[DOWNLOAD] "Prehistory" by Colin Renfrew " eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free

eBook details
- Title: Prehistory
- Author : Colin Renfrew
- Release Date : January 15, 2008
- Genre: History,Books,Science & Nature,Life Sciences,Religion & Spirituality,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 1021 KB
Description
In Prehistory, the award-winning archaeologist and renowned scholar Colin Renfrew covers human existence before the advent of written recordsâwhich is to say, the overwhelming majority of our time here on earth. But Renfrew also opens up to discussion, and even debate, the term âprehistoryâ itself, giving an incisive, concise, and lively survey of the past, and how scholars and scientists labor to bring it to light.
Renfrew begins by looking at prehistory as a discipline, particularly how developments of the past century and a halfâadvances in archaeology and geology; Darwinâs ideas of evolution; discoveries of artifacts and fossil evidence of our human ancestors; and even more enlightened museum and collection curatorshipâhave fueled continuous growth in our knowledge of prehistory. He details how breakthroughs such as radiocarbon dating and DNA analysis have helped us to define humankindâs pastâhow things have changedâmuch more clearly than was possible just a half century ago. Answers for why things have changed, however, continue to elude us, so Renfrew discusses some of the issues and challenges past and present that confront the study of prehistory and its investigators.
In the bookâs second part, Renfrew shifts the narrative focus, offering a summary of human prehistory from early hominids to the rise of literate civilization that is refreshingly free from conventional wisdom and grand âunifiedâ theories. The authorâs own case studies encompass a vast geographical and chronological rangeâthe Orkney Islands, the Balkans, the Indus Valley, Peru, Ireland, and Chinaâand help to explain the formation and development of agriculture and centralized societies. He concludes with a fascinating chapter on early writing systems, âFrom Prehistory to History.â
In this invaluable, brief account of human development prior to the last four millennia, Colin Renfrew delivers a meticulously researched and passionately argued chronicle about our life on earth, and our ongoing quest to understand it.