Footmarks (a Journey Into Our Restless Past)

By (author) Leary Jim
Description:

''Lucid, poetic and fascinating'' ALICE ROBERTS

''Engaging, authoritative and full of fascinating stories of the past'' RAY MEARS

''A gentle, personal and very readable book'' JULIA BLACKBURN AUTHOR OF TIME SONG

''A triumph!'' JAMES CANTON, AUTHOR OF THE OAK PAPERS

''I loved this book'' FRANCIS PRYOR

On paths, roads, seas, in the air, and in space - there has never been so much human movement. In contrast we think of the past as static, ''frozen in time''. But archaeologists have in fact always found evidence for humanity''s irrepressible restlessness. Now, latest developments in science and archaeology are transforming this evidence and overturning how we understand the past movement of humankind.

In this book, archaeologist Jim Leary traces the past 3.5 million years to reveal how people have always been moving, how travel has historically been enforced (or prohibited) by people with power, and how our forebears showed incredible bravery and ingenuity to journey across continents and oceans.

With Leary to show the way, you''ll follow the footsteps of early hunter-gatherers preserved in mud, and tread ancient trackways hollowed by feet over time. Passing drovers, wayfarers and pilgrims, you''ll see who got to move, and how people moved. And you''ll go on long-distance journeys and migrations to see how movement has shaped our world.

Review quote:
Engaging, authoritative and full of fascinating stories of the past. This book shows that life is not centred on hearth and house, as we are so often told, but is shaped by relentless movement, along tracks and trails. By focusing on mobility, Jim Leary has managed to reanimate the past, revealing the hidden but vital contribution that migration has always made to the shaping of the world
Review quote:
A gentle, personal and very readable book that gives life to the dynamic sequence of activity, effort and extraordinary determination that makes up our human past
Review quote:

I loved this book. It''s a highly readable account of how and why people have moved around on the surface of the earth, across land and sea ... What makes this book so special is that everything is discussed within the context of life at the time: who were using the paths or the boats and why were they doing it? Most importantly it is so relevant to us today, as we try to steer our way
through times of increasing instability

Review quote:
Archaeologists have a superpower: time travel. Their digs show us cold hearths and colder graves, but as Jim Leary shows in this gripping read, the past was hot-blooded and alive with the movement of people who loved and laughed as we do. Yet history and archaeology are written as though humans and our creations are fixed, frozen entities: screenshots of past lives, not videos. Our ideas of our origins, history and ourselves today must all change, and those new ideas are not only more exciting, but tell us more about both our past and our future. They are also true
Review quote:
Jim Leary takes us into the little explored realm of ancient movement. We walk with hominins and Neanderthals, explore deep caves, herd cattle, and become pilgrims, ocean voyagers and long-distance walkers. Leary is a passionate walker, who combines science with his first-hand experience and observation out and about. This beautifully written, entertaining essay melds personal experience with archaeological and historical wisdom. The result is a truly remarkable and original book that thinks profoundly about the past. Read this and be inspired!
Review quote:
A book about the movements of humans could be a little dull, don''t yo