Best of
Prehistory

2005

Time Team Guide to the Archaeological Sites of Britain Ireland


Tim Taylor - 2005
    Stonehenge, Hadrian's Wall and Ironbridge are familiar to us all and each year thousands flock to witness their spectacular beauty. But what can these fascinating sites tell us about the lives and times of our ancestors?Now, Channel 4's perennially popular Time Team take us on an archaeological sight-seeing tour of Britain and Ireland. Region by region, they select the most interesting and important sites which are open to visitors, some familiar to all, others relatively unknown. Each is treated with the inimitable no-nonsense Time Team style. This book is like having Tony, Mick, Geo-Phys and the gang in the back seat of your car - sharing their specialist knowledge and fascinating historical insights wherever you travel in the British Isles...

The Complete Guide to Prehistoric Life


Tim Haines - 2005
    lifelike detail... this easily readable book should appeal to dinosaur enthusiasts of all ages." -Science NewsThe Complete Guide to Prehistoric Life. The book's concise, jargon-free text and full color illustrations bring the primordial world to vivid photo-realistic life. In-depth profiles of 112 kinds of beasts cover physical characteristics, lifestyle, habitat and behavior. Throughout, "fascinating fact" sidebars offer additional bits of "dinotrivia." But there is more than dinosaurs here. Readers will find creatures from triobites to early human beings. At the heart of the book are 350 richly detailed and lifelike color illustrations -- accompanied by comprehensive text -- which are the result of pioneering work by the Emmy award-winning creative team at Framestore CFC. Using animation, graphic effects and filmmaking, they recreated awe-inspiring prehistoric creatures and the world they lived in. These images are now reproduced to thrill readers.The Complete Guide to Prehistoric Life was published to accompany two BBC TV prime-time programs, Life Before Dinosaurs and Walking with Life, both part of the Discovery Channel's award-winning Walking with Dinosaurs series.

The Pterosaurs


David M. Unwin - 2005
    Written for the general reader, this is a careful account of the research, analysis, and science, (including reader-friendly notes on various points in the text), with clear discussion of c"

A Critical History of Early Rome: From Prehistory to the First Punic War


Gary Forsythe - 2005
    In this comprehensive and clearly written account, Gary Forsythe draws extensively from historical, archaeological, linguistic, epigraphic, religious, and legal evidence as he traces Rome's early development within a multicultural environment of Latins, Sabines, Etruscans, Greeks, and Phoenicians. His study charts the development of the classical republican institutions that would eventually enable Rome to create its vast empire, and provides fascinating discussions of topics including Roman prehistory, religion, and language.In addition to its value as an authoritative synthesis of current research, A Critical History of Early Rome offers a revisionist interpretation of Rome's early history through its innovative use of ancient sources. The history of this period is notoriously difficult to uncover because there are no extant written records, and because the later historiography that affords the only narrative accounts of Rome's early days is shaped by the issues, conflicts, and ways of thinking of its own time. This book provides a groundbreaking examination of those surviving ancient sources in light of their underlying biases, thereby reconstructing early Roman history upon a more solid evidentiary foundation.

Ancient Denvers: Scenes from the Past 300 Million Years of the Colorado Front Range


Kirk R. Johnson - 2005
    A look at how the geology, environment, and landscape of what is now Denver has changed over the millennia.

Formulaic Language - Pushing the Boundaries


Alison Wray - 2005
    Presents a framework for examining the existence and function of formulaic language and tests it extensively against language data within a wide variety of language samples. Formulaic language is a fast-growing area of applied linguistic research, and the author is a key figure in this field.

Dinosaurs!


Robert T. Bakker - 2005
    Dinosaurs! follows the evolution of these spectacular creatures from their earliest beginnings as little fellows who had to evade attacks from giant croc relatives to today’s living dinosaurs.

A New History of Ireland, Volume I: Prehistoric and Early Ireland


Dáibhí Ó Cróinín - 2005
    In this first volume of the Royal Irish Academy's multi-volume A New History of Ireland a wide range of national and international scholars, in every field of study, have produced studies of the archaeology, art, culture, geography, geology, history, language, law, literature, music, and related topics that include surveys of all previous scholarship combined with the latest research findings, to offer readers the first truly comprehensive and authoritative account of Irish history from the dawn of time down to the coming of the Normans in 1169.Included in the volume is a comprehensive bibliography of all the themes discussed in the narrative, together with copious illustrations and maps, and a thorough index.

Dactyls! Dragons of the Air


Robert T. Bakker - 2005
    Flying Dragons. Pterodactylus. Whatever you call them, they are simply wonderful! Renowned paleontologist Dr. Robert T. Bakker explains how scientists observe fossils and living animals to determine how dactyls flew, walked, climbed, fed, and thought. Also included for the first time ever is his latest, still-unnamed discovery-an unusual dactyl with sharp-edged, backwards curved teeth, nicknamed Snaggle Tooth. From the Hardcover Library Binding edition.

Grandmotherhood: The Evolutionary Significance of the Second Half of Female Life


Eckart VolandAkiko Nosaka - 2005
    At the present time, postmenopausal women represent more than fifteen percent of the world’s population and this figure is likely to grow.From an evolutionary perspective, these demographic numbers pose some intriguing questions. Darwinian theory holds that a successful life is measured in terms of reproduction. How is it, then, that a woman’s lifespan can greatly exceed her childbearing and childrearing years? Is this phenomenon simply a byproduct of improved standards of living, or do older women—grandmothers in particular—play a measurable role in increasing their family members’ biological success?Until now, these questions have not been examined in a thorough and comprehensive manner. Bringing togethertheoretical and empirical work byinternationally recognized scholars in anthropology, psychology, ethnography, and the social sciences, Grandmotherhood explores the evolutionary purpose and possibilities of female post-generative life. Students and scholars of human evolution, anthropology, and even gerontology will look to this volume as a major contribution to the current literature in evolutionary studies.

The Human Form in Neolithic Malta


Isabelle Vella Gregory - 2005
    The prehistoric statues and figurines discovered in Malta's many megalithic temples and underground cemeteries are part of a rich material culture that has intrigued archaeologists and the public alike. Of these figures, those that depict the human form are perhaps most interesting, and have been studied in detail by Simon Stoddart, Caroline Malone and Anthony Bonanno. This book concentrates on these particular figurines. Contains new photographs.

Ice Age Britain


Nicholas Barton - 2005
    New discoveries in disciplines from climatology to anthropology reveal the dramatic story, illustrated in over 150 photos, maps, and diagrams, of how the earliest peoples of Britain and Europe made their way there from Africa. Expert analyses treat the oldest-known human remains, the first stone tools, and animals and plants that provided food and clothing. The spectacular recent discovery of Creswell Crag cave art sheds light on the development of language and culture, including ways human biology, then and now, affects behavior and values.

Prehistoric Figurines: Representation and Corporeality in the Neolithic


Douglass W. Bailey - 2005
    Studying the interpretation of prehistoric figurines from Neolithic southeast Europe, Bailey introduces recent developments from the fields of visual culture studies and cultural anthropology, and investigates the ways in which representations of human bodies were used by the pre-historic people to understand their own identities, to negotiate relationships and to make subtle political points.Bailey examines four critical conditions: * figurines as miniatures* figurines as three-dimensional representations* figurines as anthropomorphs* figurines as representations.Through these conditions, the study travels beyond the traditional mechanisms of interpretation and takes the debate past the out-dated interpretations of figurines as Mother-Goddess as Bailey examines individual prehistoric figurines in their original archaeological contexts and views them in the light of modern exploitations of the human form.Students and scholars of History and Archaeology will benefit immensely from Bailey's close understanding of the material culture and pre-history of the Balkans.