Climate Change in Prehistory The End of the Reign of Chaos [Hardcover]

Weaves together climate research with anthropological and archaeological studies showing how climate change has made us who we are today.This book explores the challenges that faced humankind in a glacial climate and the opportunities that arose when the climate improved dramatically after the Ice Age. It weaves together studies of the climate with anthropological, archaeological and historical studies, and will fascinate all those interested in climate and human development.This book explores the challenges that faced humankind in a glacial climate and the opportunities that arose when the climate improved dramatically after the Ice Age. It weaves together studies of the climate with anthropological, archaeological and historical studies, and will fascinate all those interested in climate and human development.How did humankind deal with the extreme challenges of the last Ice Age? How have the relatively benign post-Ice Age conditions affected the evolution and spread of humanity across the globe? By setting our genetic history in the context of climate change during prehistory, the origin of many features of our modern world are identified and presented in this illuminating book. It reviews the aspects of our physiology and intellectual development that have been influenced by climatic factors, and how features of our lives - diet, language and the domestication of animals - are also the product of the climate in which we evolved. In short: climate change in prehistory has in many ways made us what we are today. Climate Change in Prehistory weaves together studies of the climate with anthropological, archaeological and historical studies, and will fascinate all those interested in the effects of climate on human development and history.1. Introduction; 2. The climate of the last 100,000 years; 3. Life in the Ice Age; 4. The evolutionary implications of living with the Ice Age; 5. Emerging from the Ice Age; 6. Recorded history; 7. Our climatic inheritance; 8. The flãÂ