Digest leaves no stone unturned

THE very notion of human beings living in sophisticated settlements thousands of years before the birth of Christ never loses its fascination.

We live in a world that is defined by BC and AD. To our ordered minds, progress must be by degrees - logical, chronological and evolutionary.

Yet the evidence tends to confound supposition. History can indeed go backwards as well as forwards.

For while hunter-gatherers were exploring the southern extremities of the retreating ice sheets in northern Britain, relatively advanced societies were forming in what is now the Middle East.

From Crete in the central Mediterranean to China and Japan, humankind was discovering that communal living brought benefits and safety in a dangerous world.

This glorious book examines these cultures in depth, employing a blend of sharp writing, vivid illustrations and photographs.

From the early colonisation of the Euphrates valley to the blood-soaked despotism of the Aztecs, this volume leaves no stone unturned in its quest for the truth about the ancient world.

The curtain eventually comes down on this epoch as the Spanish invade and subdue Central America.

From the ashes of one era, the modern age was about to begin. It would be centuries before man's origins as the most highly-organised animal on the planet were destined to emerge.

John Phillpott.