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Wild Harvesters

by Bill Finlayson

ISBN: 9781841583822
Imprint: Birlinn
Publication Date: Mar 2006
Format: Paperback
Price: £6.99
Stock Status: in stock

From about 8000 to 4000 BC migrant hunter-gatherers moved slowly north as the great ice sheets of the last Ice Age gradually melted. Relatively little is known about these people – they did not use metals, farm or build great monuments, but their success in harvesting the resources available allowed them to flourish for thousands of years. What evidence is available, such as shell mounds on Oronsay, cave shelters and scattered tools, tells of an adaptable and imaginative people, yet any study looking so far back in history is especially difficult and the puzzle of piecing together the past is a compelling story on its own.

Designed throughout with colourful and detailed illustrations,Wild Harvestersoutlines in a clear and understandable way the Mesolithic Age in Scotland. It contains in-depth features on important discoveries and Mesolithic phenomenon and emphasises that Scotland’s first inhabitants were not ignorant savages but ordinary people trying to live as best they could in their landscape. Included in the book are specially commissioned illustrations which show how these people may have lived, as well as an assessment of the archaeological theories current today.

This book is part of a newly updated edition of the acclaimed Making of Scotland series produced by Historic Scotland and Birlinn which provides lively, accessible and up-to-date introductions to key themes and periods in Scottish history and prehistory.

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