Author: Peter Hargreaves

As much a work of journalism as an academic study. When you visit South Africa it is hard not to be enchanted. When you read this Book it is hard not to be depressed. The difference between South Africa and other African states is that the ANC inherited a relatively wealthy country with an effective … Continue reading Review: How long will South Africa survive?The Looming Crisis by RW Johnson (2015) Assessment 7 out of 10

A short Book, advancing significant theory for human evolution. Only 207 pages long, this book advances theory with significant implications for human evolution and paleo-anthropology. Raw food is not good for humans, they lose body mass, men virility and women menstruation, suggesting man evolved to eat cooked food, from which energy is absorbed quickly and … Continue reading Review: Catching Fire; How Cooking made us Human by Richard Wrangham (2010) Assessment 9 out of 10

Lewis-Williams is a South African archaeologist who studied the rock art produced by San hunter-gatherers. He applies ideas from there to the cave art of Upper Palaeolithic Europe. There are many good things about this lovely book, the colour plates, the large number of line drawings. There are interesting sections on the differences between Homo … Continue reading Review: The Mind in the Cave; Consciousness and the Origins of Art by David Lewis- Williams (2002) Assessment 7 out of 10

A remarkable Book This remarkable book addresses the puzzle that the island of Ithaca described in Homer’s “Odyssey” does not appear to correspond to the island in the Ionian Archipelago currently known as Ithaca. Like Schliemann, the 19th century discover of Troy and Mycenean civilisation, Bittlestone is an enthusiastic amateur. However unlike Schliemann, Bittlestone consulted … Continue reading Review: Odysseus Unbound; The Search for Homer’s Ithaca by Robert Brittlestone et al (2005) Assessment 9 out of 10

This is a model study of an obscure, but critical, historical period. The significance of its conclusions, and adoption of the research method followed, should extend  beyond the Anglo-Saxon Fenlands. Following the Roman withdrawal, the established view is of Anglo-Saxon immigration and take over, particularly in the East of England. Germanic warriors carved out territories … Continue reading Review: The Anglo-Saxon Fenland by Susan Oosthuizen (2017) Assessment 9 out of 10

A weak Book. I finished it, only because it was a quick read. There are too many Americanisms, “pass “for “pass away”, “an attending” for “an attending doctor”.  Medical terms are used without definition or a glossary. You wonder, “What was the target audience? Was it assumed the average reader understood them?” Much of the … Continue reading Review: Modern Death; how Medicine changed the End of Life by Haider Warraich (2017) Assessment 2 out of 10

The book is a deceptively easy read, understating the considerable research and thought which has gone into it.   I read this book, as I have been impressed by Mithen’s other works on prehistory. Its subject matter encompasses the evolution of language, the African origins of modern humans and their relationship with archaic Homo sapiens and … Continue reading Review: The Singing Neanderthals; the Origins of Music, Language,Mind and Body by Steven Mithin(2005) Assessment 9 out of 10

This is a big Book, one to return to, following up different locations and themes. I read this book, impressed by two of Steven Mithen’s other works, “The Prehistory of the Mind” and “the Singing Neanderthals”. They advance theory on the evolution of the mind, language and music. “After the Ice” is different. Its subtitle,” … Continue reading Review: After the Ice; a Global Human History 20,000-5,000 BC by Steven Mithen (2004) Assessment 9 out of 10

A beautifully written and thought provoking study of European and British Prehistory, showing how monuments reflect complex and inter-related changes, over the longue durée, in ideology, economy and society. Mesolithic hunter-gatherers thought of themselves as one with the “wild”. Domestication of plants and animals and construction of monuments was therefore unthinkable. Neolithic farmers brought agriculture … Continue reading Review: The Significance of the Monuments; on the Shaping of Human Experience in Neolithic and Bronze Age Europe by Richard Bradley(1998) Assessment 9 out of 10

Disappointing. Has that curate’s egg quality of being good in parts. There are good chapters: -Colin Renfrew puts forward the big idea sedentism explains the “sapient paradox”, that new behaviour, evidenced in the archaeological record, appeared only gradually and with a long delay after appearance of modern Homo sapiens. -the always marvellous Steven Mithen writes … Continue reading Review: Archaeological Theory Today by Ian Hodder (editor) (2001) Assessment 3 out of 10