Transitions in Prehistory

Abstract

If any archaeologists are around tens of thousands of years from now to dig through the leavings of our culture, they will be overwhelmed with evidence. Revolutions from the rise of the automobile to the fall of the Soviet Union will be easy to decipher from the rich mounds of junk created by our way of life. But the biggest revolutions in the history of our species happened 9000 or more years ago and left only sparse and equivocal traces. The four News stories in this special issue describe how archaeologists are struggling to build a picture of crucial transitions that made us who we are today: the emergence of language, art, agriculture, and settled life in villages and towns.