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

After the Ice: A Global Human History 20,000-5000 BC | Steven Mithen | excellent readable overview

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After the Ice: A G...

	After the Ice: A Global Human History 20,000-5000 BC Steven Mithen Harvard University Press, 2006 - 664 pages average customer review:based on 24 reviews view larger image
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The Way We Were

Various methods are being applied to popularise what science has discovered about Nature, particularly our nature. Paleontologist Steven Mithen utilises a favourite technique of SciFi - time travel - to explain how our ancestors once lived. Although this might be a risky method in the hands of someone less talented, Mithen carries it well as he takes us on a global journey. From Western, Southern and Eastern Asia, through Africa, Europe and the Americas and Australia, he introduces us to the daily activities of those people who moved across the planet as the glaciers retreated. While that sounds highly speculative, Mithen's method is a way of introducing us to the numerous dig sites prehistoric scholars have found and analysed. The evidence for his depictions is laid out and the interpretations arising from the data is carefully presented.

Mithen isn't our guide in this tour. He assigns that task to a figure named for a contemporary of Charles Darwin. "Victorian John Lubbock", as Mithen dubs him, wrote one of the earliest paleoanthropological works, "Prehistoric Times" - an attempt to describe what our ancestors were like. Lubbock coined the terms "Palaeolithic" and "Neolithic" to give order to a chaotic scene. In this account, the Time Traveller refers to his namesake's publication for comparison of what has been revealed today by Mithen's digging colleagues. What did your ancestors do during the day? What challenges did they face and how did they overcome them? Time Traveller Lubbock tries to impart these questions and their answers with distant observation and active participation alike. The method, when the releaved evidence is explained, proves an excellent balance. You are there at the time of events and alongside the archaeologists as they sift through artefacts thousands of years old.

Human prehistory is probably science's most contentious field. For years, the story of how and when the Western Hemisphere was populated has been a simmering issue. Mithen, although giving passing attention to the "Clovis debate" and other questions relating to the human invasion of the America's, gently disentangles himself from the specifics. Instead, he focusses on how the environment affected the way in which societies formed here. This isn't just an evasion tactic. Mithen is more concerned with how humanity solved various problems facing them as they settled in uncontested lands. What adds to our interest is the comparison of such elements as the domesticating grains and animals here with that of Western Asian populations. Mithen meticulously describes how the genetic patterns of grains and animals alike were changed by human intervention.

It's easy to admit to a sense of wonder at reading this book. The scope is vast, fifteen thousand years of time and the entire globe. That one author could accomplish this feat is at least admirable, if not astonishing. Yet, Mithen's own sense of awe is clearly evident, if not infectious. He's not a classroom-bound academic and some of his own site visits are incorporated into the narrative. His passion for the science is clear and present - something that should prompt younger readers to emulate. The recent dates given for dig sites plainly indicate that real work remains to be done. And speed is critical - the number of sites discovered and worked under the threat of dam, highway and shopping mall building is too depressing to recount here. If you, or anyone you know is looking for a career in science, buy this book, read it and encourage a career in human prehistory. Mithen shows how rewarding it can be. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

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excellent readable overview

You have to give credit to a book that promises in its title to cover 15, 000 years and to do so globally and then delivers on its promise. After the Ice does just that. Skipping from continent to continent, archaeological site to archaeological site, time period to time period, Mithen presents the reader with an eminently readable, understandable overview of human prehistory from the end of the last great ice age to just before the start of the large civilizations.
Mithen offers as a guide a fictional guide named after John Lubbock, an English scientist and author of a 19th century history of the Paleolithic/Neolithic eras (terms he coined himself). This version of Lubbock joins in with his human ancestors as they build shelters, hunt, harvest, etc. While this may seem a bit too gimmicky, it mostly works, only falling into the overly cute on rare occasion. Through Lubbock we get a much more full sense of life in those times, "sense" in the literal meaning of the word as well as we see interior decorations, smell human refuse, taste pre-domesticated grains, and so on. Mithen is always aboveboard on what is speculation and what is not as he moves from these narrative descriptions to the more academic "fact-based" descriptions of the excavations that were their sources.
Mithen does an excellent job of conveying what the sites reveal in sharp yet concise details, as well as what it's like to actually work such a site. This is no dry recitation of numbers. From a few specific digs he generalizes outward to larger discussion of human development at the time. And though the book is sectioned by continent and within those sections by time period, he is always careful to place new discussions in the context of what the reader has already read, so the details rather than simply piling up mesh neatly into a more comprehensive whole. With his use of Lubbock, he's also able to show us how our views toward prehistory have changed in the past hundred plus years and why.
The book is quite up to date, discussing finds from the 90's as well as the use of the most modern technology, so one is never left with the nagging feeling (as happens sometimes with other science popularizations) of "yeah, but is this still true based on what they've found lately?"
Mithen also covers the more controversial debates fairly, presenting all views and only sometimes taking sides, and even in those cases doing so modestly.
It's hard to imagine a better job being done of this. The book moves along at a good pace, knows when to stop, meshes narrative and fact seamlessly, clearly and concisely explains the material, makes the topic and the means of discovering the topic not just interesting but exciting. Strongly recommended for anyone with an interest in the area.

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A Tour of the Stone Age World

In After the Ice, Steven Mithen gives us an exhaustive tour of the postglacial prehistoric world. He uses a fictional tour guide who travels like a ghost through time and over extensive geography to help us envision the numerous archaeological sites as they looked and felt when they were occupied by our Stone Age ancestors. I enjoyed these depictions and they did much to flesh out the old bones and give meaning to the artifacts described. They were also somewhat confusing because so much ground was covered. Much of what we passed through began to blend together.
It was both gratifying and frustrating that Mithen stayed so close to what is actually known, which is often very little. He rarely allowed himself to speculate, which resulted in considerable distance being kept from the people he was depicting. Prehistoric human beings were clearly just as complex as we are.
We know little about their religious beliefs, which heavily motivated them. In Catalhoyuk, Mithen's "ghost" was confronted with striking plastered bull skulls, breathtaking murals and plaster breasts whose nipples are the beaks of vultures. Faced with the ultimate symbol of the Life/Death dichotomy, the frightened modern "ghost" fled. That was clearly not reflective of the reactions of the ancient residents.
None-the-less, this book proves that a tour of numerous archaeological sites can be the opposite of dull and dry. Instead, it is relatively easy and fun to read, especially if you like to be able to picture the world and human beings as they constantly change. Mithen warns us that we have not finished facing change. He points out that we humans are now forcing a new global climate change. The consequences of this may be just as telling as what occurred when those ancient glaciers melted.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, page 4, 5

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