List of Figures. List of Tables. Contributors. 1. Introduction; F.A. Hassan. 2. Palaeoclimate, Food and Culture Change in Africa: An Overview; F.A. Hassan. Section I: Climatic Change. 3. Rapid Holocene Climate Changes in the Eastern Mediterranean; E.J. Rohling, et al. 4. Climate During the Late Holocene in the Sahara and the Sahel: Evolution and Consequences on Human Settlement; R. Vernet. 5. Late Pleistocene and Holocene Climatic Changes in the Central Sahara: The Case Study of the Southwestern Fezzan, Libya; M. Cremaschi. 6. Late Holocene Climatic Fluctuations and Historical Records of Famine in Ethiopia; M.U. Mohammed, R. Bonnefille. 7. Environmental and Human Responses to Climatic Events in West and West Central Africa During the Late Holocene; M.A. Sowunmi. Section II: Plant Cultivation. 8. Regional Pathways to Agriculture in Northeast Africa; H.N. Barakat. 9. From Hunters and Gatherers to Food Producers: New Archaeological and Archaeobotanical Evidence from the West African Sahel; P. Breunig, K. Neumann. 10. Holocene Climatic Changes in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Spread of Food Production from Southwest Asia to Egypt; M. Rossignol-Strick. 11. Sustainable Agriculture in a Harsh Environment: An Ethiopian Perspective; A. Butler. Section III: Pastoralism. 12. The Evidence for the Earliest Livestock in North Africa: Or Adventures with Large Bovids, Ovicaprids, Dogs and Pigs; A. Gautier. 13. Cultural Responses to Climatic Changes in North Africa: Beginning and Spread of Pastoralism in the Sahara; B.E. Barich. 14. Dry Climatic Events and Cultural Trajectories: Adjusting Middle Holocene Pastoral Economy of the Libyan Sahara; S. Di Lernia. 15. Food Security in Western and Central Africa During the Late Holocene: The Role of Domestic Stock Keeping, Hunting and Fishing; W. Van Neer. 16. Bovines in Egyptian Predynastic and Early Dynastic Iconography; S. Hendrickx. Conclusion. 17. Ecological Changes and Food Security in the Later Prehistory of North Africa: Looking Forward; F.A. Hassan. Index.
From the reviews: "This is a must reading for serious students of
African prehistory as it merges into history."
(Choice, 40:4 (2002)
"The Volume's geographically based organization is advantageous. It
allows the reader to pinpoint the research themes dominating the
various regions. Thus, mobility strategies, population dynamics,
and political upheavals account for changing land use due to
desertification across Southwest and Central Asia. This book
succeeds in demonstrating the range of methodological and heuristic
templates currently applied to human ecological modeling in
marginal environments. A corollary and sobering observation,
independently noted in each study area, is that archaeology
confirms and often accurately gauges historic trends."
(Journal of Anthropological Research, 59 (2003)
"This book is an important pioneering study that brings together in
17 chapters the evidence for changes in climate that occurred in
Africa during the last 10,000 years or so, and the observed human
responses to those changes. It is an attractive book, well-designed
with numerous clear and informative illustrations. ...all
archaeologists should read the first two chapters by Hassan, who
sets the stage for and summarizes the most important data in the
book. ...should be read not only by those interested in problems of
climate change in Africa and elsewhere, but by anyone interested in
the interaction between human behavior and climate change. We urge
Hassan to call another conference on Holocene climate variability
and human response in North Africa. He should also produce another
book, because more detailed summaries like many of these in this
volume will rapidly move us toward his goal "to situate
archaeologuy within the domain of contemporary human affairs"."
(African Archaeological Review, 20:2 (2003)
"Implications with contemporary climate events (recurrent droughts
in Africa) and their impacts on food security are evident.
Interactions amongst climate changes, evolution of food producing
systems, evolution of societal organization including mass
movements in search of less hostile environment, evolution of
culture, art and technology, are all intertwined and complicated.
The chapters of this remarkable volume dispel a good deal of the
myth that relates to these socio-evolutionary topics."
(The Environmentalist, 23 (2003) "The substantive papers of this
volume remain data-grounded but theoretically informed, and bring
together new information on archaeology and the interlocking of
subsistence activities with their environmental context." (Karl W.
Butzer, Holocene, 14, 2004) "At the very least, all
archaeologists should read the first two chapters by Hassan, who
sets the stage for and summarizes the most important data in the
book. It is also a book that should be read not only by those
interested in problems of climate change in Africa and elsewhere,
but by anyone interested in the interaction between human behavior
and climate change." (Fred Wendorf and Romuald Schild; African
Archaeological Review, 20:2) "The book, edited by F. Hassan, is an
excellent and accomplished attempt to summarise the archaeology of
North Africa as the historical relationship between the people and
climatic change during the Holocene. This is also a book with wider
implications. … This is a book I warmly welcomed and read with
interest, as it is full of new data and ideas." (Marco Madella,
Geoarchaeology, March, 2005)
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