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.
More paleolithic archaeology and paleoanthropology reading lists:
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.
by William Andrefsky, Jr. (2005)
by George Odell (2006)
by François Bordes (1968)
by Jacques Bordaz (1970)
Andrew-Becraft.com 