Ancient Lives

Brian Fagan is a leading archaeological writer and internationally recognized authority on world prehistory. He studied archaeology and anthropology at Pembroke College and Cambridge University. He then spent seven years in sub-Saharan Africa working in museums, monument conservation, and excavating early farming sites in Zambia and East Africa. He was a pioneer 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 six best-selling textbooks (all published by Prentice Hall): Ancient Lives: An Introduction to Archaeology and Prehistory; In the Beginning, Archaeology: A Brief Introduction; World Prehistory; Ancient Civilizations (with Chris Scarre); and this volume–which are used around the world. His general books include The Rape of the Nile, a classic history of Egyptology; The Adventure of Archaeology Time Detectives; Ancient North America; The Little Ice Age; Before California: An Archaeologist Looks at Our Earliest Inhabitants; and The Long Summer. He was also General Editor of the Oxford Companion to Archaeology. In addition, he 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 indefatigable 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, four cats (who supervise his writing), and last but not least, a minimum of four rabbits.

Part I Archaeology: Studying Ancient Times
Chapter 1 Introducing Archaeology and Prehistory
Chapter 2 The Record of the Past
Chapter 3 Acquiring the Record
Chapter 4 How Did People Live?
Part II Ancient Interactions
Chapter 5 Individuals and Interactions
Chapter 6 Studying the Intangible
Chapter 7 Explaining the Past
Part III The World of the First Humans
Chapter 8 Human Origins
Chapter 9 African Exodus
Part IV Modern Humans Settle the World
Chapter 10 The Great Diaspora
Part V The First Farmers and Civilizations
Chapter 11 The Earliest Farmers
Chapter 12 The First Civilizations
Chapter 13 Early Asian Civilizations
Part VI Ancient America
Chapter 14 Maize, Pueblos, and Mound Builders
Chapter 15 Mesoamerican Civilizations
Chapter 16 Andean Civilizations
Part VII On Being an Archaeologist
Chapter 17 So You Want to Become an Archaeologist