Customer Reviews

Lost World : Rewriting Prehistory---How New Science Is Tracing America's Ice Age Mariners

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a narrative tale of how contemporary research is overturning long-held assumptions of how the Americas were first populated. It supports the new paradigm that the first Americans followed a coastal migration path from Asia, a path that has been largely submerged by the melting of the glaciers at the end of the last Ice Age. Part of the fascination of the book is its detailing of how scientists are trying to overcome the tremendous challenge of looking for artifacts that may be hundreds of feet under water, and succeeding. The other fascinating aspect is the demonstration of the all-too-human side of science: how egos and the competition for recognition can actually slow the discovery of new knowledge. This is where the story benefits from being told by a journalist - Koppel makes it sound like a suspenseful drama told in human terms. In comparison, as a lay reader I found archeologist Tom Dillehay's "Settlement of the Americas" too caught up in academic minutiae to be readable.

Some reviewers have faulted the author for injecting too much personal commentary. Aside from an unfortunate lapse where he names an early relic hunter and then labels him a "blockhead", I personally felt that his narration improved the account by providing a layman's perspective on how dedicated and specialized these scientists are in their approach. An excellent, highly readable overview of the people and ideas that are changing our view of American prehistory.

This book quite effectively debunks the prevailing theories about the earliest arrival of humans in the Americas. According to that body of knowledge, late in the last ice age people from Asia walked across the Beringia land bridge, which was formed by lowered sea levels, into Alaska and then south through Canada via a supposed corridor between thousands of miles of glaciers. Here Tom Koppel shows that the evidence for that old paradigm is shaky and conjectural at best. Instead, in recent years evidence has grown showing that a few thousand years previously, the same lowered sea levels allowed seafaring peoples to colonize the Americas by hopping along islands and coastlines around the rim of the Northern Pacific. This phenomenon was previously unknown because the relevant coastal areas are now under water, since sea level rose again at the end of the ice age.

Koppel presents both the latest scientific evidence of such coastal migrations of ancient peoples, and also offers plenty of firsthand reporting of the archeologists, anthropologists, and geologists who are doing groundbreaking work in the field, mostly along the coasts of British Columbia and Alaska. Koppel's writing is a bit repetitive and he has a hard time avoiding big speculations, while he can't quite convince the reader of the all-encompassing dominance of these new theories as much as he himself has been convinced. However, after reading this book you will have good reason to place credence in the increasingly compelling evidence of coastal migrations by ancient Americans, and declare the predominant "ice corridor" thesis to be just a tired old paradigm that is in real danger of being overthrown. [~doomsdayer520~]

An avid, but often "challenged" reader of science, philosophy, and culture, I value clear writing above all things. Tom Koppel's explanations of radiocarbon dating, and of all the other methods of modern archaeology, were so step-by-step and lucid that even I, techno-dummy, understood them PAINLESSLY, without my customary cerebral seize-up.

On top of that, without losing any accuracy or "rigor," Koppel weaves the story like a mystery writer, seasoning necessarily slower passages with hints at just-around-the-bend revelations. And he recaps just enough to keep us straight with the story, not enough to annoy.

With documentary flair reminiscent of John McPhee's work, the guy gives the facts AND the color, always in historical perspective.

I learned and enjoyed, which is all I ask of a book.

Thus..... five stars.

Tom Koppel's new book, Lost World, is a wonderful narrative but packed with treasures of information as well. It is his personal journey with very talented and resourceful archaeologists and their colleagues. At the same time it is a credible account of their discoveries, and sometimes disappointments.

Setting the record right with respect to the western coastal settlement is only one of his accomplishments. Also he has performed a service that is beyond measure organizing into a single volume a myriad of important facts from diverse sources.

Having read many of the scientific and scholarly works relating to this subject, I must state that none has been as interesting, unbiased, forthright, unembellished and evenhanded as has Tom Koppel`s book.

Louis C. Sheppard, Ph.D., D.I.C.

15 June 2003

Tom Koppel's new book, Lost World, is a wonderful narrative but packed with treasures of information as well. It is his personal journey with very talented and resourceful archaeologists and their colleagues. At the same time it is a credible account of their discoveries, and sometimes disappointments.

Setting the record right with respect to the western coastal settlement is only one of his accomplishments. Also he has performed a service that is beyond measure organizing into a single volume a myriad of important facts from diverse sources.

Having read many of the scientific and scholarly works relating to this subject, I must state that none has been as interesting, unbiased, forthright, unembellished and evenhanded as has Tom Koppel's book.

Louis C. Sheppard, Ph.D., D.I.C.

As an avid student of Native American history, I found this to be a fine "sitting by the fire" read. It contained enough technical info to keep it from being simplistic and tied together a lot of emerging information about the possible settling of the new world by sea. This area of great conflict among archaeologists deserves a lot more study than it is currently getting. Hopefully, this volumn will direct the interest of more people in this direction.

My five-star rating is based on this being a very interesting book on it's own to many people without extensive knowlege in the field, not to be compared with more technical volumes directed more toward hard-core professionals or academics.

I only wish there had been more photos, clearer photos and photos of artifacts, work sites and locations mentioned in the text rather than of people standing around.

LOST WORLD is a great read. It ranks right up there with anything that Krackauer has done. Koppel's writing is brisk and dramatic, an intelligent page turner. I'm an ecclectic reader and an armchair adventurer at best, but I was immediately captivated by these stories of extreme science. Three cheers for Koppel. And five stars for LOST WORLD!

LOST WORLD is a great book. It ranks right up there with anything that Krackauer has done. Koppel's writing is brisk and dramatic, an intelligent page turner. I'm an ecclectic reader and an armchair adventurer at best, but I was immediately captivated by these stories of extreme science. Three cheers for Koppel. Five stars for LOST WORLD!

This book is well written and the ideas presented are well developed and clear. The descriptions of the excavations and the dating of artifacts are exciting. The only shortcoming which discouraged me from giving the book five stars is the fact that there's a lot of seemingly unnecessary and unrelated text that detracts from the main theme and flow of ideas in the book, e.g., the Baron of beef au jus incident; I fully agree with the Publishers Weekly's review on this issue. Otherwise, the book is informative in presenting an alternative view, and related evidence, as to the mechanics of how the New World was populated by humans.

This was an excellent read.

I read a great deal of nonfiction, and a lot of books in the "paleo" category--many can best be described as "roaring bore"...NOT this one.

This book, although filled with all sorts of interesting science details and information, also reads a bit like Bill Bryson...giving it the "stranger in a strange land" sort of effect you find in the best of travel writing.

Even if you haven't got a background in geology or anthro, and the last time you heard of the "land bridge" to North America was 30 years ago in grade school, you will easily be able to follow the science & arguments made here for an alternate immigration scenario, and be able to appreciate the dedication and behind-the-scenes hard work of the scientists who have come up with the newer theories and the artifacts that support them.

I recommend this for anybody who was fascinated by the Nat. Geo.'s Spencer Wells, readers of Dr. Bryan Sykes (both on DNA studies of human migrations)...or anyone who just has a hankering to know about prehistory.

Great stuff!