Deep History

By Andrew Shryock, Daniel Lord Smail,

Book cover of Deep History: The Architecture of Past and Present

Book description

Humans have always been interested in their origins, but historians have been reluctant to write about the long stretches of time before the invention of writing. In fact, the deep past was left out of most historical writing almost as soon as it was discovered. This breakthrough book, as important…


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Why read it?

1 author picked Deep History as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Most historians work on a few decades of the past, and even ancient historians rarely move beyond two or three centuries, but this amazing collection asks us to think about how themes like language and trade and kinship and residence look if we consider them over the last 40,000 years. Each chapter is written by a team of researchers from different disciplines. Often they have to start by creating a common language. But the results are truly eye-opening. So many familiar themes will never look quite the same again.

From Greg's list on ancient cities.

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