Environment, Culture and Subsistence of Humans in the Caucasus between 40,000 and 10,000 Years Ago

“This volume is a very complete, comprehensive and updated summary of the archaeology of the Late Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods in one of the most interesting and difficult regions of south-east Europe. The results achieved by the two authors have been made possible mainly thanks to a systematic research project carried out during the last twenty years that was sponsored and funded by the L:S:B Leakey Foundation and the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. Thanks to it, new cave sites have been excavated and good series of AMS radiocarbon dates have been obtained, which now constitute the backbone of the Late Palaeolithic archaeology of the entire Caucasus. The present volume has been subdivided into chapters, the first of which regards the history of research in the study area. It clearly shows how our knowledge has greatly improved thanks to the introduction of modern excavation techniques, flotation, correct interpretation of archaeological sequences, and techno-typological and provenance study of knapped stone assemblages. […] Chapter Four is especially important because it examines the probable relationships and parallels with other Upper Palaeolithic and Epipalaeolithic cultural aspects that developed in other regions of Eurasia. […] The two Appendixes A and B are also important because they are catalogues of the Upper Palaeolithic sites in the Northern (A) and in the Southern Caucasus (B) accompanied by plans and profiles of all the most important cave and rock-shelter sites. The last forty pages of the volume consist of a very complete bibliography of the Upper Palaeolithic period not exclusively in the Caucasus. The volume is the most complete and systematic work at present available on the topic. It is well-conceived and nicely illustrated with good line drawings and pictures. It is an irreplaceable work for any scholar who is interested in the Late Pleistocene archaeology of Europe and the Levant. Moreover, the price is affordable, and the quality and format of publication good.”