Everyday Life in the Ice Age is the first attempt to present a truly
complete, balanced and realistic picture of life during the last Ice
Age, with its many problems and challenges, while dispelling many of the
myths and inaccuracies about our early ancestors. One of the most common
questions asked by visitors to Europe's decorated caves is 'What was
life like for these people?' No previous book has ever managed to answer
this question, and most studies of the period are aimed entirely at
academics, tending to focus on tool-types rather than what the tools
were used for. Women and children are almost invisible in these studies.
The book examines all aspects of the lives of biologically modern humans
in Europe from about 40,000 to 12,000 years ago, the period known as the
Last Ice Age, a time of radical change in climate and environment. It
explores how people were able to cope with and adapt to the often rapid
alterations in their circumstances. Elle Clifford's background in Social
Psychology brings important insights into aspects of the past which are
never normally discussed - domestic and family life, pregnancy and
child-rearing, and care of the sick and elderly. The book is aimed not
only at students and specialists, but also and especially the interested
public, for whom the most interesting questions are: How were they like
us? and what behaviours do we share?
