A groundbreaking introduction to world prehistory that presents the vast panorama of human development over the past three million years

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The Human Past has established itself as the most authoritative introduction to global prehistory and early history. Using a regional and chronological framework to guide students, this pioneering text highlights how archaeology helps us to understand the enormous diversity of human experience.

Twenty-four scholars, all acknowledged experts in their field, from North America, Britain, Australia, and New Zealand, cover the human past with a level of detailed understanding and expertise that no other textbook can match.

• The most thorough yet accessible introduction to human prehistory ever published.
• Hundreds of maps, diagrams and photographs, many in full colour
• Timelines and boxes on key sites, methods, discoveries and controversies

Thoroughly revised and updated, the second edition includes the latest discoveries and interpretations, for example at San Bartolo in Guatemala, Qatna in Syria. Göbekli Tepe in Turkey and Jinsha in China: new evidence for the earliest human ancestors and the dates of domestication of key plants and animals; and how DNA is illuminating the movements of people and domesticates around the globe.