After the Ice: A Global Human History 20,000 - 5000 BC [Paperback]

Anatomically-modern humans, the same in every physical respect as we are today, evolved perhaps 100,000 years ago, and for 80 millennia eked out a living in the harsh conditions of the Ice Ages. Soon after 20,000 BC, global warming began, and the great ice sheets began their retreat. Fluctuations in climate brought about immense changes in animal and plant species and their distributions; with them came a wholesale change in the character of human societies. By 5,000 BC, says Mithen, the foundations for the modern world were laid. Farming, a sedentary lifestyle, craft specialisation and social stratification all emerged in the period running up to the zenith of the Neolithic. "Nothing that came after -- Classical Greece, the Industrial revolution, the atomic age or the Internet -- has ever matched the significance of those events".

Many books have been written about the Mesolithic and Neolithic ages, yet none of them has attempted anything as ambitious as this book. Mithen has aimed his work at the widest possible readership while maintaining an appropriate level of academic rigour; readers who wish to follow up on any of the themes, sites and periods discussed can refer to his comprehensive bibliography. The chronological and geographical scope of the book is immense, as its subtitle suggests. The true ambition of the book, however, is to close the gap between ourselves and the distant past. He accomplishes this through the introduction of a time-travelling explorer, whom he names John Lubbock after the 19th Century anthropologist and author of "Prehistoric Times". Mithen's explorer, however, is equipped with the modern theoretical tools and archaeological knowledge his Victorian namesake lacked, recognising our ancestors as intelligent humans no different to you or me, rather than savages with childlike minds. Throughout the book, the modern Lubbock encounters the inhabitants of archaeological sites, witnessing their daily routine, the struggles they face and the incredible innovations which form the basis of the modern world.

This metaphor - excavation as travel - attempts to convey Mithen's own experience of archaeological investigation. When exploring the past, one is, as Paul Theroux said, "a stranger in a strange land". Despite this strangeness, the experience of being "other" to the inhabitants of the past, Mithen succeeds in underlining how similar our ancestors were to us, a theme carried over from his previous work. In "The Prehistory of the Mind", Mithen argued that human achievements can be attributed to the evolution of a peculiar kind of mind, in which the barriers between cognitive modules were broken down to produce a mental toolkit that was "cognitively fluid". The birth of that stone-age consciousness produced an adaptivity with much greater responsiveness than the glacial pace of physical evolution, and saved humankind from going the way of the mammoth. Our ancestors survived cold, drought and starvation by remaining adaptive to change. "After the Ice" is the story of that survival.

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]