Hunters of the Golden Age

The period 30,000 to 20,000 BP can be aptly called the `Golden Age' of hunter gatherers for a variety of reasons, spelled out in great detail by the 37 contributors to this impressive volume. In this period we find the first unambiguous burials after the Middle Palaeolithic, the earliest bona fide habitation structures and an unprecedented sophistication in raw material requirements which involved provisioning strategies over hundreds of kilometres. The volume deals at great length with many facets of the complex record of the period, with contributions on ecology, dating and the physical anthropology of the Mid Upper Palaeolithic population preceding a large number of papers dealing with archaeological issues, organized in a topical and a regional presentation.