| Desolate Landscapes: Ice-Age Settlement in Eastern Europe Contributor(s): Hoffecker, John F. (Author) |
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ISBN: 0813529921 ISBN-13: 9780813529929 Publisher: Rutgers University Press OUR PRICE: $47.45 Product Type: Paperback Published: January 2002 Annotation: This new series presents innovative titles pertaining to human origins, evolution, and behavior from a multi-disciplinary perspective. Subject areas include but are not limited to biological and physical anthropology, prehistoric archaeology, evolutionary psychology, behavioral ecology, and evolutionary biology. The series volumes will be of interest primarily to students and scholars in these fields. Ice-Age Eastern Europe was an inhospitable place isolated from the moderating influence of oceans. Unlike Western Europe, which was settled over half a million years ago, Eastern Europe remained largely unoccupied until the appearance of the cold-adapted Neanderthals. When modern humans arrived from southern latitudes, they were anatomically less suited to colder climates, but successfully colonized Eastern Europe with the aid of innovative technology that their Neanderthal predecessors lacked. John F. Hoffecker provides an overview of Pleistocene or Ice-Age settlement in Eastern Europe with a heavy focus on the adaptations of Neanderthals and modern humans to this harsh environmental setting. Hoffecker argues that the Eastern European record reveals a stark contrast between Neanderthals and modern humans with respect to technology and social organization, both of which are tied to the development of language and the use of symbols. Desolate Landscapes will bring readers up to date with the rich archaeological record in this significant region and its significance to our understanding of one of the most important events in human evolution -- the rise of modern humans and the extinction of the Neanderthals. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Science | Life Sciences - Evolution - Nature | Fossils - Social Science | Archaeology |
| Dewey: 569.9 |
| LCCN: 20010198-2 |
| Series: Rutgers Human Evolution |
| Physical Information: 0.85" H x 6.38" W x 8.92" (1.20 lbs) 320 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - Ancient (To 499 A.D.) - Cultural Region - Eastern Europe |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: The book is divided into seven chapters. The first discusses general anthropological principles and theories pertaining to human adaptation and development in cold environments. The second outlines the environmental conditions of the specific area under study in the book. The next two chapters focus on Neanderthal finds in the area. The following two chapters discuss the replacement of the local Neanderthal population by the Cro-magnons, and the development of their way of life in the cold Loess Steppe environment. The final chapter summarizes the discussion and is followed by an extremely valuable and extensive bibliography, more than half of which consists of non-English (primarily Russian) sources. |