The History Book Club discussion

"Prehistory is a term used to describe the period before recorded history.


Paul Tournal originally coined the term Pré-historique in describing the finds he had made in the caves of southern France. It came into use in French in the 1830s to describe the time before writing, and the word "prehistoric" was introduced into English by Daniel Wilson in 1851.

The term "prehistory" can be used to refer to all time since the beginning of the universe, although the term is more often used to describe periods when there was life on Earth and even more commonly, to the time when human-like beings appear on Earth.

Prehistorians typically use a Three age system to divide up human prehistory—whereas scholars of pre-human time periods typically use the well defined Rock record and its internationally defined stratum base within the geologic time scale.

The three-age system is the periodization of human prehistory into three consecutive time periods, named for their respective predominant tool-making technologies:

The Stone Age

The Bronze Age

The Iron Age"

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prehistory

This thread will deal with prehistory specifically the Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages.

Please feel free to add books, images pertaining to the Ancient History of the Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages, and/or urls, etc that pertain to these subject areas. No self promotion please.

Here is a book: (IRON AGE)

P.V. Glob

Goodreads write-up:

In the last two centuries, well-preserved human bodies, some more than 2,000 years old, have been discovered in bogs throughout northern Europe. Buried with ropes tight around their necks, the corpses show signs of violent ends; yet their facial features are arranged in peaceful, even prayerful repose. In the book, P.V. Glob solves the mystery of the bog people, uncovering a link between these Iron Age corpses and a fertility goddess often portrayed with ornamental neck chains. Recounting a dark, forbidding story, the author introduces us to the Iron Age Germani, to the sacred rituals they performed in secluded woods and groves, and to the goddess Nerthus--a demanding Mother Earth who prescribed a willing human sacrifice to ensure the yearly rhythm of the crops. B&W photos.

The Lost Civilizations of the Stone Age
by Richard Rudgley

Synopsis
An authoritative, eye-opening look at Stone Age civilizations that explodes traditional portrayals of prehistory

The rise of historical civilization 5,000 years ago is often depicted as if those societies were somehow created out of nothing. However, recent discoveries of astonishing accomplishments from the Neolithic Age - in art, technology, writing, math, science, religion, medicine and exploration - demand a fundamental rethinking of humanity before the dawn of written history.

In this fascinating book, Richard Rudgley describes how:
* The intrepid explorers of the Stone Age discovered all of the world's major land masses long before the so-called Age of Discovery
* Stone Age man performed medical operations, including amputations and delicate cranial surgeries
* Paleolithic cave artists of Western Europe used techniques that were forgotten until the Renaissance
* Prehistoric life expectancy was better than it is for contemporary third-world populations

Rudgley reminds us just how savage so-called civilized people can be, and demonstrates how the cultures that have been reviled as savage were truly civilized. The Lost Civilizations of the Stone Age shows the great debt that contemporary society owes to its prehistoric predecessors. It is a rich introduction to a lost world that will redefine the meaning of civilization itself

Great add but maybe separate the paragraphs with blank lines in between so it is easier to read - I will delete this post when the edit is done.

Thank you Kathy for the adds.

So is this book non-fiction? I mean, I recognize this as a true story, that did happen. But is this a chronicle of that or a fictionalization?

Thank you Kathy for posting the explanation and helping out.

Thanks Kathy for the Ancient History adds.

Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings: Evidence of Advanced Civilization in the Ice Age

by Charles H. Hapgood (no photo)

Amazon Book Description :

Some scholars have long claimed that a world civilization existed thousands of years ago - long before Egypt. They have even claimed that this lost civilization was almost as advanced as ours today.

In this book, Professor Charles H. Hapgood has produced the first concrete evidence of the existence of such a civilization. He has found the evidence in many beautiful maps long known to scholars, the so-called Portolano charts of the Middle Ages, and in other maps until now thought to have originated around the time of Columbus. Working with his students over a period of seven years, Hapgood has discovered evidence that many of these maps must have originated in a civilization in some ways much more advanced scientifically than Europe in the 16th Century, or than the ancient civilizations of Greece, Egypt, and Babylonia.

Not only were these unknown people more advanced in mapmaking than any people prior to the 18th Century, it appears that they mapped all the continents. The Americas were mapped thousands of years before Columbus. Antarctica was mapped when its coasts were still free of ice. There is evidence that these people must have lived when the ice age had not yet ended in the Northern Hemisphere and when Alaska was still connected with Siberia by the Pleistocene, ice age 'land bridge.'

In this book, Hapgood has not merely modified our ideas about ancient history, but his work will necessitate a widespread revolution in our concepts about the whole history of man, the history of his science, and the evolution of human culture. Hapgood shows that man's evolution from brute to citizen of the world spans a longer time than we have ever supposed.

I want to read it, Kathy. The title is intriguing, isn't it ?

by Charles H. Hapgood (no photo)

Neanderthal Man: In Search of Lost Genomes

by Svante Pääbo (no photo)

Synopsis:

What can we learn from the genomes of our closest evolutionary relatives?

Neanderthal Man tells the story of geneticist Svante Pääbo’s mission to answer this question, and recounts his ultimately successful efforts to genetically define what makes us different from our Neanderthal cousins. Beginning with the study of DNA in Egyptian mummies in the early 1980s and culminating in the sequencing of the Neanderthal genome in 2010, Neanderthal Man describes the events, intrigues, failures, and triumphs of these scientifically rich years through the lens of the pioneer and inventor of the field of ancient DNA.

We learn that Neanderthal genes offer a unique window into the lives of our hominin relatives and may hold the key to unlocking the mystery of why humans survived while Neanderthals went extinct. Drawing on genetic and fossil clues, Pääbo explores what is known about the origin of modern humans and their relationship to the Neanderthals and describes the fierce debate surrounding the nature of the two species’ interactions. His findings have not only redrawn our family tree, but recast the fundamentals of human history—the biological beginnings of fully modern Homo sapiens, the direct ancestors of all people alive today.

A riveting story about a visionary researcher and the nature of scientific inquiry, Neanderthal Man offers rich insight into the fundamental question of who we are.

Kathy wrote: "Exposed, Uncovered, & Declassified: Lost Civilizations & Secrets of the Past

edited by [author:Mic..."

I don't know how people can believe in such pseudoscience, but I'm not the Inquisition.

First Farmers: The Origins of Agricultural Societies

by Peter Bellwood (no photo)

Synopsis:

"First Farmers: the Origins of Agricultural Societies" offers readers an understanding of the origins and histories of early agricultural populations in all parts of the world. Uses data from archaeology, comparative linguistics, and biological anthropology to cover developments over the past 12,000 years. Examines the reasons for the multiple primary origins of agriculture. Focuses on agricultural origins in and dispersals out of the Middle East, central Africa, China, New Guinea, Mesoamerica and the northern Andes. Covers the origins and dispersals of major language families such as Indo-European, Austronesian, Sino-Tibetan, Niger-Congo and Uto-Aztecan

A New Human: The Startling Discovery and Strange Story of the "Hobbits" of Flores, Indonesia

by Mike Morwood (no photo)

Synopsis:

In October 2004, a team of Australian and Indonesian anthropologists led by Mike Morwood and Raden Pandji Soejono stunned the world with their announcement of the discovery of the first example of a new species of human, Homo floresiensis, which they nicknamed the "Hobbit." This was no creation of Tolkien's fantasy, however, but a tool-using, fire-making, cooperatively hunting person. The more Morwood and his colleagues revealed about the find, the more astonishing it became: standing only three feet tall with brains a little larger than a can of cola, the Hobbits forced anthropologists and everyone to reconsider what it means to be human.

Morwood's work was no ordinary academic exercise. Along the way he had to tread warily through the cultural landscape of Indonesia—he has an embarrassing mishap with some hard-to-chew pork—and he demonstrated that sometimes the life of a real archaeologist can be a bit like Indiana Jones's when he risked his neck in an ocean-going raft to experience how ancient Indonesians might have navigated the archipelago.

Even more, Morwood had to navigate the rock shoals of an archaeological bureaucracy that could be obtuse and even spiteful, and when the Hobbits became embroiled in scientific controversy—as no find of such magnitude could avoid—it proved easy for Morwood to get nearly swamped with trouble. Finds were stolen and damaged, and the backbiting was fierce. But the light of science, once brightened, is difficult to dim, and the story of the indefatigable Morwood's fight to defend his find discovery is an inspiration.

This has just been published in Croatian and I can't wait to get my hands on it.

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

by Yuval Noah Harari

Synopsis:

100,000 years ago, at least six human species inhabited the earth. Today there is just one. Us. Homo sapiens. How did our species succeed in the battle for dominance? Why did our foraging ancestors come together to create cities and kingdoms? How did we come to believe in gods, nations and human rights; to trust money, books and laws; and to be enslaved by bureaucracy, timetables and consumerism? And what will our world be like in the millennia to come? In Sapiens, Dr Yuval Noah Harari spans the whole of human history, from the very first humans to walk the earth to the radical and sometimes devastating breakthroughs of the Cognitive, Agricultural and Scientific Revolutions. Drawing on insights from biology, anthropology, palaeontology and economics, he explores how the currents of history have shaped our human societies, the animals and plants around us, and even our personalities. Have we become happier as history has unfolded? Can we ever free our behaviour from the heritage of our ancestors? And what, if anything, can we do to influence the course of the centuries to come? Bold, wide-ranging and provocative, Sapiens challenges everything we thought we knew about being human: our thoughts, our actions, our power ... and our future.

Inside the Neolithic Mind: Consciousness, Cosmos, and the Realm of the Gods

by J. David Lewis-Williams (no photo)

Synopsis:

What do the headless figures found in the famous paintings at Catalhoyuk in Turkey have in common with the monumental tombs at Newgrange and Knowth in Ireland? How can the concepts of "birth," "death," and "wild" cast light on the archaeological enigma of the domestication of cattle? What generated the revolutionary social change that ended the Upper Palaeolithic?


David Lewis-Williams's previous book, The Mind in the Cave, dealt with the remarkable Upper Palaeolithic paintings, carvings, and engravings of western Europe. Here Dr. Lewis-Williams and David Pearce examine the intricate web of belief, myth, and society in the succeeding Neolithic period, arguably the most significant turning point in all human history, when agriculture became a way of life and the fractious society that we know today was born.

The authors focus on two contrasting times and places: the beginnings in the Near East, with its mud-brick and stone houses each piled on top of the ruins of another, and western Europe, with its massive stone monuments more ancient than the Egyptian pyramids.

They argue that neurological patterns hardwired into the brain help explain the art and society that Neolithic people produced. Drawing on the latest research, the authors skillfully link material on human consciousness, imagery, and religious concepts to propose provocative new theories about the causes of an ancient revolution in cosmology and the origins of social complexity. In doing so they create a fascinating neurological bridge to the mysterious thought-lives of the past and reveal the essence of a momentous period in human history. 100 illustrations, 20 in color.

Monuments and Landscape in Atlantic Europe: Perception and Society During the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age

by Christopher Scarre (no photo)

Synopsis:

Atlantic Europe is the zone par excellence of megalithic monuments, which encompass a wide range of earthen and stone constructions from impressive stone circles to modest chambered tombs. A single, basic concept lies behind this volume - that the intrinsic qualities encountered within the diverse landscapes of Atlantic Europe both informed the settings chosen for the monuments and played a role in determining their form and visual appearance. This, in part, derives from the use of local materials and the manner in which they were displayed within the monuments: for example, how stone, clearly taken from the local geology, was visibly incorporated. Yet we may go further than this in some instances and propose that the nature of local land-forms themselves both attracted monuments, providing meaningful or dramatic settings, and offered a series of ideas which played some part in influencing the form of these monuments.

The Invaders: How Humans and Their Dogs Drove Neanderthals to Extinction

by Pat Shipman

Synopsis:

With sophisticated tools, and hunting skills, Neanderthals are the closest known relatives to humans. Approximately 200,000 years ago, as modern humans began to radiate out from their evolutionary birthplace in Africa, Neanderthals were already thriving in Europe, descendants of a much earlier migration of the African genus Homo." But when modern humans eventually made their way to Europe 45,000 years ago, Neanderthals suddenly vanished. Ever since the first Neanderthal bones were identified in 1856, scientists have been vexed by the question, why did modern humans survive while their evolutionary cousins went extinct?

The Invaders "musters compelling evidence to show that the major factor in the Neanderthals demise was direct competition with newly arriving humans. Drawing on insights from the field of invasion biology, which predicts that the species ecologically closest to the invasive predator will face the greatest competition, Pat Shipman traces the devastating impact of a growing human population: reduction of Neanderthals geographic range, isolation into small groups, and loss of genetic diversity.

But modern humans were not the only invaders who competed with Neanderthals for big game. Shipman reveals fascinating confirmation of humans partnership with the first domesticated wolf-dogs soon after Neanderthals first began to disappear. This alliance between two predator species, she hypothesizes, made possible an unprecedented degree of success in hunting large Ice Age mammals a distinct and ultimately decisive advantage for humans over Neanderthals at a time when climate change made both groups vulnerable.

Hi, Michele! Thanks for your add! Just make sure to change the top of your post this way in order to fit our standards:

The Invaders: How Humans and Their Dogs Drove Neanderthals to Extinction

by Pat Shipman

Synopsis:

The Goddess and the Bull: Catalhoyuk: An Archaeological Journey to the Dawn of Civilization

by Michael Balter (no photo)

Synopsis:

Thousands of years before the pyramids were built in Egypt and the Trojan War was fought, a great civilization arose on the Anatolian plains. The Goddess and the Bull details the dramatic quest by archaeologists to unearth the buried secrets of human cultural evolution at this huge, spectacularly well-preserved 9,500-year-old village in Turkey. Here lie the origins of modern society -- the dawn of art, architecture, religion, family -- even the first tangible evidence of human self-awareness, the world's oldest mirrors. Some archaeologists have claimed that the Mother Goddess was first worshipped at Çatalhöyük, which is now a site of pilgrimage for Goddess worshippers from all over the world. The excavations here have yielded the seeds of the Neolithic Revolution, when prehistoric humans first abandoned the hunter-gatherer life they had known for millions of years, invented farming, and began living in houses and communities.

Michael Balter, the excavation's official biographer, brings readers behind the scenes, providing the first inside look at the remarkable site and its history of scandal and thrilling scientific discovery. He tells the very human story of two colorful men: British archaeologist James Mellaart, who discovered Çatalhöyük in 1958 only to be banned from working at the site forever after a fabulous ancient treasure disappeared without a trace; and Ian Hodder, a pathbreaking archaeological rebel who reinvented the way archaeology is practiced and reopened the excavation after it had lain dormant for three decades. Today Hodder leads an international team of more than one hundred archaeologists who continue to probe the site's secrets.

Balter reveals the true story behind modern archaeology, the thrill of history-making scientific discovery as well as the crushing disappointments, the community and friendship, the love affairs, and the often bitter rivalries between warring camps of archaeologists.

Along the way, Balter describes the cutting-edge advances in archaeological science that have allowed the team at Çatalhöyük to illuminate the central questions of human existence.

Thank you Jose and also Michelle for the posts.

Thank you Jose for pointing out our HBC citation standard.

1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed

by Eric H. Cline

Synopsis:

In 1177 B.C., marauding groups known only as the "Sea Peoples" invaded Egypt. The pharaoh's army and navy managed to defeat them, but the victory so weakened Egypt that it soon slid into decline, as did most of the surrounding civilizations. After centuries of brilliance, the civilized world of the Bronze Age came to an abrupt and cataclysmic end. Kingdoms fell like dominoes over the course of just a few decades. No more Minoans or Mycenaeans. No more Trojans, Hittites, or Babylonians. The thriving economy and cultures of the late second millennium B.C., which had stretched from Greece to Egypt and Mesopotamia, suddenly ceased to exist, along with writing systems, technology, and monumental architecture. But the Sea Peoples alone could not have caused such widespread breakdown. How did it happen?

In this major new account of the causes of this "First Dark Ages," Eric Cline tells the gripping story of how the end was brought about by multiple interconnected failures, ranging from invasion and revolt to earthquakes, drought, and the cutting of international trade routes. Bringing to life the vibrant multicultural world of these great civilizations, he draws a sweeping panorama of the empires and globalized peoples of the Late Bronze Age and shows that it was their very interdependence that hastened their dramatic collapse and ushered in a dark age that lasted centuries.

A compelling combination of narrative and the latest scholarship, "1177 B.C." sheds new light on the complex ties that gave rise to, and ultimately destroyed, the flourishing civilizations of the Late Bronze Age--and that set the stage for the emergence of classical Greece

Very good Michele - you are looking very professional. Just one blank line between the title in bold and the citation are you are moderator pitch perfect

Bentley wrote: "Very good Michelle - you are looking very professional. Just one blank line between the title in bold and the citation are you are moderator pitch perfect"

It's a leaning process! getting the hang of it now. Thanks

The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art

by James David Lewis-Williams

Synopsis:

Emerging from the narrow underground passages into the chambers of caves such as Lascaux, Chauvet, and Altamira, visitors are confronted with symbols, patterns, and depictions of bison, woolly mammoths, ibexes, and other animals.


Since its discovery, cave art has provoked great curiosity about why it appeared when and where it did, how it was made, and what it meant to the communities that created it. David Lewis-Williams proposes that the explanation for this lies in the evolution of the human mind. Cro-Magnons, unlike the Neanderthals, possessed a more advanced neurological makeup that enabled them to experience shamanistic trances and vivid mental imagery. It became important for people to "fix," or paint, these images on cave walls, which they perceived as the membrane between their world and the spirit world from which the visions came. Over time, new social distinctions developed as individuals exploited their hallucinations for personal advancement, and the first truly modern society emerged.


Illuminating glimpses into the ancient mind are skillfully interwoven here with the still-evolving story of modern-day cave discoveries and research. The Mind in the Cave is a superb piece of detective work, casting light on the darkest mysteries of our earliest ancestors while strengthening our wonder at their aesthetic achievements

Thank you Michele - moderator perfect (smile)

Thank you for the adds, Michelle! :)

Europe Between the Oceans: 9000 BC-AD 1000

by Barry W. Cunliffe (no photo)

Synopsis:

In this magnificent book, distinguished archaeologist Barry Cunliffe reframes our entire conception of early European history, from prehistory through the ancient world to the medieval Viking period. Cunliffe views Europe not in terms of states and shifting political land boundaries but as a geographical niche particularly favored in facing many seas. These seas, and Europe’s great transpeninsular rivers, ensured a rich diversity of natural resources while also encouraging the dynamic interaction of peoples across networks of communication and exchange. The development of these early Europeans is rooted in complex interplays, shifting balances, and geographic and demographic fluidity.

Drawing on archaeology, anthropology, and history, Cunliffe has produced an interdisciplinary tour de force. His is a bold book of exceptional scholarship, erudite and engaging, and it heralds an entirely new understanding of Old Europe.

Prehistoric Britons mummified their dead like the ancient Egyptians, research reveals

DAVID KEYS Archaeology Correspondent
Thursday 1 October 2015


Ancient British tribes mummified some of their dead by immersing them in peat bogs

While the ancient Egyptians were busy mummifying their dead, prehistoric Britons – well beyond the fringes of the known world – were doing the same more than 2000 miles to the north-west.

New research is revealing that people throughout much of prehistoric Britain used mummification to ensure that their dead ancestors appeared to ‘live on’, at least physically, for decades and probably centuries.

The research is a major breakthrough in helping archaeologists to understand the nature of society in prehistoric Britain.


The preserved remains of a man discovered in a peat bog at Lindow Moss in Cheshire in 1984, on display at the British Museum

Scientific investigations are now showing that ancient British tribes mummified some of their dead by immersing them in peat bogs and in some cases by exposing them to heat and smoke. It is a completely different mummification system to the salt-based one used by the ancient Egyptians.

It is conceivable that the mummies were displayed in ritual ancestor houses – as part of long-lasting ancestor worship cults.

The academic study of the mummification evidence is published on Thursday, in the British-based archaeology journal, Antiquity.

As well as the emerging evidence for the use of peat bogs for mummification purposes, archaeologists are continuing to study the use of such bogs as permanent burial places for human sacrifices. In both scenarios – probable ancestor worship and human sacrifice – prehistoric Britons seem to have fully understood the preservative qualities of peat bogs.

Read the who article here: Prehistoric Britons mummified their dead like the ancient Egyptians, research reveals

Source: Independent

I remember seeing a documentary about this on the History Channel. Very interesting.

Where did you see it? Can you maybe recall the name? Tnx

I can't remember exactly what show it was, but I'm pretty sure it was on the History Channel. It was last year sometime. I remember it showing a mother and child buried in the peat moss.

I'll do some research then. Thank you!

The Long Summer: How Climate Changed Civilization

by Brian M. Fagan

Synopsis:

Humanity evolved in an Ice Age in which glaciers covered much of the world. But starting about 15,000 years ago, temperatures began to climb. Civilization and all of recorded history occurred in this warm period, the era known as the Holocene-the long summer of the human species. In The Long Summer, Brian Fagan brings us the first detailed record of climate change during these 15,000 years of warming, and shows how this climate change gave rise to civilization. A thousand-year chill led people in the Near East to take up the cultivation of plant foods; a catastrophic flood drove settlers to inhabit Europe; the drying of the Sahara forced its inhabitants to live along the banks of the Nile; and increased rainfall in East Africa provoked the bubonic plague. The Long Summer illuminates for the first time the centuries-long pattern of human adaptation to the demands and challenges of an ever-changing climate-challenges that are still with us today.

Thank you for the add, Michele! :)

The Clan of the Cave Bear
Note: Historical fiction

by Jean M. Auel

Synopsis:

This novel of awesome beauty and power is a moving saga about people, relationships, and the boundaries of love. Through Jean M. Auel’s magnificent storytelling we are taken back to the dawn of modern humans, and with a girl named Ayla we are swept up in the harsh and beautiful Ice Age world they shared with the ones who called themselves the Clan of the Cave Bear.

A natural disaster leaves the young girl wandering alone in an unfamiliar and dangerous land until she is found by a woman of the Clan, people very different from her own kind. To them, blond, blue-eyed Ayla looks peculiar and ugly--she is one of the Others, those who have moved into their ancient homeland; but Iza cannot leave the girl to die and takes her with them. Iza and Creb, the old Mog-ur, grow to love her, and as Ayla learns the ways of the Clan and Iza’s way of healing, most come to accept her. But the brutal and proud youth who is destined to become their next leader sees her differences as a threat to his authority. He develops a deep and abiding hatred for the strange girl of the Others who lives in their midst, and is determined to get his revenge.

Stone Age Economics

by Marshall Sahlins

Synopsis:

Stone Age Economics is a classic study of anthropological economics, first published in 1974. As Marshall Sahlinsstated in the first edition, "It has been inspired by the possibility of 'anthropological economics, ' a perspective indebted rather to the nature of the primitive economies than to the categories of a bourgeois science." Ambitiously tackling the nature of economic life and how to study it comparatively, the book includes six studies which reflect the author's ideas on revising traditional views of the hunter-gatherer and so-called primitive societies, revealing them to be the original affluent society. The book examines notions of production, distribution and exchange in early communities and examines the link between economics and cultural and social factors. It consists of a set of detailed and closely related studies of tribal economies, of domestic production for livelihood, and of the submission of domestic production to the material and political demands of society at large.

The Aegean Bronze Age

by Oliver Dickinson (no photo)

Synopsis:

The Aegean Bronze Age saw the rise and fall of the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations. The region's cultural history emerges through a series of thematic chapters that examine settlement, economy, crafts, exchange and foreign contact, religion and burial customs.

Pagan Celtic Ireland: The Enigma of the Irish Iron Age

by Barry Raftery (no photo)

Synopsis:

Our established impressions of early Celtic Ireland have come down to us through the great Irish sagas: epic tales of heroic struggles between kings and warriors, of outlandish gods and wise Druids. But how do these images compare with the evidence revealed by the excavator's trowel? Recent archaeological research has transformed our understanding of the period. Reflecting this new generation of scholarship, Professor Barry Raftery presents the most convincing and up-to-date account yet published of Ireland in the millennium before the coming of Christianity. The transition from Bronze Age to Iron Age in Ireland brought many changes, not least the proliferation of imposing hillforts. Did these have a purely defensive role, or were they built for ceremonial or commercial purposes? When did the Celtic character of early Ireland emerge? New findings indicate that the construction of the country's great royal centers, such as Tara and Emain Macha, coincides with the first appearance in Ireland of the material culture of the European Celts - so-called La Tene artifacts. The author argues that these were the portable trappings of a rising aristocratic elite, which expressed its power by building highly visible monuments. Professor Raftery also discusses the significant advances that took place in travel and transport, including the creation of the largest roadway in prehistoric Europe; the elusive lives of the common people; the idiosyncratic genius of the local metal-smiths; and the complex religious beliefs exemplified by standing stones, and offerings in rivers and lakes. He presents fascinating new material about Ireland's contacts with the Roman world, and in a final chapter he reviews the whole question of whether La Tene culture spread to Ireland through invasion or peaceful diffusion. Pagan Celtic Ireland is the definitive statement of what we currently know about the country's shadowy, Celtic origins. Generously illustrated throughout, it will be read avidly

The History of Dance – Prehistory

I’m going to begin at the very beginning with prehistoric dance. When I speak of “prehistory”, I’m talking about the time before there were any written records. The only evidence of humanity during this time is the art that they left behind. As a result, it’s very difficult to know exactly what life was like. What we do know, though, is that dance and art were integral in society. Prehistory is divided into three cultural periods: the Stone Age (which is further split into the Paleolithic, or Old Stone Age, and the Neolithic, or New Stone Age) the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age. The end of the prehistoric age varies depending on the area. Egypt’s ended in 3500 BC with hieroglyphics. In New Guinea, a language was not developed until 1900 AD. In the Paleolithic Age, hunting and food-gathering groups isolated themselves and appointed the oldest male as their leader. The Neolithic Age showed people gathering together for protection and moving towards a more agrarian society.

Dance, for these people, was an important part of life, with different dances that were meant to please the dancers (party and social dances), the gods (religious or ceremonial), or other people (theatrical). It is interesting to note the gradual decline of dance in people’s religions and the rise of theatrical dance through the years. Eventually, dance in religion disappears altogether and dance in the theater becomes central to society. But, I’m going on a rabbit trail. Because of the deep connection between dance, society, and religion, people were always dancing. The Shaman, a magical physician and leader of religion and dance, used dance to beg the gods for healing, or to appease the anger of the gods, or to plead for a good harvest. Young men danced themselves nearly to death as a coming-of-age ritual. Women danced to ensure fertility or to relieve labor pains. People danced to mourn the death of a person, or to celebrate the birth of a baby. Dance was so ingrained in society that nearly every event in the life of a human being had a dance to accompany it.

The number of dancers and their formations varied greatly, ranging from everyone in the community to just the shaman dancing a solo, and music and adornment is very different from what is seen today. Circle dances mirrored hunts with men circling the center. Generally, only one gender danced in the circle at a time. As society matured, a circle was given to each gender with men on the inside, women in the next circle, and then children on the very outside. Line dances formed circles and serpentine shapes, with roots in dances that imitated animals. Other shapes, including columns, were for weapon or military dances, while couple dances were very very rare so far back in history. With a love of rhythm and sound, those on the outside of the dance accompanied and supported the movement by clapping, slapping, drumming, stomping, and vocals. Costumes developed with society and varied with the theme of the dance. Tattoos, masks, feathers, bones, animal skins, brands, and piercings were all common in prehistoric decorations. The range of formations were vast and have stayed virtually the same through the years, but it is rare to see anyone with bones through their earlobes or feather headdresses. At least, it’s rare in America.

In this vague period of history, two distinct types of dance emerged. The first was “in harmony” with the body, and the second was “out of harmony”. Dance that was in harmony with the body expressed joy and celebration. Generally symbolic, it was commonly used to imitate nature or to embody ideas. Within this genre, two sub-types of “in harmony” dance were seen: expanded and closed. Expanded dances were performed by men, used large movements, and were uplifting and light. Closed dances were performed by women and were embodied by belly dances, sitting, hand movements, stepping, or whirling. The other major genre of prehistoric dance was “out of harmony” with the body. The movements were often drug induced. Characterized by jerky and spastic movements, one type of dance that was out of harmony was called purely convulsive. The other type, which was weakened convulsive dance, was controlled by the music, by the musician, or by stimulants such as drugs. These two broad genres can be seen in all of the areas of dance, depending on the nature or purpose of the ritual.

From the days of nomadic hunters to the more agrarian societies led by a shaman, men and women alike danced as an essential part of life. Whether it was a celebration of birth or a war dance, society and the well-being of the community was based on a series of dances that controlled nature, communicated with the gods, and celebrated good fortune.

Source: https://pigeontoeblog.wordpress.com/2...

by Gayle Kassing (no photo)

After the Ice: A Global Human History 20,000-5000 BC

by Steven Mithen (no photo)

Synopsis:

20,000 B.C., the peak of the last ice age--the atmosphere is heavy with dust, deserts, and glaciers span vast regions, and people, if they survive at all, exist in small, mobile groups, facing the threat of extinction.

But these people live on the brink of seismic change--10,000 years of climate shifts culminating in abrupt global warming that will usher in a fundamentally changed human world. "After the Ice" is the story of this momentous period--one in which a seemingly minor alteration in temperature could presage anything from the spread of lush woodland to the coming of apocalyptic floods--and one in which we find the origins of civilization itself.

Drawing on the latest research in archaeology, human genetics, and environmental science, "After the Ice" takes the reader on a sweeping tour of 15,000 years of human history. Steven Mithen brings this world to life through the eyes of an imaginary modern traveler--John Lubbock, namesake of the great Victorian polymath and author of "Prehistoric Times." With Lubbock, readers visit and observe communities and landscapes, experiencing prehistoric life--from aboriginal hunting parties in Tasmania, to the corralling of wild sheep in the central Sahara, to the efforts of the Guila Naquitz people in Oaxaca to combat drought with agricultural innovations.

Part history, part science, part time travel, "After the Ice" offers an evocative and uniquely compelling portrayal of diverse cultures, lives, and landscapes that laid the foundations of the modern world.

Thank you Michele.

Neanderthal

by Paul Jordan (no photo)

Synopsis:

Neanderthal man has a legendary status. His stocky, hairy, human-like figure, with heavy brow and receding chin, lumbers clumsily around in our collective imagination. But do we know who Neanderthal man really is? Was he our direct ancestor, or was he perhaps a more alien figure, not in the line of modern human descent at all, genetically very distinct - the victim rather than the driving force of the spread of humankind across the globe?

Prehistoric Art: The Symbolic Journey of Humankind

by Randall White (no photo)

Synopsis:

While some prehistoric sites - notably the painted caves at Lascaux in France and at Altamira in northern Spain - are familiar, many more such places are almost unknown. In fact, remains left by prehistoric men and women are far more numerous and have been found over a much greater territory - including Eurasia, Africa, Australia and the Americas - than most people are aware. These remains include paintings and engravings in caves and rock shelters, but also decorated tools, weapons, statuettes, personal ornaments and even musical instruments made of stone, ivory, antler, shell, bone and fired clay. In "Prehistoric Art", anthropologist Randall White presents a global survey, starting with the first explosion of imagery that occurred approximately 40,000 years ago but also including the creations of essentially "prehistoric" peoples living as recently as the early 20th century. Drawing on up-to-date research, White places these discoveries in context and discusses possible uses and meanings for the objects and images.

Thank you for the add, Michele.

Website add! This is so fascinating!

Göbekli Tepe ("Potbelly Hill") is an archaeological site at the top of a mountain ridge in the Southeastern Anatolia Region of modern-day Turkey, approximately 12 km (7 mi) northeast of the city of Şanlıurfa. The tell has a height of 15 m (49 ft) and is about 300 m (984 ft) in diameter. It is approximately 760 m (2,493 ft) above sea level.

The tell includes two phases of ritual use dating back to the 10th – 8th millennium BCE. During the first phase, pre-pottery Neolithic A (PPNA), circles of massive T-shaped stone pillars were erected. More than 200 pillars in about 20 circles are currently known through geophysical surveys. Each pillar has a height of up to 6 m (20 ft) and a weight of up to 20 tons. They are fitted into sockets that were hewn out of the bedrock. In the second phase, Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB), the erected pillars are smaller and stood in rectangular rooms with floors of polished lime. The site was abandoned after the PPNB-period. (this was taken from Wikipedia)

http://gobeklitepe.info

News and Notes from the Research Staff:

https://www.dainst.blog/the-tepe-tele...

Michele, thank you for the add. I'm familiar with the site, because I listened about it in one archaeology class I took awhile ago. I will definitely take a look at the web page.

There you go - great job

We are glad that you like it and when Samanta sees your posts - she will be very pleased.

That is good