The Lost Civilizations of the Stone Age
by Richard Rudgley
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Book Summary Information
Author: Richard RudgleyEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2000-01-25
ISBN: 0684862700
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Free Press
Book Reviews of The Lost Civilizations of the Stone Age
Book Review: Great Resource
Summary: 4 Stars
Due to it's alluring title, people who buy this book might be expecting a slightly more finely researched version of Hancock or Van Donnikan. Thankfully, this is not the case, and Rudgley seems to be a more down to earth, logical, and unbiased student of archeology. In fact, this book seems to be as much a refutation of the ideas of ambitious enterprising "fringers" as it is a criticism of the more xenophobic of the ultra-conservative mainstreamers.
In truth, despite the spectacular title, most of Rudgley's ideas fall well into the boundaries of mainstream scientific thought, albeit they meander very close to the edge.
You will find no Aliens, dubious "High-Technology", Atlantis or Mu within the body, though in the preface the author does take a moment to mention these aspects of so-called "fringe" archeology. It seems that fringe archeology is often given ammunition by archeologists who fail to provide context or precurse for the beginnings of certain cultural upheavals in prehistoric times, implying that a certain technology or practice "comes out of nowhere," like the Aurignacion industries of 40,000 ybp or the sudden Nelolithic explosion of 12000 ybp, for instance.
The truth is that context and precurser of Upper Paleolithic, Neolithic, and Mesolithic industries stretch far back into antiquity. Anyone who has kept up on the day to day of archeological finds in the news over the past few years and is both open minded and possessed of a fair amount of common sense will already realize this, and will have already read about many of the finds contained herein. In fact, the info is slightly out of date as many more lithics have been found since the publication, all of which support Rudgley's opinion.
The beauty of the book is not in it's revelations but in it's detail, as many facts about anomolies and other evidences are examined in full.
For the sake of instance, most up to date readers will already know that there were calendars and signs that may have led up to writing, or that elaborate burials were done in the Middle Paleolithic, or that art extends even to the lower paleolithic. Though Rudgley often presents these as surprising and groundbreaking, he makes up for it by giving the finds detail and context, and also makes the information valuable by compiling it and indexing it skillfully.
His massive accumulated info on mining in the Neolithic and Paleolithic is the most exciting part of the research, as this aspect of archeology is often not well-documented in popular periodicals. The same can be said of the info he presents for music and complex musical instruments dating even into the Mousterian period.
I would recommend this book as a feference for those writing about or studying prehistory, but I would caution that it is often written in text-book style with exhaustive commentary, and that most of the info presented, though correct, is no longer controversial.
Rudgley does not make a claim for agriculture before the neolithic, or at least before the Natufians, indicating that he didn't know of the domesticated taro found on scrapers in the Solomon Isles from 28,000 ybp.
He makes no claim for animal domestication before the usual accepted timeframe, showing his lack of knowledge of 18,000 ybp dogs in Siberia and 32,000 ybp dogs in Belgium. And though he cites Paul Bahn extensively throughout the book, there is no mention of Bahn's convincing evidence for horse domestication in the Upper Paleolithic. Neither, it seems, did Rudgely anticipate the recent redating for the invention of the bow and arrow at 75,000 ybp...although the existence of "arrow straighteners" and small solutrean arrow heads should have made this a matter of common sense and circumstancial evidence.
In relaying the circumstancial evidence that man had boats before the Upper Paleolithic the author is thorough, allowing the gem of Sicily's earliest inhabitation, which is often forgotten in light of the more sensational immigrations to Australia and Flores. But Rudgley's single truly conyroversial speculation is his idea that America may have been populated first by Homo Erectus. He presents a decent case for this, but I'm gonna have to withhold judgement on that one.
Summary of The Lost Civilizations of the Stone Age
An authoritative, eye-opening look at Stone Age civilizations that explodes traditional portrayals of prehistory
The rise of historical civilization 5,000 years ago is often depicted as if those societies were somehow created out of nothing. However, recent discoveries of astonishing accomplishments from the Neolithic Age -- in art, technology, writing, math, science, religion, medicine and exploration -- demand a fundamental rethinking of humanity before the dawn of written history.
In this fascinating book, Richard Rudgley describes how
* The intrepid explorers of the Stone Age discovered all of the world's major land masses long before the so-called Age of Discovery
* Stone Age man performed medical operations, including amputations and delicate cranial surgeries
* Paleolithic cave artists of Western Europe used techniques that were forgotten until the Renaissance
* Prehistoric life expectancy was better than it is for contemporary third-world populations
Rudgley reminds us just how savage so-called civilized people can be, and demonstrates how the cultures that have been reviled as savage were truly civilized. The Lost Civilizations of the Stone Age shows the great debt that contemporary society owes to its prehistoric predecessors. It is a rich introduction to a lost world that will redefine the meaning of civilization itself.
Among historians, one of the most widely accepted criteria for a society's being "civilized" is whether it has a writing system, one that permits complex record keeping and allows for an account of the past. By that measure, writes British museologist Richard Rudgley, many societies of the most ancient Stone Age are to be reckoned as civilizations, for new archaeological evidence suggests that the Neolithic writing systems of cultures like Mesopotamia and the Nile valley have their roots in even older systems, some dating back to the time of the Neanderthals. (Just what those writing systems say remains a matter of debate, and Rudgley acknowledges that "if a script cannot be deciphered, then it will always be possible to dismiss it.") Prehistoric sign systems aside, Rudgley urges that the chronology of human cultural evolution be pushed back well into the Paleolithic; "the most fundamental cultural innovations," he suggests, "actually occurred far earlier in the overall sequence [of human development] than is generally realized." He maintains, for instance, that fired pottery, another characteristic of civilized societies, existed among Siberian nomads some 13,000 years ago, and that a knowledge of metallurgy existed in Egypt 35,000 years ago. Any call for a revision in widely accepted chronologies is, of course, sure to be controversial among prehistorians, and Rudgley's book, well reasoned as it is, will provoke debate. --Gregory McNamee
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