David Miles - The Tale of the Axe How the Neolithic Revolution Transformed Britain

"I tried to produce an approachable account for an interested General reader” writes David Miles in his afterword. For me, he has succeeded.

The book tells the story of the progress of agriculture from one of its starting points in the Levant (agriculture has arisen independently in a dozen places around the world) towards Britain. This Neolithic Revolution also brought about the megalithic monuments from Göbekli Tepe to Stonehenge.

It is based on the latest (in 2015) archeological insights and combines an approach over a long time and a wide geographical range into a synthesis that is amazingly easy to read. Sometimes Miles is downright funny, I literally lol’ed a couple of times while reading. A rare phenomenon while reading an archeology book.

I caught a few editorial oversights, e.g.:
• On p. 293 'were late arrivals in the evolving cycles of stone shifting and earth moving' is used twice in a paragraph.
• On p.322 Maeshowe & Newgrange are aligned on midwinter sunset, while on p. 371 Newgrange aligned on midwinter sunrise.
And I disagree with some wording in his epilogue. But that is nitpicking, I really enjoyed this book!

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