Rene Desbrosse & Andre Thevenin (ed.). Prehistoire de l'Europe des origines a l'Age du Bronze.

Rene Desbrosse & Andre Thevenin (ed.). Prehistoire de l'Europe des origines a l'Age du Bronze. 572 pages, 209 figures, 24 tables. 2003. Paris: Comite des TravauxHistoriques & Scientifiques; 2-7355-0526-X paperback 40 [euro]. J. CLOTTES & R. DESROSSE introduce a diverse selection of 35substantial papers or notes on 'Prehistory of Europe' from the125th French National Congress of Historical & Scientific Societies.They are grouped under three headings: physical anthropology (includinga review by J.-J. Hublin of discoveries, during the 1990s, onPleistocene Eurasia, B. Maureille on evidence for'neanderthalisation' from Petralona, B. Vandermeersch on'The ... first modern people', and a paper on the peopling ofCorsica); art (including a review by J. Clottes on recent progress frontFrance, papers on rock art in Spain, and E. Anati on the Alpine ALPINE Antihypertensive Treatment and Lipid Profile in a North of Sweden Efficacy Evaluation (drug trial)ALPINE Advanced Logistics Program Integration and Engineering rock artof the terminal Pleistocene and early Holocene); and 'materialculture'. The latter covers four groups: seven papers on the UpperPalaeolithic; five on the end of that period and the beginning of theMesolithic; eight on general and particular aspects of the Neolithic,ranging from a case study of sources of stone bracelets from the Basinof Paris to the 'how & why' of the spread of Beakers (L.Salanova), and discussions of 'neolithisation' (M. Midgley)and the 'Indo-Europeans' (J .P. Demoule); and, to finish, acouple on the Bronze Age Bronze Age,period in the development of technology when metals were first used regularly in the manufacture of tools and weapons. Pure copper and bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, were used indiscriminately at first; this early period is sometimes called the , including a widely ranging but conciseappraisal of economic and religious associations in an'Atlantic' province, by J. Briard Briard(brēärd`), breed of muscular, wiry working dog whose origins may be traced back to 12th-century France. It stands from 22 to 27 in. (55.9–68.6 cm) high at the shoulder and weighs between 70 and 80 lb (31.8–36.3 kg). . Plainly,archaeologist's archaeology archaeology(ärkēŏl`əjē)[Gr.,=study of beginnings], a branch of anthropology that seeks to document and explain continuity and change and similarities and differences among human cultures. is flourishing among the French andtheir francophone colleagues; but they are in step with the currentsensitivity of British colleagues to the evidence for culturaldiversity. Most of the papers are provided with short abstracts inEnglish.