After the Ice: A Global Human History
20,000-5000 BC by Steven Mithen
A Masterpiece Of Popularization On The Great Human Transition
20,000 B.C., the peak of the last ice age--the atmosphere is heavy with
dust, deserts, and glaciers span vast regions, and people, if they survive at
all, exist in small, mobile groups, facing the threat of extinction.
But these people live on the brink of seismic change--10,000 years of
climate shifts culminating in abrupt global warming that will usher in a
fundamentally changed human world. After the Ice is the story of this
momentous period--one in which a seemingly minor alteration in
temperature could presage anything from the spread of lush woodland to
the coming of apocalyptic floods--and one in which we find the origins of
civilization itself.
Drawing on the latest research in archaeology, human genetics, and
environmental science, After the Ice takes the reader on a sweeping tour
of 15,000 years of human history. Steven Mithen brings this world to life

through the eyes of an imaginary modern traveler--John Lubbock,
namesake of the great Victorian polymath and author of Prehistoric Times.
With Lubbock, readers visit and observe communities and landscapes,
experiencing prehistoric life--from aboriginal hunting parties in Tasmania,
to the corralling of wild sheep in the central Sahara, to the efforts of the
Guila Naquitz people in Oaxaca to combat drought with agricultural
innovations.
Part history, part science, part time travel, After the Ice offers an
evocative and uniquely compelling portrayal of diverse cultures, lives, and
landscapes that laid the foundations of the modern world.
(20040910)
Personal Review: After the Ice: A Global Human History
20,000-5000 BC by Steven Mithen
I started reading this with some trepidation, not only because the ideas and
prose are extremely dense, but I distrusted the narrative device of a
fictional time traveller observer. However, once I got used to the style, I
was totally mesmerized by the author's clarity and brilliant expositions of
arcane archeology and what we can know about it from 20,000 to 5,000
BC. He recapitulates the history of every region in the world during that
period, comparing hunting and farming technologies, what was available in
the environment, and the impact of climate change during the period. It is
dazzlingly fascinating.
At 20K BC, there were only about a total of 10,000 humans (homo
sapiens) who survived the harsh conditions of the Ice Age. It was at that
time that global warming begin, with many hiccoughs over the next 10,000
years, finally getting established in more or less the environmental
conditions we know today. During that time, not only was Europe
recolonized as the glaciers retreated, but so were the Americas. These
people were the classic hunter-gatherers, who sought game and also plant
resources nearby.
While there were many variations - Africa and Australia were not iced over
- these people shared certain characteristics. Their principal technology
was stone for hunter-piercing purposes and cutting, which they combined
with wood or carved bone. With few exceptions, humans invented
ceramics only at the very end of the period. As they moved in tiny bands
over wide ranges, life was extremely rigorous, killing off the weak and in
particular vulnerable children. There was very little specialization, beyond
women foragers and crafters and men as hunters. Many of these bands
lived near the coast, where there was a nexus of fishing and hunting, with
water resources for plants.
Then, once semi-permanent settlements began to become feasible as
temperatures rose and plant and animal diversity grew, the human
population expanded rapidly. Most important, they began to cultivate

plants, first wild varieties and then actual crops. To do so, there was a
crucial mutation in plant seeding that required humans to harvest and sew
them rather than falling off at random as in the wild varieties - it was more
efficient for humans, as they were the agents of control at the time of their
choosing, enabling them to hoard more easily. The author also explores
the human impact on local fauna, concluding that climate change (rending
large mammals such as mammoths more vulnerable) combined with
improved hunting to decimate them.
Once farming methods were perfected, they spread rapidly with their
promises of stability of supply and occasional surpluses. Local
populations, he concludes, were absorbed rather than killed off. Cities
arose, trade developed, workers became specialized, even economic
hierarchies first arose. Civilization became urban. With it came a host of
new diseases and problems - plagues from close quarters, teeth decay,
even warfare in some instances.
What is so amazing about this book is that, in others I have read, they
reduce the big picture to excessively detailed descriptions about stone-
chipping techniques, what controversies arose because some artifact was
found that some academic wanted to build a career on, and whether the
layers in a cave had been disturbed or not. While Mithen certainly covers
this well, he keeps it succinct as he concentrates on the bigger questions.
Many of the details are very interesting in terms of history. (I was
particularly interested in the settlement patterns of the Americas - when
people came, from where, and how their living patterns became set. But
you also get how rice was first cultivated in China, why painting stopped in
France at 10,000 BC, why settlers fought in Denmark and Russia, etc .
etc.) Mithen explains the cutting-edge science with examples and very
concrete evidence as well as brief sketches of the careers of the best
archaeologists. It provides a primer on their technigques (e.g. carbon
dating, DNA evidence.) in passing, as part of the flowing narrative. It is
wonderful in its informative brevity, never excessive.
This is one of the best science popularizations I have read in years. It left
me very hungry for more. Indeed, this is an excellent book - adding much
detail in history and artifact descriptions - as a companion to the wonderful
NEOLITHIC by Susan McCarter, which is more analytic and less evocative
in its approach.
Warmly recommended. The author is a truly gifted writer.
For More 5 Star Customer Reviews and Lowest Price:
After the Ice: A Global Human History 20,000-5000 BC by Steven Mithen 5 Star
Customer Reviews and Lowest Price!