The History of Archaeology

“Edited by Fellow Paul Bahn, this book is a pleasure to read, even if you are already familiar with the broad outlines of the subject. Breaking away from the conventional idea that Britain invented everything, it dares to give proper due to the study of ancient things as it developed independently in other parts of the world, including Russia, China, Africa and Australia, as well as in different European and Asian countries.” - Salon

“The volume is one of the few that deals with the disciplinary history from a…global perspective, rather than solely from the usual European or Euro-American perspective.Summing Up: Recommended.”-D.L. Browman, Washington University, USA in CHOICE

Nominated for the Current Archaeology Book of the Year Award

Paul Bahn studied archaeology at the University of Cambridge and did his Ph.D. thesis (1979) on the prehistory of the French Pyrenees. Then he held post-doctoral fellowships, at Liverpool and London, plus a J. Paul Getty postdoctoral fellowship in the History of Art and the Humanities. He went freelance in the mid-80s, and since then has devoted himself to writing, editing and translating books on archaeology, plus occasional journalism and as much travel as possible. His main research interest is prehistoric art, especially rock art of the world, and most notably Palaeolithic art, as well as the archaeology of Easter Island. Among his many books are Archaeology: Theories, Methods and Practice, sixth edition (with Colin Renfrew, 2012), Archaeology: The Key Concepts (with Colin Renfrew; Routledge, 2004) and The Cambridge World Prehistory (edited with Colin Renfrew, 2013).