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Secrets of the Stone Age: A Prehistoric Journey with Richard Rudgley by Richard Rudgley

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Amazon.co.uk Review
Our continuing fascination with our own ancestry is probably one of the few attributes left that is considered unique to humans. Although, considering all the effort that has gone into trying to recover information about early humans over the last 200 years, it is remarkable how little we know and how much argument there is over the interpretation of what is known. But the situation is dramatically improving, as English anthropological writer Richard Rudgley shows. As an award-winning professional anthropologist (British Museum Prometheus Award 1991), now based in Oxford's Pitt Rivers Museum, Rudgley is well placed to give an up-to-date overview of the Stone Age for the general reader.

The so-called "Stone Age" (technically called the Palaeolithic, lasting from 2.4 to 10,000 million years ago) inevitably conjures up Flintstone-like images of peoples, what social anthropologists call "idiot communities". Rudgley seeks to alter this misconception, which originated with 19th-century notions of progress and Darwinistic superiority. He argues that the achievements of prehistoric times, ranging from the technicalities of mining and stone tool-making, through surgery and the origins of writing to art, have been downplayed in popular accounts. Recent advances in dating have shown that previous ideas about the chronology of many aspects of Palaeolithic culture were quite erroneous, especially with regard to the art of the period. Art from the earliest phase of the Upper Palaeolithic shows, as Rudgley says, "an equal mastery ... to that of the later phases". Packed with up-to-date information, a useful bibliography and an index, Lost Civilisations shows that a whole range of "prehistoric cultural achievements are more profound, complex and multifarious than has been hitherto suspected". -- Douglas Palmer

Synopsis
This work presents Stone Age civilization as far more sophisticated than previously believed in terms of its technology, mathematics, medicine, communications (which were worldwide) and art. The author attempts to re-establish Rousseau's notion of the "Noble Savage".

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

Excellent. Highly recommended read of where we came from., 1 May 2000

By	cwright@higher-nature.co.uk (UK) - See all my reviews

I bought this book in spite of the two reviews given here, both of which seemed to be self-serving. I found this book completely fascinating. The orthodox attempt to define 'civilisation' by ridiculously rigid criteria is handled very well in the book. I want to know what is known about our ancestors from 2.5 million years ago until zero BC. I'm not prepared to be bogged down by whether someone thinks these people were or were not 'sapiens', or whether the evidence really constitutes our definition of 'civilisation' or not, because these are simply the limitations we put on our understanding. Having read more widely in paleoanthropology recently, I now realise that the division between home sapiens sapiens and our preceding ancestors is really just a sequence of small steps. I feel far closer to a being that can size up a lump of flint and skillfully chip away to create a hand axe than I do to any chimp. That 'homo erectus' was my great, great....great grandfather and I want to know about him, 'civilised' or not. This book gave me a very comprehensive and balanced account of what evidence there is or may be for early 'man's' activities, and I found it enormously enriching. It was also most refreshing to find an author who always gave the opposing point of view. Excellent.

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0 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

Has the mystery finally been solved?, 6 Dec 1999

By A Customer

As the sun rises over Colonel Percy Plimmington's English mansion a terrible scream is heard. Sir Percy's maid, Emily has discovered a body in the library. The police are called in and despite their best efforts they cannot make head nor tail of the case. At this point, Sherlock Holmes and his trusty sidekick Dr. Watson arrive on the scene. After a detailed examination, Holmes has Watson assemble the household in the library where the great detective will solve the mystery. Sir Percy and his lovely young wife Mildred arrive, followed by the still shocked maid Emily and Gilbert the Butler who wheels in the crippled Granny Plimmington with her white Persian cat Fluffy sitting contentedly on her lap. There is a deadly silence as everyone looks to Holmes. Sherlock takes in this pregnant pause and then says: "After a careful examination of the evidence I can now announce that the culprit is amongst us at this very moment!" Everyone turns and looks at each other. "Well, well" Watson urges "pray tell us Holmes." Holmes takes a puff from his pipe and then using it as a sword points directly at Granny Plimmington declaring "him!" Watson is dumbfounded saying "But she's in a wheelchair, how on earth could she have done it?" We fully expect that Holmes will stride across the room, grab Granny Plimmington's hair and yank it off exposing the gentle old lady to be the long lost cousin who harbers ill will towards the whole Plimmington family. But this is not what happens. Holmes declares "Not her, you fool! It's the cat Fluffy who is the culprit!" Everyone is reeling. Watson asks again "but how on earth..." when Holmes interrupts saying: The cat, my dear Watson is not simply a gentle domesticated animal but also a keen hunter." "Yes, yes" Watson replies. "And amongst the ancient Egyptians" Holmes explains " the cat was greatly honoured for its ability to kill rodents." "We know, we know" the Doctor replies "but do tell us what Fluffy has got to do with the body in the library?" "It is elementary my dear Watson" Holmes responds "for though it may have escaped your notice the body in the library is not that of human at all." Dr. Watson's shock is complete. "No, indeed" Sherlock Holmes concludes "the body in the library is in fact the remains of a common rodent known as mouse." Everyone looks down at the body and sees at once that the mystery has been solved.

You might wonder what my Sherlock Holmes story has to do with a review of Richard Ridgley LOST CIVILISATIONS OF THE STONE AGE? I will reply: "everything." If my little trick worked at all it is because everyone assumed that the "body" in the library was a human body and that is exactly what I wanted you to believe. In the same manner, Richard Ridgley is playing upon the word "civilisation". The title of his book leads one to believe that this is a quest for civilisations for which we have yet no full evidence. But such an assumption is unwarranted because Ridgley is using the word "civilisation" in a manner that doesn't at all resemble our common notion. It is a sly attempt to capture some of the audience of readers who have enjoyed the alternative archaeology books created in recent years by such authors as Graham Hancock in his FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS or the book I co-authored with my wife Rose, WHEN THE SKY FELL: IN SEARCH OF ATLANTIS. We actually are on a quest for a lost civilisation that existed during the last Ice Age. Ridgley's book is an attempt to capture our readers by fooling them into believing that he is on the same quest. He is not! A more fitting title for his book would be FORGOTTEN SOCIETIES OF THE STONE AGE but then you probably wouldn't be reading this review if he had choosen a title that represented the contents of his book. That being said, this is still a very good book and I highly recommend it for those who wish to pursue a definition of what does and does not constitute a 'civilisation." For everyone else, all I can say is "you have been warned."

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