Europe before Rome —— A Site-by-Site Tour of the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages

This has been a fun, long, read with plenty of excursions into the internet (making the Kindle version ideal). Price does one of the best jobs leading the reader through human deep time. This mission alone is worth the price. 200,000 thousand years ago, modern humans were doing some amazing stuff 195,000 years before Stonehenge. The popular notion that Neanderthals went extinct after their 400,000 year run can be critically considered in understanding the 30,000 some years of coexistence with H.sap. As it would happen, H.sap gained genetics of H.nea. But there is no evidence that H.nea added a single H.sap gene. Evolution is forward. Neanderthals might simply have become us. In our own 200,000 some year run, history begins just 5,000-6,000 years ago with translatable writing. History exists in the most recent 2.5% of the modern human story. 97.5% of our species existence is pre-historic. Price very specifically focuses this narrative in European archaeological sites in chronological order, from oldest to the emergence of Rome. The Middle East, Far East and Africa are the places humans walked into the European geography to develop a wholly different style and skill set. Price is a brown dirt archaeologist turned reflective after a long career. It's a 5-star story.

This is a wonderful book and an even better resource. The reviews that give this 4 or 5 stars are correct, and, yes, it is "academic" but not overly so. Maybe "academic lite." If you are even mildly interested in prehistory or where we came from then this will hold your attention. The discussion of various sites seldom goes on for more than a couple of pages. But what it's really great for is to dream about places to visit and linger. I can't wait to go to Orkney Island and see the Neolithic megalithic ruins and to see the standing stones at Carnac, France and then visit Malta in the middle of the blue Mediterranean. If you can't find dozens of places you'd like to visit after reading this book, you are brain dead already.

This was a wonderful, insightful, book..A perfect complement to other books (also wonderful) that I have read about this era.."After The Ice" and "Europe Between The Oceans"..I highly recommend this book as well as those others.. Enjoy and learn..

I can't praise this book highly enough. It is a thoroughly lucid, clear survey of inferred cultural life through the display and description of Stone, Bronze and Iron Age artifacts. I've read it twice in 3 months, and consider it one of the most important books in my library. If my library were reduced to only 5 books, this would be one of the five.(The other four would be Art: A New History, by Paul Johnson; A Delicate Arrangement, by Arnold C. Brackman; Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time, by Carroll Quigley; and Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand).

I'm not an archaeologist, so I can't really speak to the accuracy of the material. That said, the author has an engaging style that kept me reading late into the night, unwilling to put the book down until I found out how the Upper Paleolithic turned out. The book also has great illustrations, which are optimized for the Kindle, so they display beautifully.

Good

got this for a friend's upcoming birthday. what a gorgeous book! skimmed through it and i just know she'll love it. beautiful photos informative and easy to read. plus you cant beat the fast shipping

I am very interested in European prehistory. This book takes the reader on a chronological, site-by-site tour of European archeology. The photos are stunning enough by themselves to justify purchasing it, and the text is also extremely well-done, clear, engaging and informative.

This has been a fun, long, read with plenty of excursions into the internet (making the Kindle version ideal).Price does one of the best jobs leading the reader through human deep time. This mission alone is worth the price. 200,000 thousand years ago, modern humans were doing some amazing stuff 195,000 years before Stonehenge.The popular notion that Neanderthals went extinct after their 400,000 year run can be critically considered in understanding the 30,000 some years of coexistence with H.sap. As it would happen, H.sap gained genetics of H.nea. But there is no evidence that H.nea added a single H.sap gene. Evolution is forward. Neanderthals might simply have become us.In our own 200,000 some year run, history begins just 5,000-6,000 years ago with translatable writing. History exists in the most recent 2.5% of the modern human story. 97.5% of our species existence is pre-historic.Price very specifically focuses this narrative in European archaeological sites in chronological order, from oldest to the emergence of Rome. The Middle East, Far East and Africa are the places humans walked into the European geography to develop a wholly different style and skill set.Price is a brown dirt archaeologist turned reflective after a long career. It's a 5-star story.

This is a wonderful book and an even better resource.The reviews that give this 4 or 5 stars are correct, and, yes, it is "academic" but not overly so. Maybe "academic lite." If you are even mildly interested in prehistory or where we came from then this will hold your attention. The discussion of various sites seldom goes on for more than a couple of pages.But what it's really great for is to dream about places to visit and linger. I can't wait to go to Orkney Island and see the Neolithic megalithic ruins and to see the standing stones at Carnac, France and then visit Malta in the middle of the blue Mediterranean. If you can't find dozens of places you'd like to visit after reading this book, you are brain dead already.

I can't praise this book highly enough. It is a thoroughly lucid, clear survey of inferred cultural life through the display and description of Stone, Bronze and Iron Age artifacts. I've read it twice in 3 months, and consider it one of the most important books in my library. If my library were reduced to only 5 books, this would be one of the five.(The other four would be Art: A New History, by Paul Johnson; A Delicate Arrangement, by Arnold C. Brackman; Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time, by Carroll Quigley; and Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand).