World Prehistory: A Brief Introduction / Edition 8

by Brian M. Fagan, Nadia Durrani

Overview

Written by one of the leading archaeological writers in the world--in a simple, jargon-free narrative style--this brief, well-illustrated account of the major developments in the human past (from the origins of humanity to the origins of literate civilization) is ideal for those with no previous knowledge of the subject. Up to date and state of the art in content and perspective, it covers the entire world (not just the Americas or Europe), placing major emphasis on both theories and the latest archaeological and multidisciplinary approaches. The main focus is on four major developments--the origins of humanity; the appearance and spread of modern humans before and during the late Ice Age, including the first settlement of the Americas; the beginnings of food production; and the rise of the first civilizations. Features special boxes on Science (e.g., key dating methods and other scientific approaches), Sites (e.g., sites of unusual importance or interest, and Voices (e.g., quotes from writings of ancient times). Human Origins. African Exodus. Diaspora. The Origins of Food Production. The First Farmers. Chiefs and Chiefdoms. State-Organized Societies. Mesopotamia and the Eastern Mediterranean World. Egypt and Africa. South, Southeast, And East Asia. Lowland Mesoamerica. Highland Mesamerica. Andean Civilizations. For anyone interested in Archaeology, World Prehistory, Human Antiquity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780205017911
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	12/14/2010
Series:	MyAnthroKit Series
Edition description:	Older Edition
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	7.30(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d)

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	xiii
	A Note on Chronologies and Measurements	xvi
Part I	Prehistory	1
Chapter 1	Introducing World Prehistory	3
	Prologue	4
	"In the Beginning"	4
	Pseudoarchaeology	6
	Prehistory, Archaeology, and World Prehistory	7
	Major Developments in Human Prehistory	9
	Cyclical and Linear Time	10
	Written Records, Oral History, and Archaeology	14
	Studying World Prehistory	15
	Culture History, Time and Space, and "The Myth of the Ethnographic Present"	17
	Cultural Process and Past Lifeways	22
	The Mechanisms of Culture Change	24
	Culture as Adaptation	26
	Intangibles: Ideology and Interaction	30
	Summary	32
Part II	The World of the First Humans	35
Chapter 2	Human Origins	37
	Prologue	8
	The Great Ice Age (1.8 million to 15,000 years ago)	39
	Early Primate Evolution and Adaptation	41
	The Fossil Evidence for Human Evolution (4 million to 1.5 million years ago)	44
	All Kinds of Australopithecines (3 million to 2.5 million years ago)	50
	Early Homo: Homo habilis (2.5 million to 2.0 million years ago)	52
	Who Was the First Human?	56
	The Earliest Human Technology	57
	Hunters or Scavengers?	61
	The Earliest Human Mind	63
	The Development of Language	65
	The Earliest Social Organization	66
	Summary	67
Chapter 3	African Exodus	68
	Prologue	69
	Ice Age Background	69
	Homo erectus (c. 1.9 million to after 200,000 years ago)	72
	The Lifeway of Homo erectus	76
	Archaic Homo sapiens (c. 400,000 to 130,000 years ago)	81
	The Neanderthals (c. 150,000 to 30,000 years ago)	82
	The Origins of Modern Humans (?c. 180,000 to 150,000 years ago)	88
	Out of Tropical Africa	93
	Summary	94
Part III	The Birth of the Modern World	95
Chapter 4	Diaspora	97
	Prologue	98
	The Late Ice Age World (50,000 to 15,000 years ago)	99
	The Peopling of Southeast Asia and Australia (45,000 to 15,000 years ago)	101
	Late Ice Age Europe: The Cro-Magnons (40,000 to 15,000 years ago)	103
	Hunter-gatherers in Eurasia (35,000 to 15,000 years ago)	109
	East Asia (35,000 to 15,000 years ago)	112
	Early Human Settlement of Siberia (?before 20,000 to 15,000 years ago)	114
	The First Americans (?before 15,000 years ago to 11,000 B.C.)	114
	The Clovis People (c. 11,200 to 11,000 B.C.)	118
	Summary	120
Chapter 5	The Origins of Food Production	121
	Prologue	122
	The Holocene (after 10,000 B.C.)	125
	Changes in Forager Societies	125
	Social Complexity among Foragers	127
	Theories of Farming Origins	129
	The Recovery Revolution	130
	Multicausal Theories	131
	The Consequences of Food Production	134
	Nutrition and Early Food Production	139
	Summary	140
Chapter 6	The Earliest Farmers	141
	Prologue	142
	Domesticating Animals	143
	Domesticating Wheat and Barley	144
	Southwest Asian Farmers (c. 10,000 to 5000 B.C.)	146
	Early Egyptian and African Farmers (earlier than 6000 B.C. to 1000 B.C.)	149
	European Farmers (c. 6500 to 3000 B.C.)	151
	Early Agriculture in Asia (before 6000 B.C.)	154
	Early American Agriculture (8000 B.C. onward)	158
	Summary	163
Chapter 7	Chiefs and Chiefdoms	165
	Prologue	166
	Reciprocity and "Big Men"	167
	Navigators and Chiefs in the Pacific (2000 B.C. to modern times)	169
	The American Southwest (300 B.C. to modern times)	173
	Moundbuilders in Eastern North America (2000 B.C. to A.D. 1650)	180
	Summary	187
Part IV	Early Civilizations	189
Chapter 8	State-Organized Societies	191
	Prologue	192
	What Is a State-Organized Society?	192
	Cities	194
	Theories of the Origins of States	196
	Social Approaches: Power in Three Domains	202
	People as Agents of Change	206
	The Collapse of Civilizations	207
	Summary	209
Chapter 9	Mesopotamia and the Eastern Mediterranean World	210
	Prologue	211
	Origins (5500 to 3000 B.C.)	212
	Sumerian Civilization (c. 3100 to 2334 B.C.)	218
	Akkadians and Babylonians (2334 to 1650 B.C.)	221
	Hittites and Sea Traders (1650 to 1200 B.C.)	222
	Minoans and Mycenaeans (1900 to 1200 B.C.)	224
	Sea Peoples and Phoenicians (1200 to 800 B.C.)	229
	Assyrians and Babylonians (900 to 539 B.C.)	229
	Summary	230
Chapter 10	Egypt and Africa	232
	Prologue	233
	Predynastic Egypt: Ancient Monopoly? (5000 to 3100 B.C.)	233
	Dynastic Egyptian Civilization (c. 3000 to 30 B.C.)	237
	Egypt and Afrocentrism	247
	Nubia: The Land of Kush (3000 to 633 B.C.)	247
	Meroe and Aksum	249
	Ancient African Kingdoms	251
	Summary	256
Chapter 11	South, Southeast, and East Asia	257
	Prologue	258
	South Asia: The Harappan Civilization (c. 2700 to 1700 B.C.)	258
	South Asia after the Harappans (1700 to 180 B.C.)	264
	The Origins of Chinese Civilization (2600 to 1100 B.C.)	264
	The War Lords (1100 to 221 B.C.)	268
	Southeast Asian Civilization (A.D. 1 to 1500)	270
	Summary	275
Chapter 12	Lowland Mesoamerica	276
	Prologue	277
	Beginnings: Preclassic Peoples in the Lowlands (2000 B.C. to A.D. 300)	277
	The Olmec (1500 B.C. to 500 B.C.)	279
	Classic Maya Civilization (A.D. 300 to 900)	285
	The Classic Maya Collapse	290
	Postclassic Maya Civilization (A.D. 900 to 1517)	293
	Summary	295
Chapter 13	Highland Mesoamerica	297
	Prologue	298
	The Rise of Highland Civilization: The Valley of Oaxaca (2000 to 500 B.C.)	298
	Monte Alban (500 B.C. to A.D. 750)	300
	Valley of Mexico: Teotihuacan (200 B.C. to A.D. 750)	301
	The Toltecs (A.D. 650 to 1200)	305
	Aztec Civilization (A.D. 1200 to 1521)	306
	Summary	314
Chapter 14	Andean Civilizations	315
	Prologue	316
	The Maritime Foundations of Andean Civilization	318
	Coastal Foundations (2500 to 900 B.C.)	319
	The Early Horizon and Chavin de Huantar (900 to 200 B.C.)	320
	The Initial Period	321
	The Moche State (200 B.C. to A.D. 700)	326
	The Middle Horizon: Tiwanaku and Wari (A.D. 600 to 1000)	328
	The Late Intermediate Period: Sican and Chimu (A.D. 700 to 1460)	330
	The Late Horizon: The Inca State (A.D. 1476 to 1534)	331
	The Spanish Conquest (A.D. 1532 to 1534)	336
	Summary	337
	Epilogue	338
	Glossary of Technical Terms	341
	Glossary of Archaeological Sites and Cultural Terms	345
	Guide to Further Reading	353
	References in Text	362
	Photo Credits	363
	Index	365

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