• Cover Page (1)
• Title (4)
• ISBN 0521832365 (5)
• Dedication (6)
• Contents (with page links) (8)
• Illustrations (with page links) (10)
• Sources of illustrations (14)
• Preface (16)
• 1 Introduction (18)
  • Elucidating the African past (18)
  • Archaeology in Africa (20)
  • Linguistics (23)
  • Oral traditions (26)
  • Ethnoarchaeology (27)
  • Africa in world prehistory (27)
• 2 The emergence of humankind in Africa (32)
  • Definition and process (32)
  • World-wide precursors of the hominids (37)
  • The earliest hominids (39)
  • The oldest discoveries in eastern Africa (49)
  • The Lake Turkana Basin and Olduvai Gorge (51)
  • Central and south-central Africa (59)
  • South Africa (59)
  • The earliest tool-makers (64)
• 3 The consolidation of basic human culture (69)
  • Acheulean and Sangoan in Africa (69)
  • Acheulean in eastern Africa (77)
  • Acheulean in south-central Africa (85)
  • Acheulean in southern Africa (90)
  • Acheulean in West Africa and the Sahara (92)
  • Acheulean in North Africa (94)
  • Sangoan assemblages (98)
  • Acheulean/Sangoan artefacts and their makers (101)
• 4 Regional diversification and specialisation (108)
  • The ‘Middle Stone Age’ and the ‘Late Stone Age’ (108)
  • Southern Africa (113)
  • South-central Africa (125)
  • Rock art in southern and south-central Africa (128)
  • Central Africa (133)
  • Eastern Africa (139)
  • West Africa (145)
  • North Africa and the Sahara (148)
  • Changing life-styles and technology (158)
• 5 The beginnings of permanent settlement (164)
  • North Africa, the Sahara and the Nile Valley (164)
  • East Africa (173)
  • Overview (176)
  • African peoples 10,000 years ago (177)
• 6 Early farmers (182)
  • Cultivation and herding (182)
  • The Sahara and North Africa (189)
  • The Nile Valley (198)
  • West and Central Africa (212)
  • Ethiopia and the Horn (220)
  • East Africa (223)
• 7 Iron-using peoples before AD 1000 (231)
  • Iron (231)
  • North Africa (233)
  • Egypt and the Arab invasion (238)
  • The Sudan (241)
  • Ethiopia and adjacent regions (245)
  • West Africa (251)
  • Central Africa (262)
  • Eastern and southern Africa (266)
  • The contribution of Bantu linguistic studies (278)
  • Mode of dispersal (282)
  • Madagascar and the Comoro Islands (286)
  • Stone-tool-using herders of southwestern Africa (286)
• 8 The second millennium AD in sub-Saharan Africa (291)
  • The last 1000 years (291)
  • West Africa (292)
  • Ethiopia, the southern Sudan and adjacent regions (301)
  • The east coast of Africa (305)
  • Bantu-speakers north of the Zambezi (308)
  • Southeastern Africa (314)
  • Southwestern Africa (324)
  • Epilogue (325)
• Bibliographic guide (327)
• Bibliographic references (328)
• Index (with page links) (386)