Re: Negau

Before Andrew spends his money, can people critique these books. I'm willing to bet there's more knowledge on this list than in those books

--- On Mon, 9/29/08, Andrew Jarrette <anjarrette@...> wrote:

> From: Andrew Jarrette <anjarrette@...>
> Subject: [tied] Re: Negau
> To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Monday, September 29, 2008, 7:16 PM
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Andrew Jarrette"
> <anjarrette@...> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> > These questions may seem pointless, too many, and
> maybe confusing -- I
> > just want to be informed and satisfy my curiosity so
> that I can fully
> > understand these aspects of IE history. I don't
> think I will be able
> > to do this by scanning the archives, since they are
> often about
> > specific words rather than general IE history.
> >
> > Andrew
> >
>
>
> I've just been informed of two informative books:
>
> 1. "Europe Between the Oceans: 9000 BC-AD 1000
> (Hardcover)" by Barry
> Cunliffe :
>
> Editorial Reviews
> From Publishers Weekly
> Starred Review. Cunliffe, emeritus professor of archeology
> at Oxford,
> colorfully weaves history, geography archeology and
> anthropology into
> a mesmerizing tapestry chronicling the development of
> Europe. The
> sheer size of the European coastlines, as well as the
> inland rivers
> pouring into these seas, enabled many groups to move easily
> from one
> place to another and establish cultures that flourished
> commercially.
> Between 2800 and 1300 B.C., for example, Britain, the
> Nordic states,
> Greece and the western Mediterranean states were bound
> together by
> their maritime exchange of bronze, whose use in Britain and
> Ireland
> had spread by 1400 B.C. to Greece and the Aegean. From 800
> to 500
> B.C.—the three hundred years that changed the world—the
> Greeks,
> Phoenicians, Romans and Carthaginians emerged from relative
> obscurity
> into major empires whose struggles to control the seas were
> for the
> first time recorded in writing. Cunliffe points out that
> each oceanic
> culture developed unique sailing vessels for the kinds of
> commerce
> peculiar to it. Richly told, Cunliffe's tale yields a
> wealth of
> insights into the earliest days of European civilization.
> Illus.,
> maps. (Sept.)
> Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed
> Elsevier
> Inc. All rights reserved.
>
> Review
> "This book is an achievement of astonishing scope: the
> first to
> present the whole prehistory of Europe from the origins of
> farming to
> the rise of urban society with evident authority, and then
> to go on to
> review the Roman world right through to the dawn of the
> Middle Ages. A
> pioneering work of synthesis on a continental scale, this
> is the first
> coherent overview of the origins of Europe which meets the
> challenge
> of treading the path from prehistory into the full light of
> history.
> Only an archaeologist could have written it, yet Professor
> Cunliffe
> has an impressive grasp also of the historical sources for
> the Roman
> world and its aftermath. His easy style should please the
> general
> reader, while the boldness and assurance of his masterly
> treatment
> will challenge and intrigue the specialist." - Lord
> Colin Renfrew,
> Formerly Disney Professor of Archaeology and Director of
> the McDonald
> Institute for Archaeological Research, University of
> Cambridge (Colin
> Renfrew )
>
> 2. "Prehistory: The Making of the Human Mind (Modern
> Library
> Chronicles) (Hardcover)" by Colin Renfrew:
>
> Editorial Reviews
> From Publishers Weekly
> "In this complex, closely argued text, best suited to
> archaeology
> professionals, field giant Renfrew sets forth quite a task,
> to sum up
> the progress of prehistoric archaeology thus far and then
> explore
> current challenges. In Part I, Renfrew surveys the history
> of the
> concept-prehistory refers to the long period of "human
> existence
> before... written records"-and how it developed into a
> rich field of
> study, developing excavation and chronological techniques
> and coming
> to major, sometimes startling conclusions (like the
> parallel evolution
> of distant cultures throughout the world). Part II
> considers the
> prehistory of the human mind-that is, how concepts such as
> relative
> value and social rank came into being. In a compelling but
> debatable
> argument, he finds that sedentarism-permanent residence in
> one
> place-was a pre-requisite for the emergence of material
> culture.
> Ultimately, however, "good local narratives" can
> be compiled for
> societies such as ancient China, Mesopotamia, Egypt and
> Mesoamerica,
> but a unifying model that encompasses their individual
> trajectories
> has yet to be developed; Renfrew regards its development as
> a major
> task for 21st century prehistorians. The value of
> Renfrew's book is
> that it lays out these arguments, with the intent to spur
> thought,
> debate, analysis and, especially, theoretical modeling of
> social
> evolution.
> Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed
> Elsevier
> Inc. All rights reserved.
>
> Product Description
> In Prehistory, the award-winning archaeologist and renowned
> scholar
> Colin Renfrew covers human existence before the advent of
> written
> records–which is to say, the overwhelming majority of our
> time here on
> earth. But Renfrew also opens up to discussion, and even
> debate, the
> term "prehistory" itself, giving an incisive,
> concise, and lively
> survey of the past, and how scholars and scientists labor
> to bring it
> to light.
>
> Renfrew begins by looking at prehistory as a discipline,
> particularly
> how developments of the past century and a half–advances
> in
> archaeology and geology; Darwin's ideas of evolution;
> discoveries of
> artifacts and fossil evidence of our human ancestors; and
> even more
> enlightened museum and collection curatorship–have fueled
> continuous
> growth in our knowledge of prehistory. He details how
> breakthroughs
> such as radiocarbon dating and DNA analysis have helped us
> to define
> humankind's past–how things have changed–much more
> clearly than was
> possible just a half century ago. Answers for why things
> have changed,
> however, continue to elude us, so Renfrew discusses some of
> the issues
> and challenges past and present that confront the study of
> prehistory
> and its investigators.
>
> In the book's second part, Renfrew shifts the narrative
> focus,
> offering a summary of human prehistory from early hominids
> to the rise
> of literate civilization that is refreshingly free from
> conventional
> wisdom and grand "unified" theories. The
> author's own case studies
> encompass a vast geographical and chronological range–the
> Orkney
> Islands, the Balkans, the Indus Valley, Peru, Ireland, and
> China–and
> help to explain the formation and development of
> agriculture and
> centralized societies. He concludes with a fascinating
> chapter on
> early writing systems, "From Prehistory to
> History."
>
> In this invaluable, brief account of human development
> prior to the
> last four millennia, Colin Renfrew delivers a meticulously
> researched
> and passionately argued chronicle about our life on earth,
> and our
> ongoing quest to understand it."
>
>
> When I have the opportunity I intend to buy both of these.
>
> Andrew