Christopher Scarre

A survey of the world's great ancient wonders from the Great Temple of the Aztecs, to the Nazca lines of Peru, including answers to how the architecture was created and for what purpose.

The Great Monuments and how They Were Built

The Seventy Wonders of the Ancient World

A team of leading archaeologists and specialists explores the social, cultural, and economic development of the human race over the course of three million years, sharing insight into how archaeologists are able to learn about ancient human experience while providing an introduction to prehistory within a regional and chronological framework. Original.

World Prehistory & the Development of Human Societies

The Human Past

Colin Renfrew

Stephen Shennan

John F. Cherry

These papers look at the increasingly influential role of social archaeology - an area in which Colin Renfrew has been a key player. Topics covered include: the development of the human mind, trade and exchange, social change, chiefdoms and states, and the archaeology of island societies.

Studies in Honour of Colin Renfrew

Explaining Social Change

McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research

Graeme Lawson

Archaeoacoustics focuses on the role of sound in human behaviour, from earliest times up to the development of mechanical detection and recording devices in the 19th century. Recent calls for an `archaeology of the senses' have served as a timely, even overdue reminder that the past which we experience - and which others have experienced before us - is multisensory, drawing not only upon the primary field of vision, but also on touch, smell and hearing. Megalithic tombs, Palaeolithic painted caves, Romanesque churches and prehistoric rock shelters all present specific sound qualities which offer clues as to how they may have been designed and used. Voices resonate, external noises are subdued or eliminated, and a special aural dimension is accessed which complements the evidence of our other senses. The present volume, arising from a conference held at the McDonald Institute in 2003, brings together archaeologists and specialists in early musical instruments and acoustics in an attempt to unlock some of the meaning latent in the acoustics of such early structures and spaces. It will be essential reading for all who are concerned to seek a broader understanding of human sensory experience from prehistory up to historical times.

Archaeoacoustics

Frances Healy

The papers presented at the April 1992 'Trade and Exchange' conference at the University of Bristol are now available in this volume. Contents include: Trade beyond the material (C. Renfrew); Exchange, foraging and local Hominid networks (C. Gamble); Neolithic quarries, the exchange of axes and social control in the southern Vosges (P. Petrequin, F. Jeudy and C. Jeunesse); Trade in Neolithic jadeite axes from the Alps (M. R. Bouard); The polished stone axe in earlier Neolithic Britain (M. Edmonds); Megalithic tombs and Megalithic art in Atlantic Europe (E. S. Twohig); The exchange of obsidian at Neolithic sites in Italy (A. J. Ammerman and C. Polglase); The origin of metal used for making weapons in Early and Middle Minoan Crete (Z. Stos-Gale); The circulation of amber in Prehistoric Europe (C. du Gardin); Europe and the Mediterranean in the Bronze Age (A. Harding); Displacement and Exchange in Archaeological Methodology (S. Needham); East-West Relations in the Paris Basin During the Late Bronze Age (P. Brun); Relations Between Brittany and Great Britain during the Bronze Age (J. Briard); Feasting in the Late Bronze Age (J. G. de Soto); Prehistoric Seafaring in the Channel (S. McGrail); Cheshire Cats, Mickey Mice, the New Europe and Ancient Celtic Art (J. V. S. Megaw and M. R. Megaw); Germans, Celts and Romans in the Late (pre-Roman) Iron Age (A. P. Fitzpatrick); Dependence and idependence in European Prehistory (A. Sherratt).

Proceedings of a Conference Held at the University of Bristol, April 1992

Trade and Exchange in Prehistoric Europe

Tracks the advance of history from human origins to the Renaissance in all parts of the world simultaneously, through specially designed time charts featuring full-color photographs of fascinating artifacts from a diversity of cultures. 35,000 first printing.

Smithsonian Timelines of the Ancient World

Explores over fifteen prehistoric sites in France, Portugal, Brittany, England, Ireland, Italy, Poland, and Germany

Exploring Prehistoric Europe

Documents the creation of large-stone, earth, and wood structures in Britain and Ireland throughout prehistoric periods, discussing the architecture and diversity of the megalithic phenomenon and how it transformed regional landscapes. Original.

The Megalithic Monuments of Britain and Ireland

Brian M. Fagan

Ancient Civilizationsoffers a comprehensive and straightforward account of the world's first civilizations and how they were discovered, drawing on many avenues of inquiry including archaeological excavations, surveys, laboratory work, highly specialized scientific investigations, and both historical and ethnohistorical records. This book covers the earliest civilizations and the great powers in the Near East, moving on to the first Aegean civilizations, the Mediterranean world in the first millennium, Imperial Rome, northeast Africa, the divine kings in southeast Asia, and empires in East Asia, as well as early states in the Americas and Andean civilization. Ancient Civilizationsincludes a number of features to support student learning: a wealth of images, including several new illustrations; feature boxes which expand on key sites, finds and written sources; and an extensive guide to further reading. With new perceptions of the origin and collapse of states, including a review of the issue of sustainability, this fourth edition has been extensively updated in the light of spectacular new discoveries and the latest theoretical advances. Examining the world's pre-industrial civilizations from a multidisciplinary perspective and offering a comparative analysis of the field which explores the connections between all civilizations around the world, Scarre and Fagan, both established authorities on world prehistory, provide a valuable introduction to pre-industrial civilizations in all their brilliant diversity.

Christopher Scarre

Books

Your next favorite book is out there