A superb world history for the novice and expert alike (After the Ice - Steven Mithen)

Member Name: monkeyboy2

Product:	After the Ice - Steven Mithen
Date:	23/07/09 (22 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Well written, easily accessible, fascinating subject

Disadvantages: Densely packed information

"After the Ice" by Stephen Mithen is subtitled "A Global Human History: 20,000 - 5000 BC" and that explains the subject of the book with admirably succinct clarity.

Mithen sets out his intentions with the book in a short preface, mainly that he intended "a good read" for those interested in our past, while at the same time maintaining the highest levels of academic scholarship. Happily, this book is very much a good read and one senses that the archaeological evidence cited and analysed is indeed of the highest quality.

After a couple of brief introductory chapters that give us a sense of the world at the end of the last ice age, the book is divided into sections that analyse every continent in turn from 20,000 to 5000 BC (or thereabouts, depending on the available evidence). This helps parcel out the huge time spans discussed into manageable chunks and Mithen's approach works very well, as we gradually build up a world wide picture, piece by piece.

Throughout the book, Mithen uses the technique of having an imaginary modern man, who he names John Lubbock (also the name of the author of the revolutionary Victorian-era history "Prehistoric Times") travel through the prehistoric landscapes that he describes. If this sounds unbelievably dumbed-down, then don't worry as it is done exceptionally well and lifts the book up to a whole new level of engagement. Often chapters begin with our imaginary time-traveller Lubbock arriving out of the darkness and happening upon the camp or village that Mithen is about to write about, and observing or perhaps joining in the activities unnoticed. This work of imagination helps hugely with reconstructing the places and people of the past that this book is all about, and we have the flickering of camp fires and the smell of goat cooking and children splashing about in rivers made vividly real. It genuinely brings what could be dusty descriptions of post holes and flint chips alive and Mithen is extremely talented in this regard (I'm sure he could write a popular pre-historical novel if he wanted to, and in fact I wish he would).

But for all the imagination put into bringing scenes to life, this is absolutely a work of intellectual rigour and I trusted the description and analysis throughout. There is a lot of information in these pages, with a lot of dates and facts and figures to take in. At times it is quite dense and in depth for a popular book, but that is no bad thing and it is clearly often necessary to give us a full picture (there are over 100 pages of notes and bibliography). Put simply, he clearly knows what he is talking about. Mithen is also generous in his praise of other archaeologists and invites us to recognise good archaeology over bad, and freely admits when there is not enough evidence to draw firm conclusions (which is most of the time) and refrains from doing so. Luckily for us, he does give us his personal leanings a lot of the time.

Mithen's writing is very clear and concise and he manages to pack in a staggering amount of information within a relatively short space (around 500 pages). It might recall Chris Morris' interview with Andrew Morton to say it but this book actually looks and feels bigger than it is. At times though, nearing the end, I became a little bored of the repeated descriptions of tiny settlements or camps found here and there that seemed to be coming thick and fast and I began to lose interest somewhat. I felt that Mithen would have been better served at times to have concentrated on fewer examples and for longer, if at all possible.

As for the illustrations, there are no drawings or diagrams of the various dig sites within the pages of the book. I'm not sure that I missed them greatly and I think their omission is not detrimental in any way, as a few grey lines and circles don't often help much in these sorts of books anyway. There are, however, very helpful and illuminating maps at the start of each continental section that show the various areas described in that section. I love maps and liked seeing how the areas related to each other geographically. There are two sections in the book with glossy colour photographs. These show mostly the dig sites and general landscapes for some of the main digs discussed. There are only a few images of pottery and skeletal remains and some sketches of cave art, but then we are talking about a very long time ago and not much actual "stuff" survives. Still, they do exist and I would have liked more photographs of artefacts, but the landscape pictures really did help set the scene.

I will definitely be reading this book again cover to cover at some point. Since reading it, though, I have used it many times to dip into, to read a chapter or two about a time or place that might have cropped up elsewhere, say when a new dig reveals something so unusual that they have it on the national news. It is a great book to own and I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in history and especially of course pre-history. I think it would even win over a few potential converts and would be a great gift to an interested teenager. I bought this full price for £12.99 and it was worth every penny, and if you can get it for less, say second hand, then I would snap it up.

Summary: An ambitious book that totally succeeds