Mixed Harvest: Stories from the Human Past
By Rob Swigart
5/5
()
About this ebook
Short stories about the deep past and those who lived through millennia of exploration, hardship, and uncertainty during the evolution of farming.
Winner of the 2019 Nautilus Book Award, Multicultural and Indigenous
“Swigart is to be congratulated for giving us a series of connected short stories that are both entertaining and educational. The book is accurately grounded in archaeological facts, and its individual stories are thoroughly believable. Its particular format should be emulated by all those wishing to blend fact and fiction, not just as entertainment but as education, too.”—Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies
In unforgettable stories of the human journey, a combination of compelling storytelling and well-researched archaeology underscore an excavation into the deep past of human development and its consequences. Through a first encounter between a Neanderthal woman and the Modern Human to the emergence and destruction of the world’s first cities, Mixed Harvest tells the tale of the Neolithic Revolution, also called the (First) Agricultural Revolution, the most significant event since modern humans emerged. Rob Swigart’s latest work humanizes the rapid transition to agriculture and pastoralism with a grounding in the archaeological record.
From the introduction:
In the space of a few thousand years agriculture dominated the earth. We live with it all around us. History began, cities soared, the landscape was crisscrossed with roads…. Each story is prefaced by a short introduction and followed by some context in order to stitch the narrative together. Some stories are linked, but most are independent. The stories are gathered into three chapters: “Shelter,” “House,” and “Home.” These represent a progression in where we lived, a series of transformations in technology and consciousness.
Rob Swigart
Rob Swigart, PhD (Comparative Literature) taught for 35 years at a university, published fifteen novels and poetry in The Atlantic, Poetry, and other journals, and co-authored a business book while working as a research affiliate with the Institute for the Future.
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Reviews for Mixed Harvest
2 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Not much is known about the first humans on the Earth. What we do know is what we can extract from burial sites, artwork, dwellings, and artifacts that have been left behind. These artefacts combined with geologic and climatic knowledge begin to paint a picture of what life was like for the people of the Paleolithic and Neolithic eras. Mixed Harvest is a collection of short stories of the people from these eras. Moving forward through time from the Paleolithic to the formation of cities, the author combines knowledge of what we have found from our past and storytelling to bring these people to life. Each fictionalized story is prefaced and followed up by archeological evidence that led to the story. The stories in Mixed Harvest tell of love, conflict, religion, growing up, birth and death; all things that we are familiar with. The people in the stories were dealing with all of this in a rapidly changing world, not too different from the one we are living in today. There is knowledge to be gained from their past mistakes and past triumphs. The writing evokes a familiarity without breaking what we know of human communication at the time. Feelings are conveyed without speech, using broad concepts to show emotion without words. Mixed Harvest is an insightful and unique style of storytelling that helps connect us to our past. This book was received for free in return for an honest review.