I’ve begun narrowing my reading down from works about the Paleolithic as a whole to the Middle Paleolithic in particular.

While it’s been fascinating to see perspectives on Neanderthals evolve in popular non-fiction over the last 30 years, immersing myself in stratigraphy, typology, palynology, faunal assemblages, taphonomy, and (most exciting!) spatial organization has proved deeply rewarding. To that end, my reading has incorporated more and more site reports by the likes of Bordes (Combe Grenal and Peche de l’Aze); Lévêque, et al (Saint-Cesaire); Bar-Yosef, et al (Kebara); and Akazawa & Muhesan (Dederiya).

• A Tale of Two Caves by François Bordes (1972)
• Handbook of Paleolithic Typology: Lower and Middle Paleolithic of Europe by André Debénath & Harold L. Dibble (1994)
• The Neanderthal Legacy: An Archaeological Perspective from Western Europe by Paul Mellars (1995)
• Neanderthal Burials: Excavations of the Dederiya Cave: Afrin, Syria edited by Takeru Akazawa & Sultan Muhesan (2003)
• The Middle Paleolithic: Adaptation, Behavior, and Variability edited by Harold Dibble & Paul Mellars (2003)

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• General Paleolithic reading list
• Upper Paleolithic reading list
• Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition reading list
• Lithic technology reading list

With my lithic technology reading list nearly out of the way, I continue to (pardon the pun) go deep on the Paleolithic. I’m particularly fascinated by the Middle Paleolithic, dominated in Europe by the Mousterian lithic industry created by our Neanderthal cousins.

Nevertheless, my Paleolithic reading list remains fairly diverse.

• Manual of the Antiquity of Man by J.P. Maclean (1878)
• Disclosing the Past by Mary Leakey (1984)
• Encyclopedia of Human Evolution and Prehistory edited by Eric Delson, Ian Tattersall, John A. Van Couvering, and Alison S. Brooks (2000)
• The Oxford Illustrated History of Prehistoric Europe by Barry Cunliffe (2001)
• Masters of the Planet: The Search for Our Human Origins (MacSci) by Ian Tattersall (2013)
• Lone Survivors: How We Came to Be the Only Humans on Earth by Chris Stringer (2013)
• Britain: One Million Years of the Human Story by Rob Dinnis and Chris Stringer (2014)

I’m especially enjoying the first book in my list, a copy from 1878 that I spotted by chance and picked up for $4.00 at a used bookstore 25 years ago in Union Springs, NY. It’s a fascinating view into the state of paleoanthropology in the era when Darwin, Lyell, and Huxley were all still alive.

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More paleolithic archaeology and paleoanthropology reading lists:

• Middle Paleolithic reading list
• Upper Paleolithic reading list
• Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition reading list
• Lithic technology reading list

Perhaps feeling a bit nostalgic for the summer 20 years ago that I spent on a dig in Jordan, I’ve been doing a bit of self-directed reading lately focused on lithics.

Starting with the list of references in recent academic texts, I’ve sought out oft-cited, out-of-print books by mid-century archaeological luminaries.

• Flintknapping: Making and Understanding Stone Tools by John C. Whittaker (1994)
• Lithics: Macroscopic Approaches to Analysis by William Andrefsky, Jr. (2005)
• Lithic Analysis by George Odell (2006)
• The Old Stone Age. by François Bordes (1968)
• Tools of the Old and New Stone Age by Jacques Bordaz (1970)

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• General Paleolithic reading list
• Middle Paleolithic reading list
• Upper Paleolithic reading list
• Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition reading list