The Palaeolithic Societies of Europe

by Clive Gamble

• ISBN13: 9780521658720
• ISBN10: 0521658721
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-12-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Palaeolithic societies have been a neglected topic in the discussion of human origins. In this book, which succeeds and replaces The Palaeolithic Settlement of Europe, published by Cambridge University Press in 1986, Clive Gamble challenges the established view that the social life of Europeans over the 500,000 years of the European Palaeolithic must remain a mystery. In the past forty years archaeologists have recovered a wealth of information from sites throughout the continent. Professor Gamble now introduces a new approach to this material. He examines the archaeological evidence from stone tools, hunting and campsites for information on the scale of social interaction, and the forms of social life. Taking a pan-European view of the archaeological evidence, he reconstructs ancient human societies, and introduces new perspectives on the unique social experience of human beings.

Author Biography

Clive Gamble is Professor of Archaeology at the University of Southampton.

Table of Contents

List of figures	viii
List of tables	xii
Acknowledgements	xvi
Preface	xix
Pulling aside the Palaeolithic curtain	1	(31)
The individual, society and networks	32	(33)
A Palaeolithic framework: locales, rhythms and regions	65	(33)
The first European societies 500,000-300,000 years ago	98	(76)
Neanderthal societies 300,000 to 60,000 years ago	174	(94)
The rhythms of social life 60,000-21,000 years ago: the transition from the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic in Europe	268	(83)
The extension of social life 60,000-21,000 years ago: regions and locales, networks and landscapes	351	(66)
The Palaeolithic societies of Europe	417	(10)
Notes	427	(13)
Bibliography	440	(54)
Site index	494	(4)
General index	498