A groundbreaking introductory world prehistory textbook that presents the vast panorama of human social, cultural, and economic development over three million years.Unlike other books on prehistory, The Human Past recognizes that the wealth of archaeological research is now too great to be competently within the grasp of a single expert. Here a team of leading archaeologists from North America, Europe, and Australasia, well-known specialists in their fields, provide a seamless, authoritative account of human prehistory.The Human Past highlights the enormous diversity of human experience and the ways in which archaeologists are able to learn about it. It provides an introductory account that takes the student through the human past on a regional and chronological framework, focusing as much on the archaeology of the everyday as on the spectacular and unusual. The text is accompanied by hundreds of specially commissioned diagrams and photographs, many in full color, that illustrate key sites, artifacts, and regions, as well as clear timelines and maps for each chapter.The most thorough yet accessible introduction ever published, the book can be used either as a single core text or in combination with other readings.