The Origins of the British: A Genetic Detective Story

Book Description

History has long maintained that the Anglo-Saxon overtaking of the Iron Age Celts was the origin of the British people. Celtic Britain reconstructs the peopling of Britain — through a study of genetics, climatology, archaeology, language, culture, and history — and overturns that myth and others. The Anglo-Saxons, who supposedly conquered the Celts, contributed only five to ten percent of the British gene pool. The “Atlantic Celts,” long believed to have migrated to Britain from Central Europe around 300 BC during the Iron Age, can be linked genetically to the people of Basque country. And linguistic evidence suggests that, besides Celtic languages, a Germanic-type language similar to Norse was also spoken in Britain long before the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons.

In this groundbreaking study, Stephen Oppenheimer explaines the surprising roots of the present-day cultural identities of the English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh.

Customer Reviews:

Great Britain as New Euskaria.......2007-09-23

An excellent book, like being back in college and taking a fun course with a witty, funny and knowledgeable professor. I appreciated the linear format with thesis backed with evidence approach. As a precaution, just like college, there were many terms and ideas that went over my head, which meant having to do some additional homework to catch up with text, but well worth the detour. To this regard, the appendix and glossary were extremely valuable. I have always been fascinated with the origins of the Basque; why would they be the only non Indo-European, Sub-Saharan or Semitic language in all of Europe and the Mediterranean and why stuck in the middle of Pyrenees? My other linguistic quandry was the lack of celtic words in the English language and the lack of consistency between English and Dutch/German/Danish. Finally the technology catches up with speculative history and paints a different picture of Western Europe. It is human nature to embelish, pander to the audience or just plain preach propaganda. But blood doesn't lie and for me all the pieces of the puzzle came together in Mr. Oppenheimer's book. I have no doubt the thesis will be seminal in the re-writing of British History.

Difficult, but intermittently rewarding.......2007-08-07

Not the place to begin, but this book may reward advanced readers who can handle a popularized but scholarly work on the implications of recent findings in DNA. Earlier readers posting here frequently disparage this book's ponderous prose and its massive array of recondite DNA analyses. After reading more accessible, and considerably shorter (no coincidence!) works on genetics and anthropology by Spencer Wells and Bryan Sykes (for both authors, their two most recent books reviewed by me on Amazon), I felt ready to tackle Oppenheimer's work, despite its difficulty. While the time invested paid off in a better knowledge of the Celtic and British origin debate and the possible influence of Germanic cultural and linguistic influences preceding not only the Anglo-Saxon invasion but the preceding Roman occupation, Oppenheimer while he may be a better scholar than Sykes remains a less entertaining writer. Sykes can popularize his findings in "Blood of the Isles" & "Seven Daughters of Eve." He also can profit from them if you note the enterprise Oxford Genetics. As I commented when reviewing Sykes' "Blood," it remains curious that two geneticists both at Oxford do not even mention the other colleague in hundreds of pages of closely documented and meticulously referenced texts.

This apparent rivalry aside, Oppenheimer acknowledges very late in his text that names given to Rostov or Ian or Helena are merely "aides memoires" for R1B-11 or the like in an alphabet soup of markers all geneticists rely upon. Readers of both Sykes & Oppenheimer sniff disdainfully at this popularization, but surely both scientists and lay people need assistance in imagining "Eve" or "Lucy" or the "Ice Man" to make more personal the findings buried in blood types or bone samples. Oppenheimer carefully explains his reasons for clarifying relationships among these difficult classifications, numbering in the thousands by now. Much explanatory material on genetics here is relegated to appendices and a glossary; while Sykes & Wells integrate more definitions and analogies into their briefer, more readable books, Oppenheimer opts for density.

This can bore a reader. My eyes glazed over in the second hundred pages full of dull genetics. The first hundred, tackling the Celtic origins debate and guardedly based on scholars such as Simon James & Barry Cunliffe, and Iron Age archaeologists such as John Collis, argues a southerly direction into the British Isles for Celtic infusion, not the La Tene Danube-Central European homeland and its overland route for entry into the Isles. Personally, I'd have liked to have Bob Quinn's book "The Atlantean Irish" (reviewed by me) credited for its prescience regarding the Atlantic Celt "fringe" movement that Cunliffe and others have since fought to replace the Continental migration theories of the 19c. This vexed matter alone, building upon the past two decades of Celtic revision, or Celto-skepticism, could fill an entire book easily.

But, I did perk up eventually. This is more a reference book on a variety of unevenly covered but admittedly provocative topics. He writes clearly in places and dully in many others, depending it seems on his diligence vs. his enthusiasm! This is an arduous trek, but you need to weather this if your curiosity's aroused about this intellectual terrain that for the first time geneticists and linguists have entered to do battle over, not to mention archeologists and historians!

Advances in DNA may soon rely on its suggestions, or they may overturn its assumptions. But, Oppenheimer bravely piles all he has amassed for the benefit of science. It may be too clunky and over-ambitious, but he has done specialized researchers, armchair genealogists, and academics like myself needing a non-technical explanation of dozens of arcane debates all a service.

Oppenheimer builds on this fact-laden if recondite foundation to posit that many of today's ancestors came to the Isles perhaps as early as around 15-7,500 years ago. The land bridge before the end of the last Ice Age became submerged allowed two major inflows of migration, from a Ukrainian-Moldavian refuge, and an Iberian refuge. The former provided a basis for North Sea movements added to later by Scandinavians, Saxons, Belgae, and other Continental peoples. The latter brought people in on the Irish, Welsh, and Scottish sides closest to the Irish Sea that opened up in the later periods of global warming. Germanic languages cannot have diverged in Old English so rapidly after the Saxon incursions, nor were (against the Welsh historian Gildas' spurious claims of Celtic "wipeout") the indigenous natives necessarily Celtic-speakers all prior to the landing of Hengist and his post-Roman mercenaries.

Percentages of genetic disruption rarely reach even the point of "decimation" of 10% in a handful of Anglian areas, according to genetic studies of inhabitants today in these long-stable regions of Britain. Simply and ineradicably, this persistent divide, genetically and perhaps linguistically, Oppenheimer proposes, persists in our DNA. This parallels the Germanic vs. Celtic division of languages in the Isles, the spine of mountains serving as an insular border between these two major routes for farming and colonization.

The hoary myth of a Celtic genocide by Teutonic overlords that inspired Arthur's last stand, it seems, proves more a "Dark Age" screed than plausible history. Granted that this early medieval era remains fraught with dangers for those reliant only on chronicles or a misleading archeological record, Oppenheimer here makes his boldest suggestion.

Probably the first to enter this fray as a geneticist, he confronts linguistic assumptions about the rapid spread and dialectal evolution in only a few centuries of Anglo-Saxon in post-Roman Britain. Germanic languages, he opines, might have become established long before Romans, let alone Saxons, entered into what was not necessarily a Celtic-dominated Brittania. Celts themselves, whatever this term means given the looseness of this pseudo-ethnic linguistic concept, did not rush en masse into the islands, and they too were perhaps the harbingers of not a massive demographic invasion but an elite influencing cultural and linguistic trends among the natives, who may date back ten thousand years before the arrival of Celtic-language speakers. Unfortunately, traces of any words that are pre-Celtic lurk rarely in the archaeological record, according to most experts. We lack a Rosetta Stone to decode whatever insular peoples spoke before Celtic languages became the norm among both the newcoming elite and the long-settled old-timers.

Therefore, Oppenheimer turns to DNA for clues. He challenges linguists who for a century have been indoctrinated to ignore searching for language origins. He argues that science can offer tentative solutions that account for a Germanic undercurrent that may not be that apparent on the surface, but which aligns with what we know about rates of linguistic change that may have begun as long ago as 3000 BCE (estimates differ) that can be calibrated with patterns of genetic migration.

His thesis? Most of the original British Isles inhabitants descend from a massive "founder population"-- maybe far more than three-fourths or more of those today living in some locales. Due to genetics and settlement patterns, most humans stick to one place for millennia. This conservatism therefore provides a solid bedrock. It cannot be eroded even by the waves of more recent, and tribally-named, intruders. While closer to us in time and in the historical record (however tenuous!), these famous warriors themselves often number in the low single-digits (5% often!) in terms of percentages of genetic "material" we British and/or Celts carry today.

All subsequent immigrations, whether Celt, Roman, Saxon, Angle, Jute, Viking, or Norman, Oppenheimer states in the closing line of his epilogue, diminish by their traces in the descendants of the majority who trace their roots to British-resident or Celtic-origin DNA today. Most of the origins of the British predate even the Celts. Oppenheimer concludes: "we are all minorities compared with the first, unnamed pioneers, who ventured into the empty, chilly lands so recently vacated by the great ice sheets." (421)

The Origins of the British: A Genetic Detective Story.......2007-08-02

Oppenheimer has written the most comprehensive, well organized and complete description of the deep origins of the British peoples. At the present time it is easily the best of any other available title. The author is at the very edge of contemporary genetic studies. One of the book's strengths is its inclusion of many of the findings of other genetic researchers. It also contains supporting materials from other disciplines and classical writers.

I found the book to be well written, meticulously documented, illustrated with maps and other visual materials, and well organized for a work of its breath. It is written for the educated or self-educated reader and does presuppose some familiarity with basic genetics and dna structure. If a potential reader fears he/she does not have this background, I recommend purchasing a companion primer on dna or download materials from even Wikipedia. Most genealogists will have little trouble with the technical terms.

I have read critiques that this book gives no final answers. This is true but the author provides the best interpretation of British prehistory available from today's science and supporting disciplines. A good companion book to read with this book is Barry Cunliffe's Facing the Ocean: the Atlantic and Its Peoples.

Accessible, yet not dumbed down.......2007-07-28

For anyone interested in the early history of the British isles this book is a must. Oppenheimer gathered all the information concerning the genetic history of the British isles floating around on the internet, scholarly journals, academic works, etc., and having assembled it all, presents it a serious, yet very readable fashion. Like Sykes and other genetic scholars he used cutsy names to represent specific genetic lineages, but he doesn't force the reader to have to deal with a fictional account of prehistoric lives. Instead the names are easily remembered catch phrases for the aforementioned groups.
Sykes confirmed earlier arguments about ancient regional divisions between populations in the British isles, but rather than beat the Anglo vs. Celtic drum, he argues that the English, Scots, Irish and Welsh all came out of the same prehistoric mix of Iberian, Near Eastern, and Eastern European migrants. Sykes does not, however, argue against the validity of "Celtic" as an lable representing certain populations in Western Europe. Rather, we need to rethink the way in which we use the term.
Using a rational - if not 100% believable argument - based on linguistics, history, genetics and archaeology, Sykes also contends that the roots of the English language in what is now Eastern England might predate the Roman invasion. In other words the linguistic division between the Welsh and the English is not the result of the Anglo-Saxon invasion, instead owing to more long-standing prehistoric social and cultural divisions.

Great Analysis.......2007-05-14

This book is incredibly insightful on a topic that few people know about. It accurately and convincingly dispels many rumors and genealogical cover-ups and gets right down to what is factual. That, in my opinion, is what is most important about a book that presents many important concepts in a objective manner. Forget about the fact that he happens to use "pet names," and that he can drone on a little. His contemporary Bryan Sykes, who wrote a book on exactly the same topic, does the exact same thing and comes to the same basic conclusions. In any case, the meat of the books, the facts, haven't been disputed as of yet.

Ancient Europe, 8000 B.C. to A.D. 1000: An Encyclopedia of the Barbarian World Edition 1.

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Ancient Europe, 8000 B.C. to A.D. 1000: An Encyclopedia of the Barbarian World Edition 1.
Pam Crabtree & Peter Bogucki
Manufacturer: Charles Scribner's Sons
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Board book

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ASIN: 0684806681

Book Description

This detailed encyclopedia is the first to explore the many peoples of early European civilization. Viewed as "barbarian" through the lens of ancient Greece and Rome, these civilizations were responsible for such accomplishments as the rise of farming in the Neolithic era and the building of Stonehenge. Coverage extends from prehistoric origins through the early Middle Ages (8000 B.C. to A.D. 1000) when tribal movements helped define the end of ancient culture and the rise of the modern European world. Arrange topically and chronologically Ancient Europe, 8000 B.C. to A.D. 1000 features include 200 illustrations (including the black & white images, color images, and line drawings); 70 maps; a chronology; index; two eight-page color inserts; cartographic endpapers; glossary of key archaeological terms and more.

The Shelters of Stone (Earth's Children, Book 5)

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No stars, No story
A decent book but a lot of the same old stuff
What Lila Thinks
768 pages where almost nothing happens.
The Shelters of Stone

The Shelters of Stone (Earth's Children, Book 5)
Jean M. Auel
Manufacturer: Bantam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 055328942X
Release Date: 2003-07-01

Amazon.com

Jean Auel's fifth novel about Ayla, the Cro-Magnon cavewoman raised by Neanderthals, is the biggest comeback bestseller in Amazon.com history. In The Shelters of Stone, Ayla meets the Zelandonii tribe of Jondalar, the Cro-Magnon hunk she rescued from Baby, her pet lion. Ayla is pregnant. How will Jondalar's mom react? Or his bitchy jilted fiancée? Ayla wows her future in-laws by striking fire from flint and taming a wild wolf. But most regard her Neanderthal adoptive Clan as subhuman "flatheads." Clan larynxes can't quite manage language, and Ayla must convince the Zelandonii that Clan sign language isn't just arm-flapping. Zelandonii and Clan are skirmishing, and those who interbreed are deemed "abominations." What would Jondalar's tribe think if they knew Ayla had to abandon her half-breed son in Clan country? The plot is slow to unfold, because Auel's first goal is to pack the tale with period Pleistocene detail, provocative speculation, and bits of romance, sex, tribal politics, soap opera, and homicidal wooly rhino-hunting adventure. It's an enveloping fact-based fantasy, a genre-crossing time trip to the Ice Age. --Tim Appelo

Book Description

The Shelters of Stone opens as Ayla and Jondalar, along with their animal friends, Wolf, Whinney, and Racer, complete their epic journey across Europe and are greeted by Jondalar’s people: the Zelandonii. The people of the Ninth Cave of the Zelandonii fascinate Ayla. Their clothes, customs, artifacts, even their homes—formed in great cliffs of vertical limestone—are a source of wonder to her. And in the woman Zelandoni, the spiritual leader of the Ninth Cave (and the one who initiated Jondalar into the Gift of Pleasure), she meets a fellow healer with whom to share her knowledge and skills.

But as Ayla and Jondalar prepare for the formal mating at the Summer Meeting, there are difficulties. Not all the Zelandonii are welcoming. Some fear Ayla’s unfamiliar ways and abhor her relationship with those they call flatheads and she calls Clan. Some even oppose her mating with Jondalar, and make their displeasure known. Ayla has to call on all her skills, intelligence, knowledge, and instincts to find her way in this complicated society, to prepare for the birth of her child, and to decide whether she will accept new challenges and play a significant role in the destiny of the Zelandonii.

Jean Auel is at her very best in this superbly textured creation of a prehistoric society. The Shelters of Stone is a sweeping story of love and danger, with all the wonderful detail—based on meticulous research— that makes her novels unique. It is a triumphant continuation of the Earth’s Children® saga that began with The Clan of the Cave Bear. And it includes an amazing rhythmic poem that describes the birth of Earth’s Children and plays its own role in the narrative of The Shelters of Stone.

Customer Reviews:

No stars, No story.......2007-10-06

Unfortunately Amazon doesn't let you rate a book with zero stars. How so little could happen in so many pages, I'll never know.

A decent book but a lot of the same old stuff.......2007-09-14

So I have read the Earth Children series a few times and I thought that this was a decent addition, but it has nothing on the first two books. I agree with the review that talk about how great it would be if Ayla and Jondalar had mediocre sex for once and if Ayla could become less of a godess. I kept waiting for the people in the book to proclaim Ayla The doni in person and build her a throne of gold. I did enjoy the Summer Meeting and seeing Ayla and Jondalar finally mate. A lot of people go on and on about how wonderful the historial descriptions are but personally I skip over them. I can't spend 20 pages reading about the color of a lake!!! All and all pretty good but not the best. I am looking foward to the 6th book and I hope we finally get to find out about what happens to Durc and the Clan.

What Lila Thinks.......2007-08-29

This is the best book I've read so far. I can't wait till Jean M Auel writes the next book in the series. I love her books.

Lila Guptill

768 pages where almost nothing happens........2007-08-09

I just finished reading *Shelters of Stone* after it sat on my bookcase for almost four years. I enjoyed all four of the preceding novels. Therefore, I forsook my '39 page rule' (if the author hasn't hooked me by the 39th page, I give the book away.) I thought in almost 800-pages, Ms. Jean would get around to introducing new concepts, new cultures, new `happenings', or new stuff. But *SoS* turned into a repetitious travelogue of *Plains of Passage*. It is long, ponderous, dull, and boring!

I was astounded when I noticed that this is review #756, and the average rating is 21/2 stars. It's as if the author got tired of writing this book, padding it with repetitive recollections from past novels instead of finishing it off in 400 pages. I hate to say this but I think Ms. Auel was paid by the word

I kept plugging away, getting more and more upset at Ms. Auel for explaining almost everything repeatedly--the long-winded name introductions; the stories of finding and domesticating her animals; the customs of the Clan, how much Brukenval looked like her old tormenter Broud when he looked angry. Even the `sharing Pleasures' parts were repetitious. And when the `The Mother's Song' was repeated for the nth time, I almost gagged.

What's also bad about this mammoth effort is that nothing happens. No new inventions and no new places (other than some under-described caves and cave paintings). She introduces new characters, but most are one-dimensional and uninteresting. The ones who do show some promise--like Brukenval, or Larimar the brewer, Echozar of the mixed spirits, or even the ponderous Zenandoni are neglected, under-described, or under-utilized.

In the previous novels Ayla and Jondalar, were responsible for most of the technological and philosophical advancements of humankind to that point: the spear thrower, use of flint and steel to start fires, the sewing needle, domestication of the wolf and horse, the horse halter, the travois, human genetics theory (Ayla's theory of mixed spirits), and where babies really do come from. In *SoS*, Ayla and Jondalar invent nothing, go nowhere, and do little except share Pleasures, get mated and have a baby. There are no major threats from nature, animals, or people; no clash of cultures. Just flares of Cro-Magnon temper and different opinions on the nature of `flatheads'.

For almost 800 pages I kept waiting for something to happen, for Durc to show up at the head of The Clan. For a blizzard, a flood, a plague or earthquake to hit. Another adventure or trip somewhere would have been nice. There wasn't even the trademark Auel anthropological monograph on how to make a flint axe head, basket, or garment.

I'll probably get suckered into the next/last book in the series if she ever completes it. But first I'll read the Amazon reviewers opinions and rigorously apply my 39-page rule.

The Shelters of Stone.......2007-05-14

I was so disappointed in this book that were supposed to be the last in the series. The endless repetition was enough to drive me insane. How could this book ever have been published? Was it only for the sake of money that could be made out of the sale of this book, because everyone who followed the series was waiting in anticipation for it. I still can't believe a person who wrote Clan of the Cave Bears, Valley of the Horses etc, could give her readers something like this......????

Domestication of Plants in the Old World: The Origin and Spread of Cultivated Plants in West Asia, Europe, and the Nile Valley

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Domestication of Plants in the Old World: The Origin and Spread of Cultivated Plants in West Asia, Europe, and the Nile Valley
Daniel Zohary , and Maria Hopf
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0198503563

Book Description

The origin of agriculture is one of the defining events of human history. Some 10,000 years ago bands of Hunter-gatherers started to abandon their high-mobility lifestyles in favour of growing crops, and the creation of settled, sedentary communities. This settlement in favour of the agricultural lifestyle triggered the evolution of complex political and economic structures, and technological developments, and ultimately underpinned the rise of all the great civilisations of recent human history. Domestication of Plants in the Old World reviews the origin and spread of cultivation in south-west Asia, Europe, and north-east Africa, from the very earliest beginnings. This new edition incorporates the most recent findings from molecular biology about the genetic relations between domesticated plants and their wild ancestors; it adds material on several new crop plants; and it incorporates extensive new archaeological data about the spread of agriculture within the region. The reference list has been completely updated, as have the list of archaeological sites and the site maps. From reviews of the second edition: 'This book is indeed a "mine of information". An enormous and diverse body of important results is digested and presented economically, in a form that should encourage other authors to mine it and apply the results to their own fields.' Nature 'This is an excellent book, suitable for libraries, reference shelves, and anyone who teaches or writes about plant domestication.' Journal of Ethnobiology 'Only a few years after the publication, in 1988, of Zohary and Hopf's textbook, the volume was already out of print.... One cannot be grateful enough to the authors that they seized the opportunity to update the book.... An indispensable reference work; a wealth of information is presented in a systematic way.... This already classic textbook has amply proven its value, and hardly needs further recommendation.' Helinium

Clan of the Cave Bear (Earth's Children Series , No 1)

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This book is AWEFUL
Not Free SF Reader
Ayla is a jewel
How did early humans go about everyday actions?
MY WIFE ABOUT FELL OVER!

Clan of the Cave Bear (Earth's Children Series , No 1)
Jean M. Auel
Manufacturer: Wings
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0517189186
Release Date: 1998-08-11

Amazon.com

When her parents are killed by an earthquake, 5-year-old Ayla wanders through the forest completely alone. Cold, hungry, and badly injured by a cave lion, the little girl is as good as gone until she is discovered by a group who call themselves the Clan of the Cave Bear. This clan, left homeless by the same disaster, have little interest in the helpless girl who comes from the tribe they refer to as the "Others." Only their medicine woman sees in Ayla a fellow human, worthy of care. She painstakingly nurses her back to health--a decision that will forever alter the physical and emotional structure of the clan. Although this story takes place roughly 35,000 years ago, its cast of characters could easily slide into any modern tale. The members of the Neanderthal clan, ruled by traditions and taboos, find themselves challenged by this outsider, who represents the physically modern Cro-Magnons. And as Ayla begins to grow and mature, her natural tendencies emerge, putting her in the middle of a brutal and dangerous power struggle.

Although Jean Auel obviously takes certain liberties with the actions and motivations of all our ancestors, her extensive research into the Ice Age does shine through--especially in the detailed knowledge of plants and natural remedies used by the medicine woman and passed down to Ayla. Mostly, though, this first in the series of four is a wonderful story of survival. Ayla's personal evolution is a compelling and relevant tale. --Sara Nickerson

Book Description

An all-absorbing journey into man's possible past. Jean M. Auel, a storytelling genius, weaves a compellingly readable saga of human survival; an epic that transcends time and place. It is peopled with rich and complex characters who experience the full range of human emotions. All this makes for total involvement and believability in the light of today. A novel for all time.

Customer Reviews:

This book is AWEFUL.......2007-09-17

I read this book 3-4 years ago. It's still makes me highly agitated every time I think about it. You just feel bad for the main character through most of the book and there is no redemption at the end. It has the worst ending ever! It still pisses me off that I spent the time reading it. There isn't really much of a story, just a lot of details and weird issues. ASIDE: DO NOT READ IF YOU ARE SENSITIVE TO RAPE! That should be on the back cover.

To sum up: DO NOT READ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not Free SF Reader.......2007-09-03

A woman who is smarter than your average neanderthal or even other clan member helps out.

A garden variety prehistoric romance if there is such, just rather long. Smart girl looks for smart bloke, tries to overcome the nogoodniks, and keep everything going along and not collapsing. Has a few bright ideas for stuff along the way.

Ayla is a jewel.......2007-08-09

The Clan of the Cave Bear is in my opinion a very creative story. The story brings out the characters living in the Upper Paleolithic era. The amount of research Jean Auel had done to create this novel is very apparent. The heroine, Ayla is a jewel and I could help but root for her as she struggles to make her place in this male dominated society. A wonderful book and I highly recommend it to every reader

How did early humans go about everyday actions?.......2007-07-02

I have found that many of the books that I am drawn to are books that my mother once enjoyed. I believe that this is me trying to hold onto a slice of what my mother was like. At the same time I know that she could suggest a pretty good book. She had often raved about "Clan of the Cave Bear" while she was reading it. So, I had heard some of this story before we decided to read it for the book club, but that did not take away from the experience. This book is a wonderful read with characters and scenes that you won't find any other book. There are slow parts in the long story, but they do not take away from a story of diversity and early human life.

MY WIFE ABOUT FELL OVER!.......2007-06-27

She had a older book in paper back, but the ex tore it up in spite. I got her the hard back, and she nearly broke my back with excitment!!! She was nearly in tears she was so happy.

Prehistoric Textiles: The Development of Cloth in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages with Special Reference to the Aegean

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Fascinating
don't be put off by this books phd look
An important contribution to a vastly under-appreciated subj

Prehistoric Textiles: The Development of Cloth in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages with Special Reference to the Aegean
E.J.W. Barber
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 069100224X

Book Description

This pioneering work revises our notions of the origins and early development of textiles in Europe and the Near East. Using innovative linguistic techniques, along with methods from palaeobiology and other fields, it shows that spinning and pattern weaving began far earlier than has been supposed.

Prehistoric Textiles made an unsurpassed leap in the social and cultural understanding of textiles in humankind's early history. Cloth making was an industry that consumed more time and effort, and was more culturally significant to prehistoric cultures, than anyone assumed before the book's publication. The textile industry is in fact older than pottery--and perhaps even older than agriculture and stockbreeding. It probably consumed far more hours of labor per year, in temperate climates, than did pottery and food production put together. And this work was done primarily by women. Up until the Industrial Revolution, and into this century in many peasant societies, women spent every available moment spinning, weaving, and sewing.

The author, Elizabeth Wayland Barber, demonstrates command of an almost unbelievably disparate array of disciplines--from historical linguistics to archaeology and paleobiology, from art history to the practical art of weaving. Her passionate interest in the subject matter leaps out on every page. Barber, a professor of linguistics and archaeology, developed expert sewing and weaving skills as a small girl under her mother's tutelage. One could say she had been born and raised to write this book.

Because modern textiles are almost entirely made by machines, we have difficulty appreciating how time-consuming and important the premodern textile industry was. This book opens our eyes to this crucial area of prehistoric human culture.

Customer Reviews:

Fascinating.......2007-08-31

E.J.W. Barber pieces together the overlooked archaeological evidence relating to prehistoric textiles in a comprehensive and compelling way in her book, Prehistoric Textiles. Not only does this book provide an excellent education about textiles from this era, but one can also glean so much about human existence during this period when we understand the relationship that people of this time had with textiles.

A fascinating and thoroughly entertaining read!

don't be put off by this books phd look.......2007-03-09

this book is another attempt to help us accept the fact that the peoples living before 4000BC where not cave-dwelling morons as most archeologist think, mrs barbers incredibly well researched book takes us on a discovery that ends too soon and makes us hope she will follow up with a book on the rest of the world....

An important contribution to a vastly under-appreciated subj.......1999-02-02

Clothing and body ornamentation were among the first means by which humans expressed their social identity. For this reason alone, the study of clothing is of primary importance for understanding the past. Unfortunately, clothing is perishable and little is left of these once flourishing art forms. But what we do possess often reminds us of traditions that have survived into modern times, both in regard to their construction and design and this presents another means for evaluating the scanty remains. Because the last two centuries have seen such accelerated social change we often forget that people in the past held on to their traditions with the greatest tenacity. The arts practiced primarily by women such as weaving and basketry were among the most conservative. Only a few scholars have sought to trace these links to the past. Prof. E. W. Barber makes a substantial contribution to this neglected field of study with her Prehistoric Textiles.

Prehistoric Textiles is really two books in one. The first is a systematic and scientific treatment of topics relevant to the history and practice of weaving. These include the types of fibers used in early textiles, the techniques and tools of spinning, the types of looms and their probable historical development, the dyes used with early textiles, and most importantly, the weaving techniques themselves. Had Prof. Barber stopped here the work would have been accomplishment enough since no other work of this kind exists to my knowledge. Further, none of the more specialized monographs that do exist takes pains to explain the subject in such detail to the lay reader. Prof. Barber has the advantage of being a weaver herself and she is able to identify with the struggles and joys of the artisans who made these ancient textiles and to suggest practical reasons why they did they what did.

The second book is more ambitious: a history written from textiles rather than texts. By looking at the spread of weaving, the materials, techniques, and designs, she hopes to add to our knowledge of larger historical issues such as the origin and dispersion of the Indo-European peoples. A number of more focused studies in the second half of the book put this sensible idea into practice. The first concerns the diffusion of loom weights and spindle whorls in the Near East and Europe while a second analyzes the Bronze Age textile industry in the Aegean. There is a good deal more here of course and all done with the care and attention to detail one would expect from a weaver.

In addition to the linguistic, archeological, and historical matters discussed in the book, there are several underlying issues raised by Dr. Barber which have been the subject of earlier studies by the American scholar, Dr. Carl Schuster (1904-1969 whose work has not received the serious attention it deserves. Schuster was interested designs on textiles and he amassed an important collection during his worldwide travels, starting in the 1930s. His interest in symbolism led him to trace the history of certain design motifs as they moved from one medium to another. What Schuster discovered is summarized in Patterns That Connect (also available from Amazon.com). I mention the work because it forms a background for much of the material Dr. Barber presents. Many of the techniques used to construct woven clothing as well as the designs employed by weavers were borrowed from tailored fur garments. Schuster was able to reconstruct the techniques used to create these garments which were generally made from small furs. Several marginally located hunting peoples were still constructing such garments as late as the 19th and 20th century. Additionally, designs which originated on clothing were transferred to less perishable objects (cave walls, bones, pebbles, ivory, etc.) in Paleolithic times as marks of social identity. In Neolithic times, the same designs were transferred to pottery and widely diffused. What is familiar to us as geometric art, Schuster maintained, is really the residue of a system once used to depict genealogical relations via tattoos and clothing designs.

Book Description

Ranging from the earliest settlements through the emergence of Minoan civilization to the barbarian world at the end of the Roman Empire, Prehistoric Europe provides a fascinating look at how successive cultures adapted to the landscape of Europe. In synthesizing the diverse findings of
archeology, Barry Cunliffe and a team of distinguished experts capture the sweeping movements of peoples, the spread of agriculture, the growth of metal working, and the rise and fall of cultures.
For centuries, we knew little of the European civilizations that preceded classical Greece or arose outside of the Roman Empire, beyond ancient myths and the writings of Roman observers. Now the most recent discoveries of archeology have been synthesized into one exciting volume. Featuring
hundreds of stunning photographs, this book provides the most complete account available of the prehistory of European civilization.

Customer Reviews:

Why can't academics write well?.......2001-06-05

I read this book through once, and have read the second half again. I found it very difficult to keep track of different tribes and their movements from Central Asia, into the Balkans and onward. Some of the contributors wrote extremely clearly and their chapters were easy to follow, Others, including the editor, made me cringe. I nearly put the book down while reading the introduction and had to resist taking a red pen to the text. I found the description of the rise of metallurgy interesting although oversimplified. No mention was made of small indigenous metal working. I also agree with the previous reviewer on the confusing description of bell beaker pottery and the use of this style of pottery. Having found bell beaker shards, I would like to know more about the spread and use of this highly decorative and stylized pottery.

Disappointing.......1999-06-11

I expected the book to be somewhat uneven in quality since it has 11 authors and 13 chapters with each chapter written by one individual. But the chapters on the Neolithic era are particularly weak. These chapters divide Europe into the southeast region, the southwest, etc., at the same moment in time, without showing movements of people and cultures into different regions at somewhat later or earlier times. The regions are just arbitrary compass points; they don't reflect the significance of transportation along coasts and rivers, for instance. Within a region the presentation does little to distinguish the agricultural people near the coasts from less settled or highland people living further inland. The coverage of Iberia is flimsy at best, and too brief. The account of the bell-beaker people is totally confusing. I could go on. On the other hand, the chapters surrounding the era of the Romans are really great. (But I didn't buy a book entitled "Prehistory" to read about that era.) As far as the book's illustrations go, there are over 10,000 dolmens and other prehistoric megalithic monuments in Western Europe today, but the book has just a single photograph of one, and that particular one happens to be covered with earth, the photograph is taken from the air, and all you see is a mere mound of grass. Reviewing the illustrations as a whole, some of them are worthless, but the majority are well worthwhile pictures of weapons, drinking vessels, jewelry, statues, etc. A few of them are in color. There are also some maps. Maps can be a great help in presenting findings in a work like this, but the book doesn't utilize maps as much as it should (and again the Neolithic and Bronze ages are the weakest in this regard).

Sanctuaries of the Goddess: The Sacred Landscapes and Objects

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Sanctuaries of the Goddess: The Sacred Landscapes and Objects
Peg Streep
Manufacturer: Bulfinch Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0821219766

The Prehistory of Britain and Ireland (Cambridge World Archaeology)

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The Prehistory of Britain and Ireland (Cambridge World Archaeology)
Richard Bradley
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0521612705

Book Description

Sited at the furthest limits of the Neolithic revolution and standing at the confluence of the two great sea routes of prehistory, Britain and Ireland are distinct from continental Europe for much of the prehistoric sequence. In this landmark study - the first significant survey of the archaeology of Britain and Ireland for twenty years - Richard Bradley offers a new interpretation of the unique archaeological record of these islands based on a wealth of current and largely unpublished data. Bradley surveys the entire archaeological sequence over a 4,000 year period, from the adoption of agriculture in the Neolithic period to the discovery of Britain and Ireland by travellers from the Mediterranean during the later pre-Roman Iron Age. Significantly, this is the first modern account to treat Britain and Ireland on equal terms, offering a detailed interpretation of the prehistory of both islands.

The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe: Myths and Cult Images, New and Updated Edition

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Poor sweethearts
important work in the field of archeology
misinterpretative madness
Don't expect eye appeal
Not so dusty archaeology

The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe: Myths and Cult Images, New and Updated Edition
Marija Gimbutas
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0520046552

Customer Reviews:

Poor sweethearts.......2005-04-06

It's so interesting how panicked some men get when they "read" Gimbutas. Here's just one example -- from a terrified reviewer of this book:

"...It is *nonsense*, pure and simple ... Gimbutas is trapped in the *foolish* ideology of the "great goddess", a *pathetic* ... reflex of contemporary political obsession.... leave it to Wiccans and other *ignorami*."

One wonders what credentials this reviewer had to use such vocabulary about a world-renowned and highly respected prehistorian? As a prehistorian myself, I have yet to meet anyone who has read Gimbutas completely. Every single one of her detractors has shown a misunderstanding of, or an incomplete understanding of her work. She is not easy to read or understand; I find this true even with my archaeological background. But if you don't read all of her, you just won't "get it."

important work in the field of archeology.......2004-02-06

In this book, Gimbutas lays out what will become the field of archaeomythology - breaking the archaelogical taboo of reconstructing ancient culture, and expanding the boundaries of archaeology. The work is controversial and at times over-reaches itself in drawing far-reaching conclusions from existing archaeological evidence. However, this doesn't make the work any less important.

Gimbutas was a pioneer in her field, and challenged the traditional concepts we have of the origins of Western civilization. While her assertions may seem fantastical and absurd to some, they are worth exploring. Scholars in the field of anthropology have already begun to realize that women played a far larger role as hunters in early societies, and Gimbutas's work paved the way for scholars to allow the thought of an expanded role from what we perceive as traditional female gender roles.

Whether you agree with her work or not, this book and others by Gimbutas are worth reading. Her theories are thought-provoking and ground-breaking, and based on years of careful research by a reknowned and respected scholar. As a scholar, I find that my opinions lie somewhere between Gimbutas and traditional ideas of the development of Western civilization - but as a scholar I also find her work incredibly important and worth reading.

misinterpretative madness.......2003-10-25

When I first read this book, it confirmed a feeling I had then: that archaeologists should be forbidden by law to make any attempt at culture history. It is nonsense, pure and simple; a wild attempt at inventing a "matriarchalist" past for Europe that ignores even its own evidence. To give one instance of its lunacy, it argues that war only entered Gimbutas' imagined "Old European" culture with the evil patriarchalist Indo-Europeans and their steppe-bred war axes... and then goes on to tell us that wooden palisades (that is, FORTIFICATIONS) were a regular feature of "Old European" settlements! What were they meaning to keep out, wolves? Gimbutas' archaeological work is not without value, but when it comes to interpreting it, a moron or a politician could do better. She simply is trapped in the foolish ideology of the "great goddess", a pathetic though unortunately popular reflex of contemporary political obsession. Luckily, I have since found out that some archaeologists (for instance, Filippo Coarelli) DO read and understand anthropology, culture history, comparative sociology, etc. - but as for this sort of stuff, leave it to Wiccans and other ignorami.

Don't expect eye appeal.......2001-04-18

Neolithic art is, at best, dissapointing. Facial features weren't very important in the Neolithic and the statues shown uniformly have undersized little pinheads. Many have no recognizable facial features at all. With the modern emphasis on the human face, modern viewers will find little connection to these statues.

Partially what determines form is the medium. Ceramic breaks when it falls. Top heavy statues fell to their destruction quickly, and people learned to make bottom heavy statues if they wanted them to last. Hence lots of photos of squat, bottom-heavy statues that sit stable on a shelf. No heads or arms, just enormous kneeling thighs for these paper weights. Many photos show the heads and arms broke off anyway.

Those looking to be swept away by the mythic beauty of powerful goddesses will be disappointed. Those looking for Neolithic Europe as it really was will find it copiously filled with photographs and drawings.

Not so dusty archaeology.......1998-04-07

Amazing art and sculptures from neolithic Europe. Worthy of Henry Moore. I would love to know where I could get replicas of the sorrowful god / goddess sculptures. Fascinating discoveries about the origins of the ancient greek religion. A must for anyone interested in European mythology

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