In the Beginning

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.

To the Reader

To the Instructor

About the Author

What Happened in Prehistory?

PART I                      

BACKGROUND TO ARCHAEOLOGY

Chapter 1 Introducing Archaeology

 

PART II                     

A SHORT HISTORY OF ARCHAEOLOGY: SIXTH CENTURY B.C. THROUGH A.D. 2007

Chapter 2  The Beginnings of Scientific Archaeology

Chapter 3  Science, Ecology, and the Many-voiced Past: from the

 

PART III                   

THE BASICS     



Chapter 4 Matrix and Preservation

Chapter 5 Doing Archaeological Research

Chapter 6 Culture, Data, and Context

Chapter 7 How Old is It?

 

PART IV                   

RECOVERING THE DATA

Chapter 8 They Sought it Here, They Sought it There: Finding the Past       

Chapter 9 Excavation  

PART V                     

ANALYZING THE PAST: ARTIFACTS AND TECHNOLOGY

Chapter 10 Classifying Artifacts

Chapter 11 Technologies of the Ancients

 

PART VI

ENVIRONMENTS, LIFEWAYS, PEOPLE AND THE INTANGIBLE

Chapter 12 Ancient Environments

Chapter 13 Ancient Lifeways

Chapter 14 The Living Past

Chapter 15 Landscape and Settlement Chapter 16 Interactions: People of the Past

Chapter 17 Archaeology and the Intangible

 

PART VII                  

MANAGING THE PAST

Chapter 18 Cultural Resource Management and Public Archaeology

Chapter 19 Archaeology and Contemporary Society

 

PART VIII                

CAREERS AND RESOURCES

Chapter 20 So You Want to Become an Archaeologist?

 

Glossary

Bibliography

Photo Credits

Index