Overview

* `Wonderful reading. . . illuminating. . . a zest for discovery that makes it a page-turner' NATURE Bringing together for the first time disparate evidence from the fields of archaeology, ancient history and anthropology, Richard Rudgley shows the achievements, inventions and discoveries of prehistoric times have all but been edited out of popular accounts of the human story. The rise of civilisation 5, 000 years ago has often been portrayed as if it were somehow created out of nothing but the author describes how the explorers of the stone age discovered all the world`s major land masses; how writing can be traced back via Neolithic systems of accounting to its Palaeolithic origins, and how mathematical and astronomical science and technological and industrial activities such as tool-making and pyrotechnics all date back to the stone age, as do many significant medical practices including cranial surgery. Lost Civilisations of the Stone Age brings into question many assumptions about our own cultural superiority, and argues that prehistoric life was in many ways more advanced than our own.

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9780099223726

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Were our prehistoric ancestors totally uncivilized? Rudgley blows apart the modern theories of invasions from outer space and Atlantis, and by careful analysis suggests that the roots of the great civilizations, such as the Egyptians, were firmly bedded in their prehistoric forerunners. Writing systems may be traced back into the early stone age; speech across the continents may have common roots. Evidence of Oriental rug making, accountancy, even a dentist's drill, show civilization in supposedly uncivilized peoples. An academic account - but a fascinating read nonetheless. (Kirkus UK)

Author Information

Richard Rudgley was born in 1961. He completed a BA in Social Anthropology and Religious Studies and went on to do a M. St. and M. Phil. in Ethnology and Museum Ethnography at Oxford. He is currently doing a D. Phil. and specialising in historical and contemporary uses of psychoactive substances by the native peoples of Canada and Alaska. He has done much field work in China and Canada, and written and lectured on the usage of hallucinogens and intoxicants. He is married and lives in London.

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