Product Description

More than 12,000 years ago, in one of the greatest triumphs of prehistory, humans colonized North America, a continent that was then truly a new world. Just when and how they did so has been one of the most perplexing and controversial questions in archaeology. This dazzling, cutting-edge synthesis, written for a wide audience by an archaeologist who has long been at the center of these debates, tells the scientific story of the first Americans: where they came from, when they arrived, and how they met the challenges of moving across the vast, unknown landscapes of Ice Age North America. David J. Meltzer pulls together the latest ideas from archaeology, geology, linguistics, skeletal biology, genetics, and other fields to trace the breakthroughs that have revolutionized our understanding in recent years. Among many other topics, he explores disputes over the hemisphere's oldest and most controversial sites and considers how the first Americans coped with changing global climates. He also confronts some radical claims: that the Americas were colonized from Europe or that a crashing comet obliterated the Pleistocene megafauna. Full of entertaining descriptions of on-site encounters, personalities, and controversies, this is a compelling behind-the-scenes account of how science is illuminating our past.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17954 in Books
• Published on: 2009-05-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 464 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780520250529
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
It was long axiomatic among archeologists that the prehistoric Clovis people of the Southwest were the first people in the Americas, arriving 12,000 years ago. Meltzer synthesizes controversial recent evidence that humans arrived in the Americas earlier than that and may not all have come across the Bering Strait from Asia. Meltzer also conveys well the heated debates among archeologists on this crucial subject (an argument among experts after examining evidence in South American turns rather ugly). Drawing on archeology, linguistics, geology, genetics and other disciplines, anthropologist Meltzer (Search for the First Americans) explores that evidence, as well as what we know about the Clovis people, such as evidence regarding Ice Age terrain indicating prehistoric peoples' ability to adapt to an uninhabitable and unfamiliar continent, and the speed with which they might have moved across the new world. Sometimes dense and academic, often lively and occasionally bemused, Meltzer's study—part detective story and part archeological research—is stimulating and sometimes tantalizingly controversial. 16 color and 64 b&w illus. (Apr.)
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From the Inside Flap
"Meltzer's compelling account of the data and the debates takes readers behind the scenes of the often contentious arguments that have redirected the scientific pursuit of the first Americans."--Tom D. Dillehay, author of The Settlement of the Americas

"In remarkably comprehensive and lucid fashion, Meltzer synthesizes the complex and commonly conflicting evidence for the earliest human presence in the Americas and provides an honestly told lesson about the workings of scientific thought."--David Hurst Thomas, author of Skull Wars

"A natural storyteller, David Meltzer gives us a vivid picture of both the colonizing bands of humans who moved into the Americas and the researchers who followed their footsteps from Alaska to Chile. This is an insider's account, told with a keen eye and sense of humor, as if Meltzer were there when discoveries were made and when disputes were aired--as, indeed, he often was."--Ann Gibbons, author of The First Human: The Race to Discover our Earliest Ancestors

"The settling of the Americas has been a first-rate scientific puzzle since Columbus stumbled across the peoples of the Caribbean. David Meltzer is its ideal chronicler: a major participant in the research that is unlocking the mystery and a fine writer with a wry humor. Thank goodness there aren't too many scientists like him--science journalists like me would be out of business."--Charles C. Mann, author of 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus

About the Author
David J. Meltzer is Henderson-Morrison Professor of Prehistory in the Department of Anthropology at Southern Methodist University. He is the author of Folsom: New Archaeological Investigations of a Classic Paleoindian Bison Kill (UC Press) and Search for the First Americans, among other books.

Customer Reviews

Excellant book
David Meltzer professor of prehistory at SMU in Dallas, has done a great job writing this book. I am a "layman" when it comes to archaeology, but have a great interest in archaeology and early man in North America. Frankly I found the first portion of the book a bit over my head...when anyone starts talking DNA and haplogroups, etc, my eyes glaze over. However, the book more than makes up for that, when I got to the portions about early man arriving on the empty continent of north America, and how they survived, multipied, how certain materials managed to survive thousands of years in some areas, ...etc. Prof Meltzer does a great job of breaking down the basics of early man in language that I easily understood, without trying to impress his fellow academics with his skill in "archaeology-speak". Meltzer also discusses other theories, books on early man, which I enjoyed because I have read most of them.
Mostly, I enjoyed his ability to communicate complex ideas and theories, in plain English, thus enabling me to understand some of the more important prehistory theories and thinking of today. Thanks Prof. Meltzer, job well done, I highly recommend this book! Welcome addition to my library.

Very interesting
The book is interesting, a revision of the previous book of Meltzer published in 1993 (Search for the First Americans). It update several topics, indispensable for archaeology students and excellent for general public. The book has anecdotes different stages and evolution of the archaeology on the first Americans.
However, the main weakness of the book is that focus only in North America early adaptations, leaving South America without more consideration, only Monte Verde site (Chile)is presented in depth, and other controversial sites.
The book disregard two very important aspects, first (although I know that it is not true) seems for Meltzer the "New Word" it is only North America. On the other hand, he omits to make references to the late Pleistocene archaeology of South America developed by South American archaeologists, that work hard for more than 60 years in the topic.

El libro es muy interesante, es una revisión y puesta al día de un libro anterior de Meltzer editado en 1993. Ahora se actualizan muchos datos, es un libro indispensable para estudiantes de arqueología y excelente para publico general. El libro cuenta con anecdotas diferentes etapas y evolución de la arqueología sobre los primeros americanos.
La principal debilidad del libro es que se focaliza demasiado en la arqueología temprana de América del Norte, dejando sin considerar los sitios de America del Sur, a excepción de Monte Verde que es presentado en cierta profundidad y otros sitios controversiales.
El libro descuida dos aspectos muy importantes, primero parece (aunque sabemos que no es así) que para el Meltzer el "New Word" es solo America del Norte. Por otro lado omite hacer referencias a la arqueología de América del Sur desarrollada por arqueólogos sudamericanos que trabajan duro desde hace más de 60 años en el tema.

First Peoples in a New World
Very easy read, not "technical", hard to put down.
Complex ideas presented in easy to understand terms.
Up to date with current opinions.
Behind the scenes "action" is very interesting.
Gives both sides of arguments. With detailed reasoning.
Only suggestion, I would like to have simple site maps/drawings to illustrate text.
Would recommend this book to everyone.