Graeme Barker

Second part of this World History, which mainly focuses on the transition to agricultural and sedentary societies (roughly from 10,000 BCE to 1,000 CE). It contains 7 thematic approaches, followed by articles on a specific region with an exploration of a concrete archaeological site from that region. In that sense this really gives a broad picture, although strangely enough Australia is missing. The book rightly opens with the revolutionary insights generated by the recent archaeo-genetic research, and also highlights the controversy over its interpretation. As in volume 1 I noticed that in the articles different dating methods are used: most authors stick to the BCE (before common era) rating, a few stick to BP (before present), which of course can be slightly confusing. Some of the regional overviews are rather tough to read because the authors limit themselves to a dry enumeration of archaeological finds, without too much synthesis. In my discussion in my History account, I will go into some substantive aspects in more detail: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3868964158… (meer)