Using a regional and chronological framework, this groundbreaking bookhighlights the enormous diversity of human experience and the ways inwhich archaeologists are able to learn about it. Professor Chris Scarre has seamlessly integrated the work of aninternational team of archaeologists from North America, Europe,Australia, and New Zealand. The result is a unique textbook thatengagingly and comprehensively embraces the entire expanse of humanprehistory while also offering the most up-to-date accounts of separateregions and periods by the leading specialists in these areas. There arehundreds of maps, diagrams, and photographs, many in full color, aswell as timelines and boxes on key sites, methods, discoveries, andcontroversies. For the second edition, the text has been thoroughly updated to includerecent discoveries and new interpretations from around the world. Thecoverage of archaeology in the Middle East is expanded to include theJiroft excavations in Iran and the Late Bronze Age in Qatna, Syria. TheAmericas section includes new dates for Clovis sites and new informationon Kennewick man. There is also a new discussion on the link betweenclimate change in Mesoamerica and the many historical changes: theClassic Maya collapse, in particular.