On the Road of the Winds: An Archaeological History of the Pacific Islands before European Contact

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 446 pages
• Published by: University of California Press
• Edition: 1st Edition March 15, 2002
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0520234618
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0520234611
• Book Dimensions: 9.9 x 8 x 1 inches
• Weighs: 2.6 pounds

From The Washington Post
"Riveting." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Review
"Riveting." - Washington Post "Excellent." - Times Literary Supplement "A grand synthesis. Kirch has done Pacific archaeology proud with this book." - Peter Bellwood, Antiquity "Kirch writes for specialists (he merrily switches, for example, between BC/AD and calibrated and uncalibrated radiocarbon BP dates), but for such a broad range of specialists that the informed lay reader will not miss much - and unwanted detail about excavations and artifacts is easily glanced over. With an effective selection of halftones, figures, and maps complementing clear and incisive prose, in elegant and attractive physical packaging, On the Road of the Winds is an all-round outstanding volume." - dannyreviews.com

Reader Reviews
This review is from: On the Road of the Winds: An Archaeological History of the Pacific Islands before European Contact (Hardcover) At last the Pacific islands are beginning to take their rightful place in the annals of world history. It is this book that takes a major step to establish that historical perspective. The Pacific islands are dispersed across one-third of the Earth's surface. All the major island groups have been inhabited for the last two thousand years, some for more than six thousand years, yet a detailed prehistory of the region has been lacking until now. This book, written by a noted Pacific anthropologist and archaeologist who has studied the area for more than thirty years, takes a tour of the diverse islands of the Pacific, beginning in the west in Melanesia, then across the many small islands of Micronesia. The tour concludes in the sprawling area covered by the islands of Polynesia, which extend from New Zealand to Hawai'i and eastward as far as Easter Island. Along the way, the author conveys the personal drama that he experienced in uncovering artifacts that reach back into a deep time. At one place he unearthed a small piece of carved white bone. When he turned it over, he saw the two eyes and the subtle nose of a stylized human face. On another island, while enjoying a beach picnic with his host family, spearing octopus and gathering mollusks, the author took a walk along the beach and discovered, a short distance from where they were camped, a distinct rock layer filled with pottery fragments. Those fragments would prove to be a record of people who had lived on the island more than two thousand years earlier. This book is both a personal narrative of modern-day exploration of the Pacific and an account of the rich prehistory of the region. The book draws generously from the detailed archaeological work conducted by the author and by others in the Pacific region--most of it done since the Second World War--as well as from studies of language and biology that answer such fundamental questions as where did the Pacific islanders come from and when and how did they settle the thousands of islands at least two millenia before any Europeans entered the Pacific? To most people, the Pacific islands are no more than a place of idyllic scenery and the people of the Pacific are the willing subjects of fanciful tales. Now, through the enlightening text of this book and the many striking photographs that it contains, the Pacific islands take on a fuller meaning. And the many cultures of the Pacific take their proper place in the remarkable story of the development of civilization.