At first glance, the archaeological record of Moravia has been quite visible in the Anglophone world. Bits and pieces of this record have repeatedly made headlines in both the general and the specialized press for close to a century. First, it was the discovery of a mass grave of some 21 individuals found at the Upper Paleolithic site of Pfedmosti, then the oldest evidence for ceramic technology reported in the first quarter of this century in the Illustrated London News. Later on, the site of Petfkovice, dating some 23,000 B. P. , produced evidence for the oldest burning of coal for fuel, while more recently the New York Times informed us that imprints in clay at Pavlov I attest to the oldest evidence for the making and use of textiles. This list of cultural innovations documented from Moravia can be expanded to include the use of ground stone technology to make stone pendants (e. g. , at Pfedmosti), oflarge ground-stone rings whose use remains enigmatic (e. g. , at Bmo II, Predmosti, and Pavlov I)-but which if found in more recent contexts would pass as querns-as well as of possible needles (again at Predmosti).

Texte du rabat

This illuminating work describes-for the first time in English-current research on the environmental background, physical human evolution, and cultural development in Central Europe and Moravia during the Pleistocene.

Résumé
`[T]his must-have book dispels the information gap about one of the most archaeologically significant places on earth.'
Choice

`An authoritative synthesis of the pertinent Moravian data....chapters rightfully contain many provocative hypotheses about human evolution, adaptations, and behavior during the Pleistocene....a most important addition to our literature.'
from the Foreword by Olga Soffer, University of Illinois, Urbana

Contenu
1 • Central Europe, Moravia, and Past Paleolithic Research.- 2 • Pleistocene Paleoenvironments.- 3 • Patterns of Human Evolution.- 4 • Lower and Middle Paleolithic Background.- 5 • The Beginning of the Upper Paleolithic: The Bohunicians, Szeletians, and Aurignacians.- 6 • The Culmination and Decline of the Upper Paleolithic: The Gravettians and Epigravettians.- 7 • Western Invasion: The Magdalenians and Epimagdalenians.- 8 • Creating Settlement Networks.- Appendix A • Catalog of Principal Sites.- Appendix B • List of Sites.- References.