Atlas of African prehistory. Compiled by J. Desmond Clark. 38 acetate maps and overlays + 62 pp. gazetteer. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. 1967. $32.00
✍ Scribed by Arthur J. Jelinek
- Book ID
- 101458020
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1970
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 203 KB
- Volume
- 33
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0002-9483
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
This volume is a truly original publishing venture in anthropology. A very useful format is provided by the reproduction of a series of acetate base maps and overlays, enclosed in a hardboard folder which is framed with wood to facilitate the accurate superposition of the sheets. This permits ready and direct study of the relationships between each of the sets of data represented by the single maps.
The major feature of the atlas is a compilation of information on the find-spots of recognized prehistoric industries in Africa from the Lower Paleolithic through "Neolithic" as they were known early in 1966. These industrial distributions are recorded on 15 outline maps at a scale of 1 : 20 million (c. 43 X 37 cm) which serve as overlays to be viewed against the background of each of eleven base maps showing topography, soils, geology, mean annual rainfall and vegetation, as well as hypothetical rainfall and vegetation under a variety of different climatic circumstances. The overlays are prepared in a variety of colors designed to separate their information from that of the base map and to separate distinct contemporary industries from each other.
Of special interest to physical anthropologists is an additional group of overlays which include the present distribution oE human and cattle trypanosomiasis and malaria, and a set of three sheets showing the localities which have yielded human fossils; one including Early and Middle Pleistocene sites, one showing Late Pleistocene, and the last showing Post-Pleistocene sites. The Post-Pleistocene sheet is particularly valuable in that it brings together considerable information otherwise available only in scattered sources.
Also included in the 1 : 20 million overlay series are maps showing drainage systems,