Preface xi
The Beginning
1. The Birth of History: Global warming, archaeological evidence and human history 3
2. The World at 20,000 BC: Human evolution, the causes of climate change and radiocarbon dating 8
Western Asia
3. Fires and Flowers: Hunter-gatherers and the forest steppe, 20,000-12,300 BC 20
4. Village Life in the Oak Woodland: Early Natufian hunter-gatherer communities, 12,300-10,800 BC 29
5. On the Banks of the Euphrates: Abu Hureyra and the rise of hunter-gatherer sedentism, 12,300-10,800 BC 40
6. One Thousand Years of Drought: Economy and society during the Younger Dryas, 10,800-9600 BC 46
7. The Founding of Jericho: Neolithic architecture, burial and technology of the Jordan valley, 9600-8500 BC 56
8. Pictograms and Pillars: Neolithic ideology, symbolism and trade, 9600-8500 BC 62
9. In the Valley of Ravens: Architecture, textiles and animal domestication, 8500-7500 BC 72
10. The Town of Ghosts: Ritual, religion and economic collapse, 7500-6300 BC 80
11. Heaven and Hell at Catalhoyuk: Florescence of the Neolithic in Turkey, 9000-7000 BC 88
12. Three Days on Cyprus: Extinctions, colonisation and cultural stasis, 20,000-6000 BC 97
Europe
13. Pioneers in Northern Lands: The recolonisation of northwest Europe, 20,000-12,700 BC 110
14. With Reindeer Hunters: Economy, technology and society, 12,700-9600 BC 122
15. At Star Carr: Adaptations to early Holocene woodlands in northern Europe, 9600-8500 BC 134
16. Last of the Cave Painters: Economic, social and cultural change in southern Europe, 9600-8500 BC 143
17. Coastal Catastrophe: Sea-level change and its consequences, 10,500-6400 BC 150
18. Two Villages in Southeast Europe: Sedentary hunter-gatherers and immigrant farmers, 6500-6200 BC 158
19. Islands of the Dead: Mesolithic burial and society in northern Europe, 6200-5000 BC 168
20. At the Frontier: The spread of farming in Central Europe and its impact on Mesolithic society, 6000-4400 BC 178
21. A Mesolithic Legacy: The Neolithic in southern Europe, 6000-4000 BC; debates in historical linguistics and genetics 187
22. A Scottish Envoi: Colonisation, Mesolithic lifestyles and the transition to the Neolithic in western Scotland, 20,000-4300 BC 196
The Americas
23. Searching for the First Americans: The discovery of ice-age settlement, AD 1927-1994 210
24. American Past in the Present: Dental, linguistic, genetic and skeletal evidence for the peopling of the Americas 221
25. On the Banks of Chinchihuapi: Excavation and interpretation of Monte Verde, AD 1977-1997, 12,500 BC 229
26. Explorers in a Restless Landscape: North American fauna, landscape evolution and human colonisation, 20,000-11,500 BC 236
27. Clovis Hunters on Trial: Extinction of the mega-fauna and Clovis lifestyles, 11,500-10,000 BC 246
28. Virginity Reconsidered: Hunter-gatherers of Tierra del Fuego and in the Amazon, 11,500-6000 BC 258
29. Herders and the 'Christ-Child': Animal and plant domestication in the Andes, and coastal foragers, 10,500-5000 BC 266
30. A Double-Take in the Oaxaca Valley: The domestication of maize, squash and beans in Mexico, 10,500-5000 BC 274
31. To Koster: Hunter-gatherer lifestyles in North America, 7000-5000 BC 286
32. Salmon Fishing and the Gift of History: Complex hunter-gatherers of the northwest coast, 6000-5000 BC 296
Greater Australia and East Asia
33. A Lost World Revealed: Tasmanian hunter-gatherers, 20,000-6000 BC 304
34. Body Sculpture at Know Swamp: Burial and society in Southeast Australia, 14,000-6000 BC, and mega-faunal extinctions 312
35. Across the Arid Zone: Hunter-gatherer adaptations to the Central Australian Desert, 30,000 BC-AD 1966 319
36. Fighting Men and a Serpent's Birth: Art, society and ideology in northern Australia, 13,000-6000 BC 327
37. Pigs and Gardens in the Highlands: The development of tropical horticulture in highland New Guinea, 20,000-5000 BC 337
38. Lonesome in Sundaland: Hunter-gatherers in the Southeast Asian tropical rainforests, 20,000-5000 BC 348
39. Down the Yangtze: The origin of rice farming, 11,500-6500 BC 359
40. With the Jomon: Complex hunter-gatherers in Japan and the earliest pottery, 14,500-6000 BC 370
41. Summer in the Arctic: The mammoth steppe and colonisation of the High Arctic, 19,000-6500 BC 381
South Asia
42. A Passage through India: Indian rock art and villages on the Ganges Plain, 20,000-8500 BC 396
43. A Long Walk across the Hindu Kush: Early farming in South and Central Asia; the domestication of cotton, 7500-5000 BC 407
44. Vultures of the Zagros: The roots of Mesopotamian civilisation, 11,000-9000 BC 420
45. Approaching Civilisation in Mesopotamia: The development of towns and trade, 8500-6000 BC 430
Africa
46. Baked Fish by the Nile: Hunter-gatherers of North Africa and the Nile valley, 20,000-11,000 BC 443
47. On Lukenya Hill: The development of East African landscapes and faunas after 20,000 BC 453
48. Frogs' Legs and Ostrich Eggs: Hunter-gatherers of the Kalahari Desert, 12,500 BC 462
49. A South African Tour: Changing environments, diet and social life, 12,500-7000 BC 469
50. Thunderbolts in the Tropics: Hunter-gatherers in Central and West Africa; environmental change in East Africa, 7000-5000 BC 483
51. Sheep and Cattle in the Sahara: The development of pastoralism in North Africa, 9500-5000 BC 490
52. Farmers in the Nile Valley and Beyond: The arrival of cereal agriculture in North Africa, 5500-4000 BC 499
Epilogue: 'The Blessings of Civilisation': Past, present and future impacts of global warming on human history 504
Notes 513
Bibliography 575
Picture Acknowledgements 611
Index 613