eBook Timewalkers: The Prehistory of Global Colonization ePub

A treasure for any serious researcher of ancient antiquity!

I bought this book for an anythropology class I was taking. While the book was not well used during class, the bits I read were very thought provoking and amazing.

It's a difficult question. Why did earliest man leave Africa and migrate to new areas. Mostly, animals evolve suited to their environment and they don't stray far. They may have several areas they frequent, but they return to each, not leave them entirely.We had already accommodated ourselves to ravel more than 12 kilometers for raw materials, which is less than modern hunter-gatherers, but more than other primates.

For modern man to leave Africa, an environ for which he was quintessentially suited with his lack of hair and omnivorous appetite, and go to areas that were colder and populated with unfamiliar foods was a leap. there are a few postulates that make sense:

* A shift toward meat eating. The animals available in Africa were familiar with the crafty humans, so might be adept at avoiding us or preying on us. Migrating to areas that had no knowledge of our thinking ways and our Acheulian tools might explain how humans managed to survive outside of Africa,
* They were following herds of animal north. Vrba also has shown that some six species of African bovids, a relatively large number for any period, dispersed to Eurasia during the Middle Pliocene (man dispersed in the Plio-Pleistocene first and several times after that. Modern man left over 100,000 years ago, during the Pleistocene). The dispersal of large bovids is especially interesting because their shift from the forest to the open resembles that hypothesized for the hominids. Moreover, since open-country bovids could have been hunted or scavenged by Homo, the two groups may have emerged and dispersed together.
* A biographic event in which a new niche for large carnivores induced hominids, along with the lion, leopard, wolf and hyena, to exploit a new abundance of grazing animals in Eurasia
* Wanderlust--a need to know what lay beyond that hill or river or tall savanna grass.
* A need for change
* We had become equipped for long-distance travel with our long rangy human-like body. This equipped us for long distance travel, such as the steady migration beyond Africa.
* The larger body size of each successive Homo species required:

* Greater home range
* More food requirements
* Lower population density
* Increased strength and speed, that made them more predator resistant and avoidant, gave them increased longevity with allowed increased reproductive span
* Marge body size allowed more flexibility with temperatures, able to adapt to a greater temperature range--maybe why they could leave Africa for colder climates
* Larger size made them less susceptible to predators--too big to be appealing to the typical predator that traveled alone

Gamble explores this migration in Timewalkers: the Prehistory of Global Colonization. He discusses not only the logistics of mankind's ability to do what no other species ever did, but why we would. Why go to climates too cold to survive without fur, forcing us to invent clothing? Why go to the edge of land abutting not just a lake, but full-blown oceans (like what lay between Indonesia and Australia) when we didn't know how to sail? We didn't just follow one path out of Africa, but exploded throughout the world, crossing oceans, seas, lakes, deserts, mountains, valleys--whatever was in our way, in an effort to get to the horizon. Along the way, we developed civilization, religion, culture, the ability to specialize in our jobs and generalize in our survival.

Gamble covers these interesting questions with clarity and humor (at times). Some quotes I like from the book:

* I will show how prehistory contributes new knowledge about ourselves through the study of a shared past
* An alternative, as Stephen J. Gould and Elizabeth Vrba have argued, is to acknowledge that not all features are currently adaptive. They are instead the source for future change.
* But more important is the active role of climate for shaping our society
* subsequent improvements in genetic mapping of these sister species (of man) have shown that chimps and humans are considerably closer to each other than either is to the gorilla.
* since behavior rather than taxonomy is my main interest, I need an account of the fossil record which takes notice of space and time in the distribution of the earliest timewalkers. This will allow for investigation of how behavior developed and the contexts which selected for its change.
* A great deal has been written about the advances this large brained hominid is supposed to represent... For a long time technology (stone tool use) did not lead to any appreciable extension of range.
* due to a set of evolutionary opportunities...all timewalkers (what Gamble calls man's migration from Africa) have the necessary elements, such as big feet, which make them fit for, rather than fitted to, expansion
* the body is an excellent medium for communication. It commands respect through size and condition and relates to the optimum use of resources. The foraging success of individuals as fusion of the group's members occurred will be all too apparent.

Maya Jenkins
Kathryn Hain
History 161: Book Review
September 19, 2017

Timewalkers: The Prehistory of Global Colonization

“Why were humans everywhere?” is the question that author Clive Gamble believes all people should be asking. Timewalkers: The Prehistory of Global Colonization is a book written by Clive Gamble that gives readers an insight into how he believes that fundamental problems in world history go unanswered and unexplored. Gamble explores this with factual data, fossils, and multiple other kinds of reliable information sources. This book is nonfiction, and the main theme of the book is historical education. The aim of this book is to show how prehistory provides new information about us as a species, with the end result being humans living spread all across the world.
The author is Clive Gamble, an esteemed archaeologist and anthropologist from Britain. He was born in 1951 and has written over ten books, his newest having been released in 2017. Gamble has been involved with multiple prestigious universities that include University of Essex, University of Southampton Royal Holloway, and the University of London. Gamble has been involved in archaeological fieldwork in Britain, Russia, Germany, Greece, Jordan, Alaska, and Australia. His sub-disciplines consist of Cognitive Archaeology, human origin, prehistory, Neanderthals, and the Paleolithic Era. In late 1981, Gamble was elected as a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (FSA). In 2000, he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA). He is also an elected Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute (FRAI). Gamble’s main focus in his research has been in the archaeology of human origins, the social life of the earliest humans and the timing of their global colonization.
The title of this book provides the readers a clear and interesting preview as to what the book is going to be about. Timewalkers is a term that Gamble uses to describe the early humans that have been discovered in the past couple of decades that have provided priceless information about early humans and the way that they lived. By using Timewalkers instead of a similar word with less mystery and explanation to it, Gamble would have failed to grab the reader's attention. The Prehistory of Global Colonization allows the readers to know exactly what will be talked about in the text and even the time periods that it consists of. The pictures that make up the cover of the book pull the reader in as they appear to be indistinguishable fossils and ancient writing in a cave. After further exploring what the pictures on the cover of the book were, I discovered that that picture in the background on the cover of the book are real fossils that were found decades ago. The interesting title and book cover are what led me to read this book.
Gamble explains that the book’s primary purpose is to “examine not only the evidence for human origins and evolution but also the framework for explaining why change took place-when, where, and how.” Gamble began his book with a table of contents, acknowledgements, preface, and introduction. The table of contents breaks down his book into clear time periods and ideas. The preface and introduction of his book combined together supply a detailed explanation of the timeline that the book will be covering, his personal purpose in writing the book, the lessons that can be taken from it, and why it is important for us as a society to know and value this information. In the book there are maps, charts, pictures, graphs, and diagrams that are all used to help better show and describe what Gamble is trying to prove. These visuals added to the text help the reader better understand Gamble’s ideas and points.
As I was reading this book, I found myself constantly impressed by the amount of clarity and explanation that Gamble provides. The first couple of chapters are very introductory in the sense that they provide basic terms, ideas, and events that are essential to moving on to learn about the rest of history. This book covers millions of years, and not only provides information on how the humans changed and developed over time, but also how the environment and animals have evolved too. Gamble describes the history of geographical expansion that began with the early hominids of sub-Saharan Africa. Gamble succeeds in tracking and calculating responses to variations in climate and environment. What is most helpful about this text is that it is based upon actual archaeological findings, which makes is a reliable source of information. Not only that, but it is told by an actual experienced and knowledgeable archaeologist who has earned himself a credible reputation in the archaeological community. This book even entails a small amount of cultural information, information that could be inferred from the bones and cities that have been dug up and from the way that we know ancient civilizations have lived. Coasts, mountains, plains, deserts, and many more different types of lands are discussed in depth throughout the book. Even if you were just looking for a specific time period within the time periods that Timewalkers entails, I truly believe that you would be provided with a substantial amount of accurate and detailed information. Each chapter is skillfully and purposefully broken up into sections that making finding the information you are looking for easy and convenient.
Clive believes in the theory of evolution, so if you believe in evolution then I would completely recommend this book as a source of furthering your beliefs. If you do not believe in evolution, then this book would serve as a great way to learn the details and specifics of what it is that people who believe in evolution hold true in life and in history. This is just one of the books that Gamble has written, and since its release more information on fossils and ancient civilizations has been discovered and released. If you are interested in this book, then you can find it at most local libraries and book stores, or you can buy it online. I did not find this book for over $55.00 anywhere online. Timewalkers: The Prehistory of Global Colonization by Clive Gamble was published by Harvard University Press in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1993.

Works Cited
"Clive Gamble." Bookverdict.com. N.p., n.d. Web.
"Clive Gamble." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 18 Sept. 2017. Web.
"Timewalkers: The Prehistory of Global Colonization." Google Books. N.p., n.d. Web.
Gamble, Clive. Timewalkers: The Prehistory of Global Colonization. N.p.: Sutton, 2007. Print.