This book examines how our understanding of human creativity can be extended by exploring this phenomenon during human evolution and prehistory.

Contents Introduction: The Archaeological Study of Human Creativity Steven Mithen Perspectives on Creativity Editorial Introduction What is Creativity: a view from the cognitive sciences Margaret Boden Creative thought: a long term perspective Ian Hodder Creative thought in traditional aboriginal society Robert Layton The Evolution of Human Creativity Editorial Introduction The early evolution of creative thinking: evidence from monkeys and apes Richard Byrne Homo: The creative genus? Mark Lake Middle Palaeolithic `creativity': Reflections on an oxymoron? Steven L. Kuhn & Mary C. Stiner A creative explosion? Theory of mind, language and the disembodied mind of the upper Palaeolithic Steven Mithen Creativity in Later Prehistoric Europe Editorial Introduction Creativity's coffin: Innovation in the burial record of Mesolithic Europe Rick J. Schulting Architecture, imagination and the Neolithic world Richard Bradley The conditions of creativity for prehistoric Maltese art Caroline Malone & Simon Stoddart All the King's horses: Assessing cognitive maps in later prehistoric Europe Colin Renfrew