World Prehistory: A Brief Introduction

by Brian M. Fagan, Nadia Durrani

Overview

This is an introduction to human prehistory written for complete beginners with a global perspective. It is written in a jargon-free style that covers 6 million years of the remote past from human origins to the first pre-industrial civilizations, balancing theoretical discussion with descriptions and analysis of major sites and cultural developments.

World Prehistory provides a unique and balanced narrative of what happened in the prehistoric past and why. The book is well worth acquiring, as it provides essential historical background to a wide variety of subjects, from written history and environmental studies to climate change. Chronological tables, numerous illustrations, guides to further reading, and stand-alone boxes on some archaeological methods, key sites, and some people of the past amplify much of the basic narrative.

This global prehistory is aimed at people with no background in archaeology, undergraduates at all levels, and participants in graduate seminars on a wide range of subjects. Numerous people with a general interest in archaeology and multidisciplinary history have acquired and enjoyed this book.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781000875294
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	06/30/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	518
Sales rank:	706,885
File size:	45 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

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.

Table 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.

Preface

Three thousand, four thousand years maybe, have passed and gone since human feet last trod the floor on which you stand, and yet, as you note the signs of recent life around you-the half-filled bowl of mortar for the door, the blackened lamp, the finger-mark on the freshly painted surface, the farewell garland dropped on the threshold-you feel it might have been but yesterday . . . . Time is annihilated by little intimate details such as these, and you feel an intruder.
– Egyptologist Howard Carter, notebook entry on Tutankhamun's tomb, November 26, 1922

Golden pharaohs, lost cities, grinning human skeletons: Archaeology is the stuff of romance and legend! Many people still think of archaeologists as adventurers and treasure hunters, like Indiana Jones of Hollywood movie fame seeking the elusive Holy Grail. This enduring image goes back to the late nineteenth century, when archaeologists like Heinrich Schliemann could still find lost civilizations like Troy and excavate three royal palaces in a week. Today, few, if any, archaeologists behave like Indiana Jones. They are scientists, not adventurers, as comfortable in an air-conditioned laboratory as they are on a remote excavation. The development of scientific archaeology from its Victorian beginnings ranks among the greatest triumphs of twentieth-century science. Archaeology has changed our understanding of the human experience in profound ways. A century ago, most scientists believed humans were no more than 100,000 years old. Today we know that our origins go back at least 5 million years. Our predecessors assumed the Americas were settled in about 8000B.C. and that farming began around 4000 B.C. New excavations date the first Americans to at least 12,000 B.C. and the beginnings of agriculture to about 10,000 B.C. Most important, archaeology has changed our perceptions of ourselves, especially of our biological and cultural diversity. Welcome to the fascinating world of archaeology!

The fifth edition of World Prehistory continues a long tradition of providing an interesting, jargon-free journey through the 5million-year-old landscape of the human past. I hope you enjoy your sojourn in its pages.

Highlights of the Fifth Edition

The fifth edition of World Prehistory has been revised throughout to reflect the latest advances in the field, and it includes suggestions by dozens of archaeologists and students who have taken the trouble to contact me after using previous editions.

This is an exciting time to be writing about archaeology. Many scientific advances are changing our perceptions about the past. Accordingly, the fifth edition is somewhat longer than its predecessors, with expanded coverage of major theoretical issues and the early civilizations. The fifth edition contains important new discoveries about early human evolution, the late Ice Age, and the origins of agriculture. New and updated coverage of the field appears in every chapter, with an up-to-date Guide to Further Reading at the end of the book along with a glossary of technical terms and one of archaeological sites and cultural names.

Updating and Rewriting

• New perceptions of world prehistory. Chapter 1 includes important discussions of archaeology and alternative perspectives on the past, reflecting new thinking on this important topic.
• Early human evolution. Chapter 2 discusses the latest advances in the study of human origins, including the latest fossil discoveries in Ethiopia and Kenya, among them Australopithecus garhi, a confusing and still enigmatic predecessor of humanity.
• Origins of modern humans. Chapter 3 covers new research into the controversial issue of the earliest modern humans and fresh perceptions of Neanderthal ancestry and behavior.
• Origins of food production. Chapter 5 incorporates expanded coverage of the latest theories on the origins of agriculture and animal domestication. Chapter 6, which describes the first farmers, incorporates new dates for early agriculture obtained from accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dates and the results of new researches into the early farming village at Abu Hureyra, Syria, currently the earliest agricultural settlement in the world.
• Origins of states and civilization. Chapter 8 has been expanded to include current theoretical debates on the origins of state-organized societies, including the issues of factionalism and charismatic leadership. Chapters 9 to 14 offer an up-to-date description and analysis of the first civilizations, with expanded coverage of ancient Egyptian civilization and of south and southeast Asian states. Chapters 12 and 13 offer more comprehensive analysis of highland and lowland Mesoamerican civilizations than in previous editions.
• Revision and updating throughout. The entire text and Guide to Further Reading have been revised and updated on a page-by-page basis.

Boxes

Three types of in-text boxes enhance the book, designed to amplify the narrative:

• Science. These boxes introduce key dating methods and other scientific approaches, such as radiocarbon and AMS dating, and also environmental reconstruction.
• Sites. Each chapter includes one or more boxes describing sites of unusual importance, and some aspects of unusual interest.
• Voices. The Mesopotamian, Egyptian, and highland Mesoamerican chapters include special boxes that quote from writings of ancient times, giving each an unusual "voice."

New and Revised Art Program

The fifth edition's art program has been expanded with new photographs and fresh or revised line art. The new illustrations provide additional background on recent discoveries, amplify the narrative, or replace older art with new pictures. Some expanded captions serve to integrate the illustrations more closely into the text.

Complete Redesign

The entire book has been completely redesigned to make it more user-friendly.

Ancillary Materials

The ancillary materials that accompany this textbook have been carefully created to enhance the topics being discussed.

Instructor's Manual with Tests. For each chapter in the text, this manual provides a detailed outline, list of objectives, discussion questions, classroom activities, and additional resources. The test bank includes multiple choice, true-false, and essay questions for each chapter.

Companion Website^®. In tandem with the text, students and professors can now take full advantage of the World Wide Web to enrich their study of archaeology. The Fagan Website correlates the text with related material available on the Internet. Features of the Website include chapter objectives and study questions, as well as links to interesting material and information from other sites on the Web that can reinforce and enhance the content of each chapter. Address:

Anthropoloy on the Internet 2001: Evaluating Online Resources. This guide introduces students to the origin and innovations behind the Internet and provides clear strategies for navigating the complexity of the Internet and World Wide Web. Exercises within and at the end of the chapters allow students to practice searching for the myriad of resources available to the student of anthropology. This supplementary book is free to students when shrinkwrapped as a package with World Prehistory: A Brief Introduction, 5/E.

Acknowledgments

Many colleagues, too numerous to list here, have advised me on this revision. I am deeply grateful for their encouragement and assistance. I would like to thank the following reviewers for their help in revising this new edition. I appreciate their frank comments: Elliot M. Abrams, Ohio University; Mary C. Beaudry, Boston University; Katina Lollios, Ripon College; and John M. O'Shea, University of Michigan.

Lastly, my thanks to my editor Nancy Roberts and her colleagues at Prentice Hall. They have turned a complex manuscript into an attractive book and done all they can to minimize unexpected difficulties.

As always, I would be most grateful for criticisms, comments, or details of new work, sent to me c/o Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106 .

Brian M. Fagan