Prehistoric Europe An Illustrated History

by Cunliffe, Barry

• ISBN13: 9780192880635
• ISBN10: 0192880632
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-05-14
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Ranging from the earliest settlements through the emergence of Minoan civilization to the barbarian world at the end of the Roman Empire, Prehistoric Europe provides a fascinating look at how successive cultures adapted to the landscape of Europe. In synthesizing the diverse findings of archeology, Barry Cunliffe and a team of distinguished experts capture the sweeping movements of peoples, the spread of agriculture, the growth of metal working, and the rise and fall of cultures. For centuries, we knew little of the European civilizations that preceded classical Greece or arose outside of the Roman Empire, beyond ancient myths and the writings of Roman observers. Now the most recent discoveries of archeology have been synthesized into one exciting volume. Featuring hundreds of stunning photographs, this book provides the most complete account available of the prehistory of European civilization.

Author Biography

About the Author:
Barry Cuncliffe is Professor of European Archaelogy at Oxford University.

Table of Contents

LIST OF COLOUR PLATES	vii	(4)
LIST OF MAPS	xi	(1)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS	xii
Introduction	1	(4)
BARRY CUNLIFFE
1. The Peopling of Europe, 700,000-40,000 Years before the Present	5	(37)
CLIVE GAMBLE
2. The Upper Palaeolithic Revolution	42	(37)
PAUL MELLARS
3. The Mesolithic Age	79	(57)
STEVEN J. MITHEN
4. The First Farmers	136	(31)
ALASDAIR WHITTLE
5. The Transformation of Early Agrarian Europe: The Later Neolithic and Copper Ages, 4500-2500 BC	167	(35)
ANDREW SHERRATT
6. The Palace Civilizations of Minoan Crete and Mycenaean Greece, 2000-1200 BC	202	(42)
K.A. WARDLE
7. The Emergence of Elites: Earlier Bronze Age Europe, 2500-1300 BC	244	(33)
ANDREW SHERRATT
8. The Collapse of Aegean Civilization at the End of the Late Bronze Age	277	(27)
MERVYN POPHAM
9. Reformation in Barbarian Europe, 1300-600 BC	304	(32)
ANTHONY HARDING
10. Iron Age Societies in Western Europe and Beyond, 800-140 BC	336	(37)
BARRY CUNLIFFE
11. Thracians, Scythians, and Dacians, 800 BC-AD 300	373	(38)
TIMOTHY TAYLOR
12. The Impact of Rome on Barbarian Society, 140 BC-AD 300	411	(36)
BARRY CUNLIFFE
13. Barbarian Europe, AD 300-700	447	(36)
MALCOLM TODD
FURTHER READING	483	(14)
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES	497	(10)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF SOURCES	507	(4)
INDEX	511