People of the Earth

Brian Fagan is one of the world's leading archaeological writers and an internationally recognized authority on human prehistory. He studied archaeology and anthropology at Pembroke College, Cambridge University, and then spent seven years in sub-Saharan Africa working in museums and in monuments conservation and excavating early farming sites in Zambia and East Africa. He was one of the pioneers of multidisciplinary African history in the 1960s. From 1967 to 2003, he was professor of anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he specialized in lecturing and writing about archaeology to wide audiences. He is now Emeritus Professor of Anthropology. Brian Fagan has written several best-selling textbooks and has published several scholarly monographs on African archaeology and numerous specialized articles in national and international journals. An expert on multimedia teaching, he has received the Society for American Archaeology's first Public Education Award for his tireless efforts on behalf of archaeology and education Brian Fagan's other interests include bicycling, sailing, kayaking, and good food. He is married and lives in Santa Barbara with his wife and daughter, three cats (who supervise his writing), and last but not least, a minimum of seven rabbits. Nadia Durrani is an archaeologist and writer. For much of the past decade she was the editor of Britain's best-selling archaeology magazine, Current World Archaeology, becoming an independent editor after the arrival of her son in 2010. She has authored and edited many hundreds of articles on archaeology from every corner of the globe, contributed to dozens of books, and written two. Throughout her career she has travelled widely --from Peru to Pakistan--to report on the latest archaeological discoveries; worked as a specialist lecturer on archaeological tours to countries including Yemen and Jordan; and contributed to a range of television documentaries. Her specialist area is Arabian archaeology and, following a degree in archaeology and anthropology from Cambridge University, she took a PhD in South West Arabian archaeology from University College, London (2001). Other research interests include the archaeology of the First World War and she is a founding member of the Great War Archaeology Group. A fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, she lives in London with her husband, Matthew, and son Jacob 'Caractacus' Hillier.

• 1. Introducing World Prehistory PART I. BEGINNINGS - 7 Million to 200,000 Years Ago 2. Human Origins: 7 Million to 1.9 Million Years Ago 3. Archaic Humans: Homo ergaster, Homo erectus, and Homo sapiens: 1.9 Million to 150,000 Years Ago PART II. THE GREAT DIASPORA: THE ORIGINS AND SPREAD OF MODERN HUMANS: c. 200,000 Years Ago to Modern Times 4. Origins and the Diaspora Begins c. 200,000 Years Ago and Later 5. Europe and Eurasia: c. 48,000 Years Ago to 8000 B.C. 6. The First Americans: Around 14000 B.C. to Modern Times 7. After the Ice: Before 10000 B.C. to Modern Times PART III. FIRST FARMERS: c. 10000 B.C. to Modern Times 8. Agriculture and Animal Domestication 9. The Origins of Food Production in Southwest Asia 10. The First European Farmers 11. First Farmers in Egypt and Tropical Africa 12. Asia and the Pacific: Rice, Roots, and Ocean Voyages 13. The Story of Maize: Early Farmers in the Americas PART IV. OLD WORLD CIVILIZATIONS: c. 3000 B.C. to Modern Times 14. The Development of Civilization 15. Early Civilizations in Southwest Asia 16. Egypt, Nubia, and Tropical Africa 17. Early States in South and Southeast Asia 18. Early Chinese Civilization 19. Hittites, Minoans, and Mycenaeans 20. Europe Before the Romans PART V. NATIVE AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS: Before 2000 B.C. to A.D. 1534 21. Mesoamerican Civilizations 22. Andean Civilizations