PREHISTORY begins by looking at the discovery of a remote human past and the subsequent dramatic growth of the study of prehistory: early archaeology; geology; Darwin's ideas of evolution; cave paintings; radiocarbon dating and DNA analysis. Renfrew challenges the conventional assumption of an all-important "human revolution" 40,000 years ago - when Homo Sapiens first appeared in Europe- and suggests that the key developments were much later. The author's case-studies range widely, from the Balkans, to the Indus Valley and from Ireland to China, and provide fresh insights on landmark monuments such as the Egyptian pyramids, the Valley of the Kings.

Professor Lord Renfrew was born in 1937 in Stockton-on-Tees. He was Professor of Archaeology at Cambridge University 1981-2004, where he is now director of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research. A Fellow of the British Academy, he has won numerous international medals and prizes and was made a life peer in 1991. He is known for his work on the radiocarbon revolution, the prehistory of language, archaeo-genetics and the prevention of looting on archaeological sites. He has led many excavations, especially in Macedonia and Greece.