Prehistory of the Americas

By Stuart J. Fiedel

Book Overview

Fiedel's book, exploring the development of the prehistoric cultures of North, Central and South America from about 10,000 BC to AD 1530, has been updated to include discussion of recent discoveries and analyses of their implications. The author describes how different regions of the New World evolved, affected by a variety of factors ranging from population growth to climate change. He compares the evolution of the New World with that of the cultures of the Old World. Discussion of the development of American archaeology from the early European encounters with native Americans to the new archaeology is also included.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0521425441
• ISBN13: 9780521425445
• Release Date: May 1992
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 424 Pages
• Weight: 1.79 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.8" x 10.0"

Customer Reviews

A good place to start

Coming at this subject with little knowledge and prepared for the worst I got this. I don't think I could have done better. OK so it's 18 years old and things move on (phytoliths and better radiocarbon dating for example). But I manages to cover EVERYTHING in enough detail that you feel you know where to start looking for more info. The book is academic but, there being no eyewitness accounts, so is the subject matter. But the best part to me is the writing. Prof Fiedel is clear, fluent and does have an opinion. His analyses of such things as the first hunters onto the continent, the rise of population, the first settlements, agriculture, civilisation and trade is clear and a pleasure to read. He is excellent at demolishing standard models for these events by pointing out the cases where they don't work. Yes, the book hasn't got many pictures. Yes the maps are often in the wrong place in the book and sometimes they haven't got all the sites labelled. But you can probably look up the rest on the internet now (something you probably couldn't have done when the book was first published). Seeing as there's nothing else quite like this (why, I don't know), it's a good place to start.