Until just a few years ago, we knew surprisingly little about the 150,000 or so years of human existence before the advent of writing. Some of the most momentous events in our past - including our origins, our migrations across the globe, and our acquisition of language - were veiled in the uncertainty of 'prehistory'. That veil is being lifted at last by geneticists and other scientists. "Mapping Human History" is nothing less than an astonishing 'history of prehistory'. Steve Olson travelled through four continents to gather insights into the development of humans and our expansion throughout the world. He describes, for example, new thinking about how centres of agriculture sprang up among disparate foraging societies at roughly the same time. He tells why most of us can claim Julius Caesar and Confucius among our forebears. He pinpoints why the ways in which the story of the Jewish people jibes with, and diverges from, biblical accounts. And using very recent genetic findings, he explodes the myth that human races are a biological reality.
- ISBN10 0747560161
- ISBN13 9780747560166
- Publish Date 8 July 2002 (first published 15 May 2002)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 6 July 2009
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 304
- Language English
- URL http://bloomsbury.com/Trade/