B2: Paleoanthropological non-fictions for teens and adults

Beyond Death: The Chinchorro Mummies of Ancient Chile, Bernardo T. Arriaza. An eerie yet fascinating look at recent discoveries of mummies and sacrificed humans! Arriaza, a renowned archaeological investigator, interprets only as far as his scientific discipline permits. Yet he sparks one's imagination with clues to grisly and strange Mesoamerican religious practices. Bet you can't read it just once!

The Cave Beneath the Sea: Paleolithic Images at Cosquer, Jean Clottes and Jean Courtin. The brilliant writing and intriguing color photos & drawings of this masterpiece will hold you mesmerized. This is a marvelous interpretation of the Cosquer caverns, a crucially important watery treasure, only recently discovered. You will be transported back in time twenty to thirty thousand years to the fascinating dawning of modern society, a Paleolithic world of worship, mystery, fear and creativity. How should we interpret so many hand stencils - with a finger missing? This book is factual and scientific in its discipline, yet provocative and intriguing in its presentation. What frightening, thrilling, brutal, yet wondrous lives Cosquer’s gifted people must have had! A "must have"!

Dawn of Art: The Chauvet Cave, Jean-Marie Chauvet, Eliette Brunel Deschamps and Christian Hillaire. From methods of dating cave art to recovery and (anthropological) interpretation, this book will fascinate you. Chauvet’s paintings and etchings, the oldest ever found on cave walls, date from around 30,000 years ago and, yet, show an organization, creativity and sophistication which no one thought was possible. The photos are nothing short of magnificent. The ancient representations themselves show dramatic scenes of Coelodonta, massive lions, bison, mammoth ... well, it’s all absolutely breathtaking; powerful. A perfect companion to The Cave Beneath the Sea!

The Druids, Peter Berresford Ellis. The pagan rites of the Druidism were outlawed by St. Patrick and ultimately civil authority long ago. Since then, historians and even mystic-pretenders have sought to describe and revive the cult(s). Archaeological sites are silent. Yet, some records remain. Medieval civil records, songs, epics, myths, manuscripts and historical writings from as far back as 100 A.D. are newly examined in this important analysis. Ellis honors modern recreations of the ancient rites, even though they are mere guesses at what the originals were like & about. This is a major flaw, for the author attempts to honor what even his extensive research cannot accurately recreate. He even seems to applaud as rare records reveal compensation paid to Celtic poet/prophets who were supposedly silenced by St. Patrick’s prohibition against paganism. But Ellis’s work is so comprehensive and thorough that it is a valuable historical reference and as close to an accurate glimpse of the Druids as the fog of time has so far allowed.

The Encyclopedia of Ancient Mesoamerica, Margaret & Stephen Bunson. The only complete source on early Central and South Americans which reads plainly and enjoyable! The Bunsons have also refrained from taking sides in the many interpretations of finds as they inference what life and death was like in the first millennium a.d. for these fascinating people.A marvelous and very readable reference no hobbyist or pro should be without!

The Fossil Trail: How We Know What We Think We Know about Human Evolution, Ian Tattersall. Soon to be reviewed.

The Great Human Diasporas, Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza and Francesco Cavalli-Sforza. THE definitive genetic and anthropological tracing of human migration and genetic grouping & diversity. It reads in a wonderfully clear and enthralling manner, even though full of technical information. The father/son researcher team are perhaps the most noted researchers in this field and, yet, have written a book which flows well and understandably. Fascinating stuff which is unexpected insight & food for thought for professional and lay anthropologists, archaeologists and students of history.

A Guide to the Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany, Aubrey Burl. This water-resistant field guide is, refreshingly, void of spiritual or cultural representation! It is a concise, complete listing of facts and diagrams of all known stone circle and similar structures in these regions. It is a valuable compendium of photos, references, diagrams and basic facts (including some pertinent legend). Indispensable to hobbyist and professional alike.

Habitations of the Great Goddess, Cristina Biagi. Soon to be reviewed. Religion in Neolithic Europe.

A Hidden History of the Human Race, Michael Cremo and Richard L. Thompson. Soon to be reviewed. Forbidden Archaeology!

Humans at the End of the Ice Age, Lawrence Guy Strauss, ed. Soon to be reviewed. Looks at the diverse responses of human societies worldwide to the environmental changes of the Pleistocene-Holocene transition between 13,000 and 8,000 years ago, focusing on the effect the climactic changes had on the shift from exploitation of wild food sources to food production. Chapters detail archaeological findings and their implications on all of the inhabited continents, and discuss changes in human settlement patterns and culture. Contains continental overviews and comparisons.

Human Mummies: A Global Survey of Their Status and Techniques of Conservation (Man in the Ice) Konrad Spindler. Absolutely amazing; full of mystery and wonder! From the primary examiner of "The Ice Man" who is one of the world's finest authorities on archaeology and human forensics, this expansive work covers all major finds and aspects thereof. Marvelously illustrated and very readable. A must for the professional or the extremely serious hobbyist.

The Man in the Ice, Konrad Spindler. For hobbyists and the general public, the story of his work on "The Ice Man". An excellent and intriguing work.

Images of the Past, T. Douglas Price and Gary M. Feinman. Soon to be reviewed. An introduction to prehistoric archaeology with a different approach from most texts. It focuses on some 80 archaeological sites from a variety of times and places, emphasizing discoveries that have resulted in important insights into prehistory. --Book News, Inc.

The Language Instinct, Steven Pinker. This work breaks new ground in cognitive research. Pinker’s original research and thorough examination of the existing bodies of physiological and related disciplines is astounding: Higher-order animals, and humans in particular, appear to have a genetic propensity to develop mental routines of thought which 1) form the basis of language and 2) which make the development of auditory communication an impulse. Experiments show that this tendency is evident even in offspring which are kept from learning from parents or others of their species. The strong inference is that higher species are genetically driven to develop basic grammar rules and consistent sound-sight associations (not that the rules and associations are genetically programmed, however). The evidence is compelling: the very drive to communicate is inborn and leads to (at least) trial and error-based language development.

The Last Neanderthal, Ian Tattersall, Ph.D.. For those haunted by the myriad of questions surrounding our cousins, the Neanderthals, this highly readable, lavishly illustrated and authoritative work is a must. Though it has a very few, brief departures into what some might call technical, Tattersall has made these fascinating and interlaced his book with imagination-sparking fiction prose and intriguing personal stories from experiences of paleo-archaeology. How did Neanderthals live, and where? Is there reason to suspect that they survive in any modern gene pools? Perhaps you should read this fine book! You’ve gotta have it in your personal collection.

Lost Civilizations, Dale M. Brown, Time-Life series ed. In enthralling essay format, numerous distinguished scholars attempt to elucidate each of the major discoveries, mysteries and controversies concerning the Maya, Inca and Aztec empires. Though some of these are clearly judgmental of particular missionaries or leaders yet nonchalant about brutal human sacrificial practices, the series is a true gem of fascinating knowledge and riveting, real-life adventure. Lavishly illustrated and beautifully bound, these slightly-larger print volumes are a pleasure to read - and they read like best-seller novels. A set every thinking person should own.

Mysterious Origins of Man, B.C. Video, A fascinating collection of anomalous evidence that humans may have lived millions of years ago! One video in the three-set is narrated by Charlton Heston and this has been on NBC and Tle Learning Channel several times. While some evidences are tenuous, the series displays numerous unanswered (even suppressed) evidences and indications that challenge the conventions of current archaeological and paleontological disciplines. Highly recommended.

Race and Human Evolution: A Fatal Attraction, Milford Wolpoff &Rachel Caspari. Presenting opposition to the "Out of Africa" theories of human evolution in which one species spawned modern races, Wolpoff and Caspari examine DNA and fossil evidence. These show, they assert, that modern humans retain features similar to several extinct hominid branches and, so, could not be the descendants of one "eve" or single hominid species. The total replacement theories, postulating successive waves of more and more advanced hominid species wiping out predecessor races, are wrong -- according to these trail-blazing researchers. They envision races developing in several regions and retaining racial features while assimilating at contact points genes of neighboring or nomadic neighbors. An intriguing study.

The Settling of North America, Helen Hornbeck Tanner. The only fault this intriguing work has is the same fault which most "prehistories" of the Americas has: Since there is ample evidence of land migrations around 11,000 years ago into North America, it is assumed that this is how North America was populated and the scant but genuine evidence of earlier sea-going colonizations are ignored. Yet this work is authoritative, dramatic and sensitive concerning the history and prehistory of Native Americans. Tanner presents graphically, clearly and artistically the tribal characteristics, economies, traditions and even soul of the peoples who are the remnants of intrepid and resourceful colonizers from Asia in the last Ice Age.

Reviews of Apparently great stuff destined for the deepest discounts at yard sales!

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Revised: September 3 2011

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Revised: September 3 2011