More than 12,000 years ago, in one of the greatest triumphs of prehistory, humans colonized North America, a continent that was then truly a new world. Just when and how they did so has been one of the most perplexing and controversial questions in archaeology. This dazzling, cutting-edge synthesis, written for a wide audience by an archaeologist who has long been at the center of these debates, tells the scientific story of the first Americans: where they came from, when they arrived, and how they met the challenges of moving across the vast, unknown landscapes of Ice Age North America. David J. Meltzer pulls together the latest ideas from archaeology, geology, linguistics, skeletal biology, genetics, and other fields to trace the breakthroughs that have revolutionized our understanding in recent years. Among many other topics, he explores disputes over the hemisphere's oldest and most controversial sites and considers how the first Americans coped with changing global climates. He also confronts some radical claims: that the Americas were colonized from Europe or that a crashing comet obliterated the Pleistocene megafauna. Full of entertaining discriptions of on-site encounters, personalities, and controversies, this is a compelling behind-the-scenes account of how science is illuminating our past. The book is published by University of California Press.
Download and start listening now!
"Excellent if a bit ponderous and dull on every page. Amazing complete thinking if consistently telegraphed and anti-climatic. Why are anthropologists so much better at writing public consumption than other scientists? Or are they still scientists? " — Bruce (4 out of 5 stars)
"Excellent if a bit ponderous and dull on every page. Amazing complete thinking if consistently telegraphed and anti-climatic. Why are anthropologists so much better at writing public consumption than other scientists? Or are they still scientists? "
" A very thorough presentation of what we know so far about how, when and possibly why human beings first came across from Siberia to North America thousands of years ago, and what kind of landscape they ventured into. "
Audiobooks Were Restored to Your Cart
[ShoppingCartItemsAddedOnMerge] audiobook(s) were left in your cart from a previous visit, and saved to your account for your convenience. You may view or remove these audiobooks on the shopping cart page.