History of Mankind. Cultural and Scientific Development. Volume 1. Prehistory and the Beginnings of Civilization

Harper & Row, Publishers, 1963. — xlviii + 873 p.Part One, by Jacquetta Hawkes, is concerned with man's prehistoric past. It shows, in the author's words, "the emergence, that is to say the gradual creation, of the being whose noble achievements and fearful abominations are the subject of the main work. The creature who has now changed the whole face of the habitable earth will be seen coming up out of Africa only a little better equipped than the apes that were his poor cousins. His intelligence and his physical adaptability enabled him to spread throughout the earth, to endure its extremes of heat and cold, to fit himself into earth's forests, plains and hills, but at first in what small numbers and with what little power."
Starting with the early ape men and their first groping efforts to make tools, control fire and form a language, it passes on to the emergence of Homo sapiens, the differentiation of races and the peopling of the Americas. The material culture, religion and magnificent artistic creations of these latest Old Stone Age hunters are fully considered and illustrated. The story is taken down to the domestication of plants and animals in Southwest Asia less than ten thousand years ago, and the earliest spread of farming in Europe and Asia. There is also an account of the origins of agriculture in the New World. Men could now live a settled life and develop fine crafts; the way to civilization lay open before them. While presenting the facts of archaeology, the author has throughout attempted to give some insight into human experience during the hundreds of thousands of years of our prehistory.Part Two, by Sir Leonard Woolley, continues the story from the introduction of metal to 1200 B.C.
The very word "civilization" implies an urbanized society... a substantial proportion of professional rulers, officials, clergy, artisans and merchants who do not catch or grow their own food, but live on the surplus produced by farmers or fishermen. These professional and full-time specialists represent a new class, an addition to the population that could be included in, or supported by, any barbarian community. It was during the Bronze Age that this Urban Revolution gradually took place, and in the Bronze Age we can for the first time speak of civilization.
The Bronze Age was indeed the formative period in man's cultural advance, and in the course of it the greater part of what constitutes modern civilization visibly begins to take shape; the headings of the chapters and sections in this volume cover almost every branch of human activity and might, with but few additions, serve as headings for a cultural review of our own time. By the end of that period, great parts of Europe, Asia and Africa were sparsely peopled by farmers living in small but largely self-sufficient settlements. Out of this virtually static condition was evolved the modern world. This volume describes easily and vividly the revolution in man's way of life and thought which began first in Mesopotamia and in the valleys of the Nile, the reasons for it and the way in which it came about.
It continues with the grouping and distribution of mankind throughout the Bronze Age, the gradual urbanization of civilization in Sumer, in Egypt and Elam; in Phoenicia, Crete, Anatolia, and among the Northern Semites; in India and China; the social and economic structures; the evolution of industries in pottery, glass, ivory and textiles and the development of science, fine arts, music and literature. Other chapters deal with religion, languages and writing systems, education, communication and travel. The book concludes with descriptions of the conditions of civilized life at the end of the thirteenth century B.C.Prehistory (Jacquetta Hawkes).Introduction.
The Palaeolithic and Mesolithic.
The Natural Stage.
The Evolution of Man.
The History of the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Cultures.
Mind.
Society.
Material Culture of the Palaeolithic-Mesolithic Age.
Art and Religion.
The Neolithic.
The History of the Neolithic Cultures.
Society.
Farming.
Material Culture.
Art and Religion.The Beginnings of Civilization (Sir Leonard Wooley).The Bronze Age.
The Urbanization of Society.
The Social Structure.
Techniques, Arts and Crafts.
The Economic Structure.
Languages and Writing Systems: Education.
The Sciences.
Religious Beliefs and Practices.
The Fine and Applied Arts.
Music and Literature.
The Limits of Civilization in the Bronze Age and the Conditions of Civilized Life at the End of the Thirteenth Century BC.