The Lost Civilizations of the Stone Age

This is a well put together read, which commences with a stimulating consideration about just what we mean by "civilisation". Rudgley illustrates these initial points with reference to the grave robbing habits of so-called scientists of the West, and reminds us that human remains are still being held in prestigious centres of learning around the world - though some campaigns by indigenous peoples have seen these being returned.

The book draws on a range of disciplines, such as anthropology, archeology, medicine (a stunning account of trepanning; the practice of making a hole in the skull, with evidence of good survival rates) technologies, (drilling and mining) linguistics and maths.

Some of his material is quite densely written and needs careful consideration to follow his arguments, and as other reviewers have said, some his assertions (e.g. about writing) are less well argued. However, overall he offers a compelling range of evidence that dismantles some of the long held ideas about the human race, and the concept of civilisation, what is is and when it "started".

To summarise, if you are a person with huge curiosity about our ancestors and you have always doubted that "civilisation" just suddenly sprang into being with the start of the Egyptian dynasty, this book is a highly informative, extensively illustrated and stimulating read. Great fodder for brain.

REAL EYE-OPENER (10/10 people found this helpful)

By bringing together evidence from archaeology, ancient history, linguistics and anthropology, the author convincingly demonstrates that the inventions, achievements and discoveries of prehistoric times have all but been edited out of popular accounts of human history. He describes how stone age explorers discovered all the world's land masses, presents strong evidence for writing before 5000BC and for mathematical, medical and astronomical science as well as tool-making and mining long before the Sumerians. Tracing the human story from the cusp of history back to the earliest known artefacts, he shows that the making of rugs, dental drilling and accountancy among others, were all known in the Neolithic. But not only that - the other "ideological wall" placed at about 40 000BC is also being shown up to be highly dubious as many anomalous cases of earlier symbolic and artistic activities are coming to light. I found the section on language of particular interest and would like to refer interested readers to the work of linguists like Dr. Joseph Greenberg (Language In The Americas, Indo-European and its Closest Relatives: The Eurasiatic Language Family), Merritt Ruhlen (On The Origin Of Languages: Studies In Linguistic Taxonomy), Alan Bomhard (Indo-European and the Nostratic Hypothesis ) and Sydney M. Lamb (Sprung From Some Common Source), all available here on amazon.com. Lost Civilisations Of The Stone Age is lavishly illustrated with figures, plates and a map of language families, and there's an extensive bibliography and index. A well-researched, well-written book that sometimes perhaps goes into too much technical detail for the casual reader, but always remains thought-provoking.

A fine Survey of a logical next step in Archeology. (4/5 people found this helpful)

I remember with pain my introduction in Grade School to Geography. My readings since then have given me much pleasure to learn of wider horizons. The more I learned the more I became convinced that Homo-Sapiens-Sapiens (as we now call them) didn't acquire intelligence in 4000 BC. Curiosity it seems to me (and as someone said "playfulness")is a characteristic of H-S-S. The FoxFire books of the American Apalachians showing the engenuity of people in a primitive environment was not a sudden flower- ing any more than that intelligance suddenly appeared 6000 years ago. It appears now that we may begin getting a more even consideration of the real beginnings of "Civilization".

Interesting, but some unjustified leaps of analysis appeaer (8/10 people found this helpful)

Rudgley's book is fine until it, without real justification or analysis, adopts the premise that vaious markings found amongst archaeological sites in Europe predating 3500BC constitute writing. No indepth analysis is propounded to support this. The contention is simply not justified in the way it needs to be, and the practice is very disappointing for a purportedly good book on the subject of stone age cultures. For me, Rudgley's credibility was undermined at this point. Surely we can appreciate the sophistication of stone age cultures, in any case, without having to believe that they had writing? To rely so strongly on that contention for his argument that stone age cultures deserve more respect and recognition than they have received is to, unfortunately, risk weakening it in my view.

The Lost Civilizations of the Stone Age

Richard Rudgley

Reader Reviews:

Thought provoking ideas about our ancestors. (4/4 people found this helpful)

REAL EYE-OPENER (10/10 people found this helpful)

A fine Survey of a logical next step in Archeology. (4/5 people found this helpful)

Interesting, but some unjustified leaps of analysis appeaer (8/10 people found this helpful)

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