A new Encyclopedia of prehistory.

All,

A bit of free advertising, here, for an impressive book just received from “Robert Laffont”, a French publishing house.

I have yet to examine this new Encyclopedia in detail, but, from what I have looked at so far, I really think that it will end up -- as it should -- on the bookshelves of many palaeoanthropologically attuned individuals and institutions.

Edited by Denis Vialou (Professeur au Muséum d’histoire naturelle), and with the collaboration of fifteen collaborators, it does cover quite a bit in its 1631 pages. Here are a few, quickly made, observations:

- a major section on the history of prehistory (research and methods) that covers, chronologically, both the Palaeolithic and the Neolithic and, geographically, most relevant areas of the world;

- a corresponding 5,600 entries which cover an impressive number of geographical areas and address a broad range of interdisciplinary themes;

- quite a few illustrations (I have yet to count them!), mostly line drawings, of excavation profiles, artefacts, site features, etc. (all b&w) -- not enough, however, for my taste, especially when a given entry deals, for example, with a “type” of artefact;

- an impressive bibliography (208 pages of references) that is, for a compendium of this type, quite up-to-date, with some titles being as recent as 2004;

- two very usable schematic correlation charts, one on the “Chronology and glaciations” of the northern hemisphere, and the one on palaoenvironments (palynology, vegetation types, and climate).

- etc.

With the passing of time (!), I should have more to share with you about this opus.

Jacques Cinq-Mars