Steven Mithen - After the ice: a global human history 20,000-5000 BC

Immense erudition, lightly worn; mastery of vast material, wielded with impressive deftness. For clarity of exposition, fluency of language, vividness of imagination, he is unrivalled in his field it probably represents the most readable and, in most respects, the most reliable general survey of the subject since Jack Harlans, now more than a decade old

In After the Ice, [Steven Mithen] has done for the world what is hinted at in the poetry of one garden the lucidity of Mithens thought and prose will inform the professional and illuminate the general reader. After the Ice is that rare event: the right book at the right time

Original and refreshing [Mithen] has in fact visited many of the locations himself, sometimes while the relevant archaeological excavations were under way These are often the best bits of writing, and they give the book the authenticity of first-hand experience It is not a compendium put together at second hand, but in large measure the product of personal experience This is a book which does not set out to reach easy conclusions, although the inferences may be there to be drawn. Rather it offers for our examination a major and crucial phase in human history in a direct and coherent way. Anyone who reads it will find fresh information and new insights This is an important book, which succeeds in writing about the prehistoric past in a new way, restraining though not eliminating the preoccupations of the writer and offering a wealth of experienced detail for each continent a sympathetic and informed introduction to a formative period in world history

Steven Mithen has written a magnificent account of archaeology worldwide, and in this first edition I am happy to hail the success of a great World Archaeologist

A big and important book, but oddly informal in its approach: Mithens use of a fictive 21st-century time-traveller is especially disconcerting the device enables him both to acknowledge and explore the element of anachronism thats intrinsic to the entire archaeological project Ambitious and original and stimulating study

Mithen has not only mastered his material, he has delivered a charming read and an up-to-date informative resource. After the Ice is an exceptional book a wonderful book that students, specialists or anyone else with curiosity about our early history can enjoy

For my parents
Pat and Bill Mithen

1. The Birth of History
Global warming, archaeological evidence and human history

2. The World at 20,000 BC
Human evolution, the causes of climate change and radiocarbon dating

3. Fires and Flowers
Hunter-gatherers and the forest steppe, 20,00012,300 BC

4. Village Life in the Oak Woodland
Early Natufian hunter-gatherer communities, 12,30010,800 BC

5. On the Banks of the Euphrates
Abu Hureyra and the rise of hunter-gatherer sedentism, 12,30010,800 BC

6. One Thousand Years of Drought
Economy and society during the Younger Dryas, 10,8009600 BC

7. The Founding of Jericho
Neolithic architecture, burial and technology of the Jordan valley, 96008500 BC

8. Pictograms and Pillars
Neolithic ideology, symbolism and trade, 96008500 BC

9. In the Valley of Ravens
Architecture, textiles and animal domestication, 85007500 BC

10. The Town of Ghosts
Ritual, religion and economic collapse, 75006300 BC

11. Heaven and Hell at atalhyk
Florescence of the Neolithic in Turkey, 90007000 BC

12. Three Days on Cyprus
Extinctions, colonisation and cultural stasis, 20,0006000 BC

13. Pioneers in Northern Lands
The recolonisation of northwest Europe, 20,00012,700 BC

14. With Reindeer Hunters
Economy, technology and society, 12,7009600 BC

15. At Star Carr
Adaptations to early Holocene woodlands in northern Europe, 96008500 BC

16. Last of the Cave Painters
Economic, social and cultural change in southern Europe, 96008500 BC

17. Coastal Catastrophe
Sea-level change and its consequences, 10,5006400 BC

18. Two Villages in Southeast Europe
Sedentary hunter-gatherers and immigrant farmers, 65006200 BC

19. Islands of the Dead
Mesolithic burial and society in northern Europe, 62005000 BC

20. At the Frontier
The spread of farming in Central Europe and its impact on Mesolithic society, 60004400 BC

21. A Mesolithic Legacy
The Neolithic in southern Europe, 60004000 BC ; debates in historical linguistics and genetics

22. A Scottish Envoi
Colonisation, Mesolithic lifestyles and the transition to the Neolithic in western Scotland, 20,0004300 BC

23. Searching for the First Americans
The discovery of ice-age settlement, AD 19271994

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, AD 19771997, 12,500 BC

26. Explorers in a Restless Landscape
North American fauna, landscape evolution and human colonisation, 20,00011,500 BC

27. Clovis Hunters on Trial
Extinction of the mega-fauna and Clovis lifestyles, 11,50010,000 BC

28. Virginity Reconsidered
Hunter-gatherers of Tierra del Fuego and in the Amazon, 11,5006000 BC

29. Herders and the Christ-Child
Animal and plant domestication in the Andes, and coastal foragers, 10,5005000 BC

30. A Double-Take in the Oaxaca Valley
The domestication of maize, squash and beans in Mexico, 10,5005000 BC

31. To Koster
Hunter-gatherer lifestyles in North America, 70005000 BC

32. Salmon Fishing and the Gift of History
Complex hunter-gatherers of the northwest coast, 60005000 BC

33. A Lost World Revealed
Tasmanian hunter-gatherers, 20,0006000 BC

34. Body Sculpture at Kow Swamp
Burial and society in Southeast Australia, 14,0006000 BC , and mega-faunal extinctions

35. Across the Arid Zone
Hunter-gatherer adaptations to the Central Australian Desert, 30,000 BCAD 1966

36. Fighting Men and a Serpents Birth
Art, society and ideology in northern Australia, 13,0006000 BC

37. Pigs and Gardens in the Highlands
The development of tropical horticulture in highland New Guinea, 20,0005000 BC

38. Lonesome in Sundaland
Hunter-gatherers in the Southeast Asian tropical rainforests, 20,0005000 BC

39. Down the Yangtze
The origin of rice farming, 11,5006500 BC

40. With the Jomon
Complex hunter-gatherers in Japan and the earliest pottery, 14,5006000 BC

41. Summer in the Arctic