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Review:
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.

• Gives a detailed presentation of how the climate around the world has changed over last 100,000 years • Provides a global assessment of how the genetic history of modern humans can be interpreted in terms of evidence of climate change
• Shows from a global perspective how the evolution of human economic and social structures has been governed by climatic factors
• Weaves together climatological analysis with anthropological, archaeological and historical studies to provide a unique perspective on ancient human history

Contents:
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 future;