Research Catalog

Title

After the ice : a global human history, 20,000-5000 B.C. / Steve Mithen.

Author

Mithen, Steven J.

Publication

London : Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2003.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xiii, 622 p., [24] p. of plates : ill. (some col.), maps; 24 cm.

Summary

"After the Ice is the story of a momentous period: one in which a seemingly minor alteration in temperature could bring anything from the spread of lush woodland to apocalyptic floods - and one that contains the origins of civilisation itself. For, by its close, dogs, sheep and cattle had been domesticated; rice, wheat and cotton were being harvested; and permanent villages and towns had sprung up, supporting specialist craftsmen, priests, chiefs and newly developed religious beliefs. Indeed, even those who did not adopt farming and continued to live as hunter-gatherers had radically changed the way they lived." "Drawing on the latest cutting-edge research in archaeology, human genetics and the environmental sciences, Steven Mithen takes the reader on a sweeping global tour, bringing this world vividly back to life. Part history, part science and part time travel, After the Ice is breathtaking in its scope - an evocative, original, gripping yet intimate picture of minds, diverse cultures, lives and landscapes through 15,000 years that laid the foundations of the modern world."--BOOK JACKET.

Subject

• Antiquities, Prehistoric
• Civilization, Ancient
• Excavations (Archaeology)
• History, Ancient
• Prehistoric peoples > Social conditions
• Prehistoric peoples > Social life and customs
• Primitive societies > History
• Social evolution

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [575]-610) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

• The Beginning -- 1. The Birth of History: Global warming, archaeological evidence and human history -- 2. The World at 20,000 B.C.: Human evolution, the causes of climate change and radiocarbon dating -- Western Asia -- 3. Fires and Flowers: Hunter-gatherers and the forest steppe, 20,000-12,300 B.C. -- 4. Village Life in the Oak Woodland: Early Natufian hunter-gatherer communities, 12,300-10,800 B.C. -- 5. On the Banks of the Euphrates: Abu Hureyra and the rise of hunter-gatherer sedentism, 12,300-10,800 B.C. -- 6. One Thousand Years of Drought: Economy and society during the Younger Dryas, 10,800-9600 B.C. -- 7. The Founding of Jericho: Neolithic architecture, burial and technology of the Jordan valley, 9600-8500 B.C. -- 8. Pictograms and Pillars: Neolithic ideology, symbolism and trade, 9600-8500 B.C. -- 9. In the Valley of Ravens: Architecture, textiles and animal domestication, 8500-7500 B.C. -- 10. The Town of Ghosts: Ritual, religion and economic collapse, 7500-6300 B.C. --^
• 11. Heaven and Hell at Catalhoyuk: Florescence of the Neolithic in Turkey, 9000-7000 B.C. -- 12. Three Days on Cyprus: Extinctions, colonisation and cultural stasis, 20,000-6000 B.C. -- Europe -- 13. Pioneers in Northern Lands: The recolonisation of northwest Europe, 20,000-12,700 B.C. -- 14. With Reindeer Hunters: Economy, technology and society, 12,700-9600 B.C. -- 15. At Star Carr: Adaptations to early Holocene woodlands in northern Europe, 9600-8500 B.C. -- 16. Last of the Cave Painters: Economic, social and cultural change in southern Europe, 9600-8500 B.C. -- 17. Coastal Catastrophe: Sea-level change and its consequences, 10,500-6400 B.C. -- 18. Two Villages in Southeast Europe: Sedentary hunter-gatherers and immigrant farmers, 6500-6200 B.C. -- 19. Islands of the Dead: Mesolithic burial and society in northern Europe, 6200-5000 B.C. -- 20. At the Frontier: The spread of farming in Central Europe and its impact on Mesolithic society, 6000-4400 B.C. --^
• 21. A Mesolithic Legacy: The Neolithic in southern Europe, 6000-4000 B.C.; debates in historical linguistics and genetics -- 22. A Scottish Envoi: Colonisation, Mesolithic lifestyles and the transition to the Neolithic in western Scotland, 20,000-4300 B.C. -- The Americas -- 23. Searching for the First Americans: The discovery of ice-age settlement, A.D. 1927-1994 -- 24. American Past in the Present: Dental, linguistic, genetic and skeletal evidence for the peopling of the Americas -- 25. On the Banks of Chinchihuapi: Excavation and interpretation of Monte Verde, A.D. 1977-1997, 12,500 B.C. -- 26. Explorers in a Restless Landscape: North American fauna, landscape evolution and human colonisation, 20,000-11,500 B.C. -- 27. Clovis Hunters on Trial: Extinction of the mega-fauna and Clovis lifestyles, 11,500-10,000 B.C. -- 28. Virginity Reconsidered: Hunter-gatherers of Tierra del Fuego and in the Amazon, 11,500-6000 B.C. --^
• 29. Herders and the 'Christ-Child': Animal and plant domestication in the Andes, and coastal foragers, 10,500-5000 B.C. -- 30. A Double-Take in the Oaxaca Valley: The domestication of maize, squash and beans in Mexico, 10,500-5000 B.C. -- 31. To Koster: Hunter-gatherer lifestyles in North America, 7000-5000 B.C. -- 32. Salmon Fishing and the Gift of History: Complex hunter-gatherers of the northwest coast, 6000-5000 B.C. -- Greater Australia and East Asia -- 33. A Lost World Revealed: Tasmanian hunter-gatherers, 20,000-6000 B.C. -- 34. Body Sculpture at Kow Swamp: Burial and society in Southeast Australia, 14,000-6000 B.C., and mega-faunal extinctions -- 35. Across the Arid Zone: Hunter-gatherer adaptations to the Central Australian Desert, 30,000 B.C.-A.D. 1966 -- 36. Fighting Men and a Serpent's Birth: Art, society and ideology in northern Australia, 13,000-6000 B.C. --^
• 37. Pigs and Gardens in the Highlands: The development of tropical horticulture in highland New Guinea, 20,000-5000 B.C. -- 38. Lonesome in Sundaland: Hunter-gatherers in the Southeast Asian tropical rainforests, 20,000-5000 B.C. -- 39. Down the Yangtze: The origin of rice farming, 11,500-6500 B.C. -- 40. With the Jomon: Complex hunter-gatherers in Japan and the earliest pottery, 14,500-6000 B.C. -- 41. Summer in the Arctic: The mammoth steppe and colonisation of the High Arctic, 19,000-6500 B.C. -- South Asia -- 42. A Passage through India: Indian rock art and villages on the Ganges Plain, 20,000-8500 B.C. -- 43. A Long Walk across the Hindu Kush: Early farming in South and Central Asia; the domestication of cotton, 7500-5000 B.C. -- 44. Vultures of the Zagros: The roots of Mesopotamian civilisation, 11,000-9000 B.C. -- 45. Approaching Civilisation in Mesopotamia: The development of towns and trade, 8500-6000 B.C. -- Africa --^
• 46. Baked Fish by the Nile: Hunter-gatherers of North Africa and the Nile valley, 20,000-11,000 B.C. -- 47. On Lukenya Hill: The development of East African landscapes and faunas after 20,000 B.C. -- 48. Frogs' Legs and Ostrich Eggs: Hunter-gatherers of the Kalahari Desert, 12,500 B.C. -- 49. A South African Tour: Changing environments, diet and social life, 12,500-7000 B.C. -- 50. Thunderbolts in the Tropics: Hunter-gatherers in Central and West Africa; environmental change in East Africa, 7000-5000 B.C. -- 51. Sheep and Cattle in the Sahara: The development of pastoralism in North Africa, 9500-5000 B.C. -- 52. Farmers in the Nile Valley and Beyond: The arrival of cereal agriculture in North Africa, 5500-4000 B.C. -- Epilogue: 'The Blessings of Civilisation': Past, present and future impacts of global warming on human history.

ISBN

0297643185

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library