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The Cambridge History of Africa Vol. 1: From the Earliest Times to c. 500 B.C.

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From the Earliest Times to c. 500 B.C.

Series The Cambridge History of Africa, Volume 1

Edited by J. Desmond Clark

Publication Date 1982

Hardback ISBN-10
052122215X

Hardback ISBN-13
9780521222150

Digital Object Identifier (DOI) 10.1017/CHOL9780521222150

Overview

Volume 1 of The Cambrigde History of Africa provides the first relatively complete and authoritative survey of African prehistory from the time of the first hominids in the Plio-Pleistone up to the spread of iron technology after c.500 B.C. The volume therefore sets the stage for the history of the continent contained in the subsequent volumes. The material remains of past human life recovered by excavation are described and interpreted in the light of palaeo-ecological evidence, primate studies and ethnographic observation, to provide a record of the evolving skills and adaptive behaviour of the prehistoric populations. The unique discoveries in East and South Africa of early hominid fossils, stone tools and other surviving evidence are discussed with full documentation, leading on to the coming of Modern Man (with new evidence showing the much greater antiquity of the 'Middle Stone Age' in the continent than had previously been thought) and the beginning of regional patterning. The volume provides a survey of the now considerable material showing the different ways of life in the forests, savannas and arid zones during the 'Later Stone Age', from its beginnings some 20,000 years ago. The divergence in cultural patternings between northern Africa and those parts of the continent south of the Sahara now becomes more apparent. Following an account of the evidence for the origins and spread of domesticates and the beginnings of village farming, the volume concludes with three chapters that trace the development of urban centres and of the political state in the Nile Valley and the changing administrative, socio-economic and religious aspects of Egyptian civilization from the Pre-Dynastic up to the Late Period.

For more details of the
print book, and how to buy it online, please see
From the Earliest Times to c. 500 B.C. in the Cambridge University Press online
catalogue.

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The Cambridge History of Africa

Table of Contents

Frontmatter

The palaeo-ecology of the African continent: the physical environment of Africa from earliest geological to Later Stone Age times
by
Karl W. Butzer and H. B. S. Cooke

Origins and evolution of African Hominidae
by
F. Clark Howell

The earliest archaeological traces
by
Glynn Ll. Isaac

The cultures of the Middle Palaeolithic/Middle Stone Age
by
J. Desmond Clark

The Late Palaeolithic and Epi-Palaeolithic of northern Africa
by
Philip E. L. Smith

The Later Stone Age in sub-Saharan Africa
by
D. W. Phillipson

The rise of civilization in Egypt
by
B. G. Trigger

Beginnings of pastoralism and cultivation in north-west Africa and the Sahara: origins of the Berbers
by
G. Camps

The origins of indigenous African agriculture
by
Jack R. Harlan

Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period in Egypt
by
Barry J. Kemp

Early food production in sub-Saharan Africa
by
D. W. Phillipson

Egypt, 1552–664 BC
by
David O'Connor

Bibliographical essays

Bibliography

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