TY - JOUR AU1 - Phillipson, David W. AB - BOOK REVIEW This book sets out to "introduce the general reader and beginning student to Africa's past". It does so in 29 short chapters, each treating a single topic or even, in a few instances, a single site. The result is inevitably episodic, with little integration between chapters and some important topics largely ignored. It is noteworthy, for example, that only three chapters are concerned with the palaeolithic. For later periods the choice of topics provides excellent coverage, with Egypt and North Africa well integrated with the rest of the continent. It is inevitable that a specialist reviewer will find areas of disagreement and it would be inappropriate to deal with them at any length, but it is unfortunate, to say the least, that chapter 5 (on the rock art of southern Africa) gives the erroneous impression that all this art is attributed to San. Connah, as usual, writes clearly and lucidly. He has taken decisions to avoid controversy and to concentrate on topics "best known from archaeological and related evidence". The result is disappointingly flat and blend. The author's judgement is in nearly all cases sound, but there is little trace of the excitement of new discovery, TI - Forgotten Africa: An Introduction to its Archaeology. By G. Connah. Routledge, London, 2004, xiii + 193 pp. ISBN 0-415-30591-8 (paperback), 0-415-30590-X (hardback). Price £ 18.99 (paperback), £ 55.00 (hardback). JF - Journal of African Archaeology DO - 10.3213/1612-1651-10048 DA - 2005-10-25 UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/brill/forgotten-africa-an-introduction-to-its-archaeology-by-g-connah-i6goYVe0wP SP - 171 EP - 171 VL - 3 IS - 1 DP - DeepDyve ER -