The Human Past

Fifteen new contributors bring fresh perspectives to the fifth edition of The Human Past, the most authoritative introduction to world prehistory, revealing our shared human story with the latest scholarship.

Thoroughly updated by its team of authors, including 15 leading specialists new to this edition, this fifth edition introduces students to a more equitable and representative view of world prehistory. A total of 30 contributing authors—a truly international team of experts—introduce the enormous diversity of the human story as it occurred around the world, from the emergence of the first Homo species to human migrations, sedentism, domestication and agriculture, population growth and urban living, and the social systems and inequalities that were present across human groups of many sizes, from small societies to vast empires.

Twenty chronological chapters focus on individual regions, and new content appears in every chapter. The new authors bring first-hand scholarship and fresh perspectives, including recent genetic (aDNA) research revealing the latest information about divergent migrations of early humans in Europe, in South America, and across Southeast Asia into China. There is more on the changes to Indigenous life in Australia post foreign contact, additional coverage of early female toolmakers and female hunters in the Americas, and new features on the postcolonial re-evaluation of evidence in South Africa, including at Great Zimbabwe, and much more.