixed Harvest tells the tale of the Sedentary Divide, the most significant event since modern humans emerged. Rob Swigart's latest work humanizes the rapid transition to agriculture and pastoralism with a grounding in the archaeological record.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781789206203
Publisher:	Berghahn Books
Publication date:	12/03/2019
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Rob Swigart, PhD (Comparative Literature) taught for 35 years at a university, published fifteen novels and poetry in The Atlantic, Poetry, and other journals, and co-authored a business book while working as a research affiliate with the Institute for the Future.

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments

I. Shelter
     Prelude: The Pit of Bones
     Bringer
     The Horse Hunters
     Strife
     Judgment
     Drummer
     In Darkness
     Boy and Leaf
     The Snail Creek Shaman
     Raising Stone
     Feasting
     Waters Bitter and Sweet

II. House
     Frozen Tears
     Tracks
     The Journey
     Mud People
     Motherbaby
     The Beast Without
     The Beast Within
     Of Pots and Plans

III. Home
     An Introduction to Origins
     The Need for Walls
     The House of Heaven
     Scribe
     New Year
     Borders
     Descendants
     Empire’s Poet
     Lamentation

Afterword

Suggested Reading

Editorial Reviews

"Swigart is to be congratulated for giving us a series of connected short stories that are both entertaining and educational. The book is accurately grounded in archaeological facts, and its individual stories are thoroughly believable. Its particular format should be emulated by all those wishing to blend fact and fiction, not just as entertainment but as education, too." - Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies

"Rob Swigart has written a most remarkable and imaginative short story collection. It is remarkable for its enthralling, in-depth portrayal of the lives of humans from their emergence as distinct beings... Each of these stories is told, not only with an acute sense of informed historicity and scientific accuracy, but with engaging writing. Reading these stories was not only an evocative intellectual experience but a heartfelt emotional one as well. It is the work of a master storyteller. Swigart brings the stories so alive one feels a part of them--as if you, I, we, truly are...A magnificent and often extraordinary sequence of stories." - Jack B. Rochester, JackBoston.com

"Mixed Harvest is an unexpected take on human origins and early human societies, blending deftly written short stories with brief nonfiction segments... Readers will leave with a strong emotional grounding in the anthropological and archaeological record, and a large number of informational and thematic touchpoints for understanding this history." - Joey Eschrich, Arizona State University

From the Publisher