Secrets of the Stone Age: A Prehistoric Journey

The popular view of Stone Age man as a primitive and ignorant forerunner of ourselves is shattered as an eminent scientist reveals the remarkable accomplishments made before the dawn of history. Illustrated with 150 color photos.

In "Secrets of the Stone Age," Richard Rudgley offers a lively account of his journey across the continents in search of the lost legacy of prehistoric man. He takes us to Ancient Egypt, where excavations at Abydos have unearthed hieroglyphs belonging to an age before the pharaohs, and to the stone circles and burial chambers in Ireland, which precede Stonehenge by two millennia. We are introduced to the Ice Man, a 5,300-year-old mummy, whose body reveals that acupuncture was practiced in Stone Age Europe, and to the awe-inspiring cave paintings of Ice Age France. And in Indonesia, we examine stone tools that prove pre-Neanderthal man undertook raft voyages across the open sea--700,000 years before the Kon Tiki! An illuminating work as well as a wonderful read. Richard Rudgley has an advanced degree in Ethnography from Oxford; among his books is "The Lost Civilizations of the Stone Age."