Prehistory Prehistory
Modern Library Chronicles

Prehistory

The Making of the Human Mind

    • 2.0 • 2 Ratings
    • $12.99
    • $12.99

Publisher Description

In Prehistory, the award-winning archaeologist and renowned scholar Colin Renfrew covers human existence before the advent of written records–which is to say, the overwhelming majority of our time here on earth. But Renfrew also opens up to discussion, and even debate, the term “prehistory” itself, giving an incisive, concise, and lively survey of the past, and how scholars and scientists labor to bring it to light.

Renfrew begins by looking at prehistory as a discipline, particularly how developments of the past century and a half–advances in archaeology and geology; Darwin’s ideas of evolution; discoveries of artifacts and fossil evidence of our human ancestors; and even more enlightened museum and collection curatorship–have fueled continuous growth in our knowledge of prehistory. He details how breakthroughs such as radiocarbon dating and DNA analysis have helped us to define humankind’s past–how things have changed–much more clearly than was possible just a half century ago. Answers for why things have changed, however, continue to elude us, so Renfrew discusses some of the issues and challenges past and present that confront the study of prehistory and its investigators.

In the book’s second part, Renfrew shifts the narrative focus, offering a summary of human prehistory from early hominids to the rise of literate civilization that is refreshingly free from conventional wisdom and grand “unified” theories. The author’s own case studies encompass a vast geographical and chronological range–the Orkney Islands, the Balkans, the Indus Valley, Peru, Ireland, and China–and help to explain the formation and development of agriculture and centralized societies. He concludes with a fascinating chapter on early writing systems, “From Prehistory to History.”

In this invaluable, brief account of human development prior to the last four millennia, Colin Renfrew delivers a meticulously researched and passionately argued chronicle about our life on earth, and our ongoing quest to understand it.

GENRE
History
RELEASED
2008
July 15
LANGUAGE
EN
English
LENGTH
240
Pages
PUBLISHER
Random House Publishing Group
SELLER
Penguin Random House LLC
SIZE
1
MB

More Books Like This

Thinking Big: How the Evolution of Social Life Shaped the Human Mind Thinking Big: How the Evolution of Social Life Shaped the Human Mind
2014
The World from Beginnings to 4000 BCE The World from Beginnings to 4000 BCE
2008
Black People invented Everything Black People invented Everything
2020
History, Big History, & Metahistory History, Big History, & Metahistory
2017
Maps of Time Maps of Time
2011
In Small Things Forgotten In Small Things Forgotten
1996

More Books by Colin Renfrew

Archaeology: The Key Concepts Archaeology: The Key Concepts
2013
Death Rituals, Social Order and the Archaeology of Immortality in the Ancient World Death Rituals, Social Order and the Archaeology of Immortality in the Ancient World
2015
Ritual, Play, and Belief in Evolution and Early Human Societies Ritual, Play, and Belief in Evolution and Early Human Societies
2017
The Emergence of Civilisation The Emergence of Civilisation
2017
The Cambridge World Prehistory The Cambridge World Prehistory
2014

Other Books in This Series

The American Revolution The American Revolution
2002
Islam Islam
2000
California California
2005
The Korean War The Korean War
2010
Baseball Baseball
2006
The Company The Company
2003