Around 12,000 years ago, the course of human history changed forever when hunter-gatherer communities in western Asia made a dramatic lifestyle change, switching from foraging to farming. It was the beginning of the Neolithic revolution: a cultural phenomenon that swept across Europe to reach Britain c.4,000 BC. The Neolithic ‘package’ included domestication of plants and animals, pottery, building settlements and monuments, and the technological leap forward that was the polished stone axe. David Miles takes this archetypal artefact as a launchpad to explore a vast sweep of prehistory, from the emergence of Homo sapiens out of a diverse array of early hominins to the first flickerings of the Bronze Age, with absorbing detail and an amiable turn of phrase. The Tale of the Axe was first published in 2016, but in just five years our understanding of the Neolithic has greatly expanded. This new edition includes a thought-provoking afterword that brings the story up to date, summarising recent discoveries and exciting scientific advances.
The Tale of the Axe: how the Neolithic revolution transformed Britain, David Miles, Thames & Hudson, £14.99, ISBN 978-0500293874. Review by CH.
Just Out and Coming Soon Thames Mudlarking: searching for London’s lost treasures, Jason Sandy and Nick Stevens, Shire Publications, £9.99, ISBN 978-1784424329. Early Medieval Winchester: communities, authority and power in an urban space, c.800-c.1200, R Lavelle, S Roffey, and K Weikert, Oxbow, £49.95, ISBN 978-1789256239. EAA 172: excavations at Stoke Quay, Ipswich – southern Gipeswic and the parish of St Augustine, Richard Brown, Steven Teague, Louise Loe, Berni Sudds, and Elizabeth Popescu, East Anglian Archaeology, £50, ISBN 978-0904220841. Hadrian’s Wall: creating division, Matthew Symonds, Bloomsbury, £19.99, ISBN 978-1350105348. Mapping Death: burial in late Iron Age and early medieval Ireland, Elizabeth O’Brien, Four Courts Press, £50, ISBN 978-1846828591, The Economy of a Norse Settlement in the Outer Hebrides: excavations at Mounds 2 and 2A, Bornais, South Uist, Niall Sharples, Oxbow, £35, ISBN 978-1789255386.
