The Tale Of The Axe. David Miles. 2016. 384 Pages. (Hardcover.).

I seldom give up on a book once I have started into it, but I came close with this one. Supposedly about Britain, the Neolithic era and ancient axes it is humourless, and meanders from the earliest hominids around the world, from archaeologic axes to diets, boats, funeral rites and mystical religious beliefs. It takes 160 pages to get to Britain, and then initially several hundred thousand years before the Neolithic era (approx. 17000 to 7000 BCE), at a time when Britain was not an island. In the first two parts readers are introduced to prehistoric cultures over a vast time frame and from many parts of Europe, Asia and Africa. Chapters include discussion of cannibalism, pollens, antlers, wild and domesticated plants and animals, and geological formations, with names of places, different types of stones, and archeological controversies that are confusing and of little interest to me.

I had to take a break to refresh my memory of the mechanics and reliability of radioisotope dating of different materials, with an internet search, a scientific method referred to extensively but never explained. My eyelids frequently interfered with my reading and then I would lose my place and reread several paragraphs before discovering the error.

The author seems to assume an intricate knowledge of not only British but worldwide geology with more stone types than I could keep track of. I’ll admit to learning a significant amount about the gradual transition of peoples around the world from hunter-gatherer societies to a farming way of life. Some of the farming thousands of years ago reminded me of my childhood on a family farm, laboriously picking stones off cultivated fields, but never identifying what type of stones they were.

The diagrams and maps are generally confusing although the photographs of some cites are interesting.

The 14 page Epigraph goes a little way to redeem this hopelessly disjointed and detailed book. In it the author discusses modern dilemmas, disagrees with Yuval Noah Harari and Jared Diamond about the domestication of plants and animals, disparages industrial farming and enslavement of animals, and touches on the challenge of climate change. But it has nothing to do with Axes or Britain.

This book represents a failure of the author to identify a target audience, if there is one. The only one I can think of is perhaps a few dedicated archeologists, who could use it as a reference.

1.5/5

Thanks, Tom.