In Dinosaur Art, ten of the top contemporary paleoartists reveal a selection of their work and exclusively discuss their working methods and distinct styles. Filled with breathtaking artwork - some never before seen - and cutting edge paleontology, this is a treasure trove for dinosaur enthusiasts, art lovers and budding illustrators.

    Today, ideas of our prehistoric origins are more likely based on ocean core samples, radio-carbon dating, and archeological artifacts. But as Barry Cunliffe reminds us in Britain Begins, an archaeologist writing of the past must be constantly aware that the past is, in truth, unknowable. Like the myth-making Celts, we too create stories about our origins, based on what we know today.Cunliffe here offers readers a vision of both worlds, looking at new myths and old, as he tells the fascinating story of the origins of the British and the Irish, from around 10,000 BC to the eve of the Norman Conquest. Using the most up-to-date archaeological evidence together with new work on DNA and other scientific techniques which help us to trace the origins and movements of these early settlers, Cunliffe offers a rich narrative account of the first islanders--who they were, where they came from, and how they interacted with one another. Underlying this narrative is the story of the sea, and Cunliffe paints a fascinating picture of early ships and sails and of the surprising sophistication of early navigation. The story told by the archaeological evidence is enhanced by historical texts, such as Julius Caesar's well-known if rather murky vision of Britain. Equally interesting, Cunliffe looks at the ideas of Britain's origins formed by our long-ago ancestors themselves, when they used what scraps there were, gleaned from Biblical and classical texts, to create a largely mythological origin for the British.

    Knight (1874–1953) spent a lifetime creating some of the first paintings and sculptures of dinosaurs, mammoths, and cavemen that were both spectacularly beautiful and scientifically accurate. For generations, his work has inspired scientists, artists, and filmmakers all over the world. This richly illustrated celebration of Knight’s artwork gathers together famous and never-before-seen paintings, sculptures, sketches, and murals. In addition to a new biographical essay, it also features excerpts from Knight’s extensive writings about extinct and modern animals. Above all, it provides a refreshing new look at Knight’s lifelong quest to depict the range of animal species, his struggles with failing eyesight, his desire for artistic independence, and his deep sense of kinship with Ice Age cave artists.Praise for Charles R. Knight: “Knight's paintings continue to enchant viewers.” —Los Angeles Times

    Travelling through millions of years, this comprehensive reference ebook charts the appearance, development, and extinction of lifeforms throughout geological time, with hundreds of examples profiled and re-created in vivid illustrated detail. The ever-popular and always intriguing dinosaurs feature extensively, but Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Life provides a complete overview of living things, also covering plants, invertebrates, fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. Designed exclusively for the Kindle Fire, Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Life brings this subject to life like never before with: - Over 250 interactive and illustrated pages- A comprehensive introduction to life on Earth- Introductions to each period through geological time, including continental and climate changes- Over 200 illustrated profiles, including almost 100 dinosaurs- Hundreds of unique images and illustrations with close up details- Dozens of specially photographed skeletons and fossils- Timelines tracking the development of life on earth- Overviews of key groups of animals and plants The combination of stunning visuals and captivating, authoritative text inside Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Life makes it a fascinating and revealing encyclopedia that will appeal to the whole family.

    Yet something about our species distinguished it from the pack, and ultimately led to its survival while the rest became extinct. Just what was it that allowed Homo sapiens to become masters of the planet? Ian Tattersall, curator emeritus at the American Museum of Natural History, takes us deep into the fossil record to uncover what made humans so special. Surveying a vast field from initial bipedality to language and intelligence, Tattersall argues that Homo sapiens acquired a winning combination of traits that was not the result of long-term evolutionary refinement. Instead, the final result emerged quickly, shocking our world and changing it forever.

    

    Stonehenge A striking and original interpretation of the awesome Stone Age site from one of the world's foremost archaeologists on death and burial Full description

    But paleolithic cave paintings, stunning as they are, form just a part of a story that begins with the arrival of the first humans to Europe 1.3 million years ago, and culminates in the achievements of Greece and Rome.In Europe before Rome, T. Douglas Price takes readers on a guided tour through dozens of the most important prehistoric sites on the continent, from very recent discoveries to some of the most famous and puzzling places in the world, like Chauvet, Stonehenge, and Knossos. This volume focuses on more than 60 sites, organized chronologically according to their archaeological time period and accompanied by 200 illustrations, including numerous color photographs, maps, and drawings. Our understanding of prehistoric European archaeology has been almost completely rewritten in the last 25 years with a series of major findings from virtually every time period, such as Otzi the Iceman, the discoveries at Atapuerca, and evidence of a much earlier eruption at Mt. Vesuvius. Many of the sites explored in the book offer the earliest European evidence we have of the typical features of human society--tool making, hunting, cooking, burial practices, agriculture, and warfare. Introductory prologues to each chapter provide context for the wider changes in human behavior and society in the time period, while the author's concluding remarks offer expert reflections on the enduring significance of these places.Tracing the evolution of human society in Europe across more than a million years, Europe before Rome gives readers a vivid portrait of life for prehistoric man and woman.

    Unleashing forces that bridge two worlds, the boys travel 11,000 years into Wisconsin's Ice Age past. In a land of giants, they come to know mastodons and Paleo Indians. Together, they undertake a journey that will challenge their survival and forever impact their hearts.

    What emerges is a much more complex and nuanced picture than is usually presented. For more information - and a book club guide - go to www.climatewholestory.com

    We also get to meet the first mammals, the first pterosaurs (flying reptiles), the first frogs, a host of predatory marine reptiles, early turtles, and the first coral reefs.  With the books' signature blend of humor and clearly presented information, cartoon illustrations help keep the fact-filled material extra fun.

    Supported by recent discoveries in neuroscience, Jaynes's ideas force us to rethink conventional views of human history and psychology, and have profound implications for many aspects of modern life.Included in this volume are rare and never before seen articles, lectures, interviews, and in-depth discussions that both clear up misconceptions as well as extend Jaynes's theory into new areas such as the nature of the self, dreams, emotions, art, music, therapy, and the consequences and future of consciousness.

    This book pairs the leading Maya scholar and world's finest photographers of ancient sites to trace the rise and fall of Mayan civilization through its great royal cities.

    At the same time I encountered the recent DNA research on Neanderthals. I chose to use fiction as a vehicle to speculate on an early peopling of the Americas and the Winds of Change series was born.In February 2013 the Smithsonian Magazine issued an article pushing back the date of the peopling of the Americas, doubling the Clovis First date, and suggesting that peopling occurred via small boats.May 2, 2013, Ki'ti's Story, 75,000 BC, a coming of age story of the People's Wise One, was awarded First Place for Fiction by the Alaska Professional Communicators. The award explanation reads in part: "This book is worthy of first place award for many reasons beyond its ambitious scope and size. The work is highly imagined and even inspired beyond imaginings. This speaks of courage. Although primitive life is presented in real time, we don't lose our sense of historical connection." Judge was Grace Cavalieri, writer/producer: "The Poet and the Poem from the Library of Congress."In June 2013, Manak-na's Story, 75,000 BC will launch and with it the travel from what is now China to Mexico and return will take place.

    Though the emphasis is on prehispanic societies, this Handbook also includes coverage of important new work by archaeologists on the Colonial and Republican periods. Unique among recent works, the text brings together in a single volume article-length regional syntheses and topical overviews written by active scholars in the field of Mesoamerican archaeology.The first section of the Handbook provides an overview of recent history and trends of Mesoamerica and articles on national archaeology programs and practice in Central America and Mexico written by archaeologists from these countries. These are followed by regional syntheses organized by time period, beginning with early hunter-gatherer societies and the first farmers of Mesoamerica and concluding with a discussion of the Spanish Conquest and frontiers and peripheries of Mesoamerica. Topical and comparative articles comprise the remainder of Handbook. They cover important dimensions of prehispanic societies--from ecology, economy, and environment to social and political relations--and discuss significant methodological contributions, such as geo-chemical source studies, as well as new theories and diverse theoretical perspectives. The Handbook concludes with a section on the archaeology of the Spanish conquest and the Colonial and Republican periods to connect the prehispanic, proto-historic, and historic periods. This volume will be a must-read for students and professional archaeologists, as well as other scholars including historians, art historians, geographers, and ethnographers with an interest in Mesoamerica.

    Evidence for the removal, curation and display of heads ranges from classical literary references to iconography and skeletal remains. Traditionally, this material has been associated with a Europe-wide 'head-cult', and used to support the idea of a unified Celtic culture in prehistory. This book demonstrates instead how headhunting and head-veneration were practised across a range of diverse and fragmented Iron Age societies. Using case studies from France, Britain and elsewhere, it explores the complex and subtle relationships between power, religion, warfare and violence in Iron Age Europe.

    Its five parts are devoted to insights from comparative animal behavior; the biology of language evolution (anatomy, genetics, and neurology); the prehistory of language (when and why did language evolve?); the development of a linguistic species; and language creation, transmission, and change.Research on language evolution has burgeoned over the last three decades. Interdisciplinary activity has produced fundamental advances in the understanding of language evolution and in human and primate evolution more generally. The book presents a wide-ranging summation of work in all the disciplines involved. It highlights the links in different lines of research, shows what has been achieved to date, and considers the most promising directions for future work.The Oxford Handbook of Language Evolution will be valued by everyone interested in one of the most productive and fascinating fields in natural and cognitive science.

    From the Arctic south to the Mexican border and east to the Atlantic Ocean, all of the major cultural developments are covered in 53 chapters, with certain periods, places, and historical problems receiving special focus by the volume's authors. Questions like who first peopled the continent, what did it mean to have been a hunter-gatherer in the Great Basin versus the California coast, how significant were cultural exchanges between Native North Americans and Mesoamericans, and why do major historical changes seem to correspond to shifts in religion, politics, demography, and economy are brought into focus. The practice of archaeology itself is discussed as contributors wrestle with modern-day concerns with the implications of doing archaeology and its relevance for understanding ourselves today. In the end, the chapters in this book show us that the principal questions answered about human history through the archaeology of North America are central to any larger understanding of the relationships between people, cultural identities, landscapes, and the living of everyday life.

    Richard Morris brilliantly weaves a series of interconnecting studies of apparently unrelated things and periods that are normally considered in isolation. In the process he re-examines aspects of England's story from the end of the last glacial period 12,500 years ago to the present, touching upon such things as Britain's apparent emptiness for long stretches of deep prehistory, battlefields, and the human element of the Industrial Revolution. Morris not only describes the evolution of archaeology's craft but also explores an awakening curiosity and an open embrace of the mystery of the identity of the early inhabitants of our land, who have disappeared and left little trace of themselves but were more like us than we think. Combining the personal with the academic, amalgamating literature and myth with science, and reflecting on how and why archaeology goes about its business, the result is a fresh account of who we are and our relationship with Nature. 'Humanity's achievement', writes Morris, 'is to be the one animal out of one and a half million currently living on the planet to have discovered this story; its weakness is to suppose itself to be the story's subject'. TIME'S ANVIL challenges some popular assumptions of history, such as Domesday Book's comprehensiveness or the Romans as civilising colonists. The threads come seamlessly together a mile from where the book began, at the graveside of Cardinal Newman. The result is provocative, compelling and salutary.