Useful reference works for this period are the Encyclopedia of Human Evolution and Prehistory (1988) and the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Evolution (1992). Reliable textbooks are Brian Fagan’s People of the Earth: An Introduction to World Prehistory, 9th ed. (1997), and Robert J. Wenke, Patterns in Prehistory: Humankind’s First Three Million Years, 4th ed. (1999).
Accounts of the discoveries of early human remains written for nonspecialists by eminent researchers include Brian Fagan, The Journey from Eden (1990); Donald Johanson, Leorna Johan-son, and Blake Edgar, In Search of Human Origins (1994), based on the Nova television series of the same name; and Richard Leakey and Roger Lewin, Origins Reconsidered: In Search of What Makes Us Human (1992). Other useful books that deal with this subject include George D. Brown, Jr., Human Evolution (1995), for a precise biological and geological perspective; Adam Kuper, The Chosen Primate: Human Nature and Cultural Diversity (1994), for an anthropological analysis; Glyn Daniel and Colin Renfrew, The Idea of Prehistory, 2nd ed. (1988), detailing the development of the discipline and relying primarily on European examples; and Robert Foley, Another Unique Species: Patterns in Human Evolutionary Ecology (1987), a thoughtful and readable attempt to bring together archaeological evidence and biological processes.
More analytical overviews of the evolutionary evidence are James L. Newman, The Peopling of Africa: A Geographical Interpretation (1995); L. Luca Cavalli-Sforza and Francesco Cavalli-Sforza, The Great Human Diasporas: The History of Diversity and Evolution (1995), for genetic evidence; Richard G. Klein, The Human Career: Human Biological and Cultural Origins (1989); and Paul Mellars, ed., The Emergence of Modern Humans (1991). Thoughtful explorations of key issues are J. P Mallory, In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language, Archaeology, and Myth (1989); Colin Renfrew, Archaeology and Language: The Puzzle of Indo-European Origins (1988); and Marija Gimbutas,
The Civilization of the Goddess: The World of Old Europe (1991). Margaret Ehrenberg, Women in Prehistory (1989), and M. Kay Martin and Barbara Voorhies, Female of the Species (1975), provide interesting, though necessarily speculative, discussions of women’s history.
Cave and rock art and their implications are the subjects of many works. A comprehensive resource to major finds around the world is provided by the website of the Bradshaw Foundation (Www. bradshawfoundation. com). A broad, global introduction is Hans-Georg Bandi, The Art of the Stone Age: Forty Thousand Years of Rock Art (1961). Ann Sieveking, The Cave Artists (1979), provides a brief overview of the major European finds. A richly illustrated survey of rock art in Africa is David Coulson and Alec Campbell, African Rock Art: Paintings and Engravings in Stone (2001). Other specialized studies are Robert R. R. Brooks and Vishnu S. Wakankar, Stone Age Painting in India (1976); R. Townley Johnson, Major Rock Paintings of Southern Africa (1979); J. D. Lewis-Williams, Believing and Seeing (1981) and Discovering Southern African Rock Art (1990); Mario Ruspoli, The Cave Art of Lascaux (1986); and Jean-Marie Chau-vet, Eliette Brunel Deschamps, and Christian Hillaire, Dawn of Art: The Chauvet Cave, the Oldest Known Paintings in the World (1996).
For the transition to food production see Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (2005), and Allen W. Johnson and Timothy Earle, The Evolution of Human Societies: From Foraging Group to Agrarian State (1987). Jean-Pierre Mohen, The World of Megaliths (1990), analyzes early monumental architecture. James Mellaart, the principal excavator of Qatal Huyuk, has written an account of the town for the general reader: Qatal Huyuk: A Neolithic Town in Anatolia (1967). A pioneering work on human ecology, the early sections of which are about this period, is Madhav Gadgil and Ramachandra Guha, This Fissured Land: An Ecological History of India (1992).
World History
