Subtitled Human Evolution and the Dawn of Technology this is a fascinating exploration of human evolution from the early hominid species through to anatomically modern humans, focussing on stone tools.
The authors are experimental archaeologists, which means that as well as studying fossils and remains of early human and hominid settlements, they spend time making their own tools using stone age techniques. In this way they have a clearer understanding of how our ancestors live, what they ate and the ways they must have communicated with each other.
It's a fascinating book, accessibly written and full of photographs and diagrams showing how stone tools developed. It is quite astonishing to think how slowly life changed for our early ancestors, based on the lack of change in their basic tools over thousands of years. The book also gives a lot of insight into our ancestor's relationship with the natural world around them.
It's interesting to think about the whole area of experimental archaeology, a great way to find clues into our distant past.
Making Silent Stones Speak by Kathy D Schick and Nicholas Toth, published by Weidenfeld and Nicholson
2 comments:
Oh my. Looks like an interesting read for sure.
I am making a note of it
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