World Prehistory: A Brief Introduction

by Fagan; Brian M.

• ISBN13: 9780205017911
• ISBN10: 0205017916
• Edition: 8th
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2010-11-30
• Publisher: ROUTLEDGE

Summary

For one semester or quarter courses in World Prehistory. 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 makes world prehistoryuniquely accessible to complete beginners. Written by Brian Fagan,World Prehistorycovers the entire world, not just the Americas or Europe, and places major emphasis on both theories and the latest archaeological and multidisciplinary approaches. His focus is on four major developments in world prehistory: 1) The origins of humanity. 2) The appearance and spread of modern humans before and during the late Ice Age- including the first settlement of the Americas. 3) The beginnings of food production. 4) The rise of the first civilizations.

Author Biography

Brian Fagan is one of the leading archaeological writers in the world and an internationally recognized authority on world prehistory. He studied archaeology and anthropology at Pembroke College, Cambridge University, and then spent seven years in sub-Saharan Africa working in museums and in monument conservation and excavating early farming sites in Zambia and East Africa. He was one of the pioneers of multidisciplinary African history in the 1960s. From 1967 to 2003, he was Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he specialized in lecturing and writing about archaeology to wide audiences. He is now Emeritus.

 

Professor Fagan has written six best-selling textbooks apart from this book: Ancient Lives: An Introduction to Archaeology; In the Beginning; Archaeology: A Brief Introduction; People of the Earth; World Prehistory, all published by Prentice Hall—that are used around the world. His general books include The Rape of the Nile, a classic history of Egyptology; The Adventure of Archaeology; Time Detectives; Ancient North America; The Little Ice Age, The Long Summer, and Fish on Friday. He is General Editor of the Oxford Companion to Archaeology. In addition, he has published several scholarly monographs on African archaeology and numerous specialized articles in national and international journals. He is also an expert on multimedia teaching and has received the Society for American Archaeology’s first Public Education Award for his indefatigable efforts on behalf of archaeology and education.

 

Brian Fagan’s other interests include bicycling, sailing, kayaking, and good food. He is married and lives in Santa Barbara with his wife and daughter, four cats (who supervise his writing), and, last but not least, seven rabbits.

Table of Contents

 

PART I  Prehistory    

Chapter 1  Introducing World Prehistory    
 

PART II  The World of the First Humans    

Chapter 2  Human Origins    

Chapter 3  African Exodus    

 

PART III  The Birth of the Modern World    

Chapter 4  Diaspora    

Chapter 5  The Origins of Food Production    

Chapter 6  The Earliest Farmers    

Chapter 7  Chiefs and Chiefdoms    

 

PART IV  Early Civilizations    

Chapter 8  State-Organized Societies    

Chapter 9  Mesopotamia and the Eastern Mediterranean World    

Chapter 10  Egypt and Africa    

Chapter 11  South, Southeast, and East Asia    

Chapter 12  Lowland Mesoamerica   

Chapter 13  Highland Mesoamerica

Chapter 14  Andean Civilizations

 

 

 

Detailed Table of Contents

 

Preface

A Note on Chronologies and Measurements

About the Author

PART I  PREHISTORY    

1. Introducing World Prehistory

Prologue
“In the Beginning”
Pseudoarchaeology
Prehistory, Archaeology, and World Prehistory
Major Developments in Human Prehistory
Cyclical and Linear Time
Written Records, Oral History, and Archaeology
Studying World Prehistory
Culture
Culture History, Time and Space, and “The Myth of the Ethnographic Present” 
    Context 
    Time 
    Space 
    Analogy and the “Ethnographic Present”
SCIENCE: DATING THE PAST
Cultural Process and Past Lifeways
The Mechanisms of Culture Change
Culture as Adaptation 
    Multilinear Cultural Evolution
SITE: ANCIENT WAR CASUALTIES AT THEBES, EGYPT
SCIENCE: ANCIENT SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 
    Cultural Traditions and Cultural Change
Intangibles: Ideology and Interaction 
    Ideology and Beliefs 
    Interactions
Summary

PART II  THE WORLD OF THE FIRST HUMANS    

CHAPTER 2  Human Origins    

Prologue
The Great Ice Age (1.8 million to 15,000 years ago)
Early Primate Evolution and Adaptation 
    The Order Primates 
    “Coming Down from the Trees”
The Fossil Evidence for Human Evolution (7 million to 1.5 million years ago) 
    The Earliest Hominin?    
SCIENCE: POTASSIUM ARGON DATING 
    What Is Australopithecus?    
    Ardipithecus ramidus 
    From Ardipithecus to Australopithecus
All Kinds of Australopithecines (3 million to 2.5 million years ago) 
    Gracile Australopithecines: Australopithecus africanus 
    Robust Australopithecines: A. aethiopicus, A. boisei, and A. robustus  
    Australopithecus garhi
Early Homo: Homo habilis (2.5 million to 2 million years ago) 
    A Burst of Rapid Change?    
Who Was the First Human?
SITE: OLDUVAI GORGE, TANZANIA
The Earliest Human Toolmakers
Hunters or Scavengers?    
The Earliest Human Mind
The Development of Language
The Earliest Social Organization
Summary

CHAPTER 3  African Exodus    

Prologue
Ice Age Background
Homo ergaster in Africa (c. 1.9 million to c. 600,000 years ago)
Humans Radiate out of Africa 
    Homo erectus in Europe and Asia
The Lifeway of Homo erectus 
    Archaic Human Lifeways
SITE: SCHONINGEN, GERMANY 
    Bamboo and Choppers in Tropical Forests 
    Language
Archaic Homo sapiens (c. 600,000 to 130,000 years ago)
The Neanderthals (c. 200,000 to 30,000 years ago)
SCIENCE: DNA AND ARCHAEOLOGY
The Origins of Modern Humans (?c. 180,000 to 150,000 years ago)    
    Continuity or Replacement?     
    Molecular Biology and Homo sapiens 
    Ecology and Homo sapiens
Out of Tropical Africa
Summary

PART III  THE BIRTH OF THE MODERN WORLD   

 
CHAPTER 4  Diaspora    

Prologue    
The Late Ice Age World (50,000 to 15,000 years ago)
The Peopling of Southeast Asia and Australia (45,000 to 15,000 years ago)
SITE: EXOTIC ISLANDERS: HOMO FLORESIENSIS
SCIENCE: RADIOCARBON DATING
Late Ice Age Europe: The Cro-Magnons (c. 43,000 to 15,000 years ago) 
    Subsistence 
    Cro-Magnon Technology 
    The World’s First Art  
Hunter-Gatherers in Eurasia (45,000 to 15,000 years ago)
SITE: GROTTE DE CHAUVET, FRANCE
East Asia (35,000 to 15,000 years ago) 
    Sinodonty and Sundadonty
Early Human Settlement of Northeast Siberia (?before 25,000 to 15,000 years ago)    
The First Americans (?before 15,000 years ago to 11,000 B.C.)     
    Settlement before 30,000 Years Ago?    
SITE: MONTE VERDE, CHILE 
    Settlement after 15,000 Years Ago?    

The Clovis People (c. 11,200 to 11,000 B.C.)    
Summary

CHAPTER 5  The Origins of Food Production    

Prologue
The Holocene (after 10,000 B.C.)    
Changes in Hunter-Gatherer Societies
Social Complexity among Hunter-Gatherers
Theories of Farming Origins 
    Early Theories: Oases and Hilly Flanks
The Recovery Revolution
Multicausal Theories
SCIENCE: FLOTATION AND BOTANICAL REMAINS
SCIENCE: ACCELERATOR MASS SPECTROMETRY (AMS) RADIOCARBON DAT-ING     
    Population and Resources Theories 
    Ecological Theories
The Consequences of Food Production 
    Differing Dates and Why 
    Changes in Human Life
Nutrition and Early Food Production
Summary

CHAPTER 6  The Earliest Farmers    

Prologue
Domesticating Animals
Domesticating Wheat and Barley 
Southwest Asian Farmers (c. 10,000 to 5000 B.C.)    
SITE: MEN’S AND WOMEN’S WORK AT ABU HUREYRA, SYRIA
SITE: RITUAL BUILDINGS IN SOUTHEASTERN TURKEY
Early Egyptian and African Farmers (earlier than 7000 to 1000 B.C.)    
European Farmers (c. 6500 to 3000 B.C.)    
SITE: EASTON DOWN AND THE AVEBURY LANDSCAPE, ENGLAND
Early Agriculture in Asia (before 6000 B.C.)     
    Rice Cultivation in Southern China 
    First Farmers in Northern China
Early American Agriculture (8000 B.C. onward) 
    Mesoamerica: Guilá Naquitz and Early Cultivation 
    Maize 
    Andean Farmers
Summary

CHAPTER 7  Chiefs and Chiefdoms    

Prologue   
Reciprocity and “Big Men”
Chiefs and Navigators in the Pacific (2000 B.C. to modern times)
The American Southwest (300 B.C. to modern times) 
    Hohokam, Mogollon, and Ancestral Pueblo
SCIENCE: DENDROCHRONOLOGY (TREE-RING DATING)
Moundbuilders in Eastern North America (2000 B.C. to A.D. 1650) 
    Adena and Hopewell 
    The Mississippian Tradition
SITE: MOUNDVILLE, ALABAMA
Summary

PART IV  EARLY CIVILIZATIONS   

CHAPTER 8  State-Organized Societies   

Prologue   
What Is a State-Organized Society?   
Cities   
Theories of the Origins of States 
    The “Urban Revolution” 
    Early Ecological Models 
    Technology and Trade
SCIENCE: OBSIDIAN SOURCING 
    Warfare 
    Cultural Systems and Civilization 
    Environmental Change
Social Approaches: Power in Three Domains  
    Factionalism and Ideology
People as Agents of Change
The Collapse of Civilizations 
Summary

CHAPTER 9  Mesopotamia and the Eastern Mediterranean World    

Prologue    
Origins (5500 to 3000 B.C.)    
SITE: THE TEMPLE AT ERIDU, IRAQ  
    The First Cities: Uruk 
    Writing and Metallurgy 
Sumerian Civilization (c. 3100 to 2334 B.C.)   
VOICES: THE SUMERIANS
Akkadians and Babylonians (2334 to 1650 B.C.)    
Hittites and Sea Traders (1650 to 1200 B.C.)     
    The Hittites 
    Uluburun and Maritime Trade 
    Iron Technology
Minoans and Mycenaeans (1900 to 1200 B.C.)     
    Minoan Civilization (1900 to 1400 B.C.)     
    Mycenaean Civilization (1600 to 1200 B.C.)    
Sea Peoples and Phoenicians (1200 to 800 B.C.)    
Assyrians and Babylonians (900 to 539 B.C.)    
Summary

CHAPTER 10  Egypt and  Africa

Prologue
Predynastic Egypt: Ancient Monopoly (5000 to 3100 B.C.)    
SCIENCE: ANCIENT WINE AT ABYDOS
Dynastic Egyptian Civilization (c. 3000 to 30 B.C.)     
    Archaic Egypt and the “Great Culture” (3000 to 2575 B.C.)     
    Old Kingdom (c. 2575 to 2134 B.C.)    
SITE: THE STEP PYRAMID AT SAQQARA, EGYPT 
    Middle Kingdom (2040 to 1640 B.C.)     
    New Kingdom (1530 to 1075 B.C.)    
VOICES: THE WARRIOR AHMOSE, SON OF ABANA 
    Late Period (1070 to 30 B.C.)    
Egypt and Afrocentrism
Nubia: The Land of Kush (3000 to 633 B.C.)    
Meroe and Aksum 
    Meroe (593 B.C. to A.D. 330) 
    Aksum (A.D. 100 to 1000)
Ancient African Kingdoms 
    The Spread of Iron (c. 500 B.C. to A.D. 250) 
    The Kingdoms of Ghana, Mali, and Songhay (c. A.D. 800 to 1550) 
    Great Zimbabwe (A.D. 1100 to 1500)
Summary

CHAPTER 11  South, Southeast, and East Asia    

Prologue
South Asia: The Harappan Civilization (c. 2700 to 1700 B.C.)     
    Mature Harappan Civilization
South Asia after the Harappans (1700 to 180 B.C.)    
The Origins of Chinese Civilization (2600 to 1100 B.C.)     
    Royal Capitals 
    Royal Burials 
    Bronzeworking 
    Shang Warriors    
The War Lords (1100 to 221 B.C.)    
Southeast Asian Civilization (A.D. 1 to 1500)
SITE: THE BURIAL MOUND OF EMPEROR SHIHUANGDI, CHINA     
    The Angkor State (A.D. 802 to 1430)
SITE: ANGKOR WAT, CAMBODIA
Summary

CHAPTER 12  Lowland Mesoamerica   

 
Prologue
Beginnings: Preclassic Peoples in the Lowlands (2000 B.C. to A.D. 300)
The Olmec (1500 to 500 B.C.)    
SITE: MAYA PAINTINGS AT SAN BARTOLO, GUATEMALA
The Origins of Maya Civilization (before 1000 B.C. to A.D. 300) 
    San Bartolo, Nakbé, and El Mirador (c. 1000 to 300 B.C.)     
    Kingship, Glyphs, and Political Cycles 
    Maya Script 
    Political Cycles
Classic Maya Civilization (A.D. 300 to 900) 
    The Rise of Tikal and Uaxactún 
    Caracol and Calakmul 
    Palenque and Copán 
The Classic Maya Collapse
SITE: A TRAGEDY AT CERÉN, SAN SALVADOR
SCIENCE: STUDYING THE MAYA COLLAPSE AT COPÁN, HONDURAS
Postclassic Maya Civilization (A.D. 900 to 1517)
Summary

CHAPTER 13  Highland Mesoamerica   

 
Prologue 
The Rise of Highland Civilization: The Valley of Oaxaca (2000 to 500 B.C.)    
Monte Albán (500 B.C. to A.D. 750)
Valley of Mexico: Teotihuacán (200 B.C. to A.D. 750)
SITE: LIFE IN TEOTIHUACÁN’S BARRIOS
The Toltecs (A.D. 650 to 1200)
Aztec Civilization (A.D. 1200 to 1521) 
    Tenochtitlán
SITE: THE AZTEC TEMPLO MAJOR AT TENOCHTITLÁN 
    The World of the Fifth Sun
VOICES: AZTEC THOUGHTS ON HUMAN EXISTENCE 
    The Aztec State 
    The Spanish Conquest (A.D. 1517 to 1521)
Summary

CHAPTER 14  Andean Civilizations    

Prologue    
The Maritime Foundations of Andean Civilization
Coastal Foundations (2600 to 900 B.C.)    
The Early Horizon and Chavín de Huántar (900 to 200 B.C.)    
The Initial Period 
    The Coast (after 1800 B.C.)     
    Lake Titicaca Basin: Chiripa and Pukara (1000 B.C. to A.D. 100)
The Moche State (200 B.C. to A.D. 700)
SITE: THE LORDS OF SIPÁN, PERU
The Middle Horizon: Tiwanaku and Wari (A.D. 600 to 1000) 
    Tiwanaku 
    Wari
The Late Intermediate Period: Sicán and Chimu (A.D. 700 to 1460)
The Late Horizon: The Inca State (A.D. 1476 to 1534)
SITE: CUZCO, THE INCA CAPITAL
The Spanish Conquest (A.D. 1532 to 1534)
Summary
Epilogue
Glossary of Technical Terms
Glossary of Archaeological Sites and Cultural Terms
Guide to Further Reading
References in the Text
Photo Credits
Index