From Stone to State

From Stone to State offers a sweeping exploration of humanity's long journey from mobile hunter-gatherer bands to the formation of complex state systems. Bridging archaeology, anthropology, and early history, this textbook examines the critical transitions that shaped human civilization-domestication of plants and animals, emergence of surplus economies, ritual and mythic traditions, labor specialization, metallurgy, and urbanization. Through ten thematically organized chapters, it traces how ecological adaptation, technological innovation, and social organization interacted over millennia to produce stratified societies governed by institutional authority and sacred ideology. Drawing on archaeological theory, ethnographic parallels, and material evidence, the volume challenges simplistic models of cultural evolution, emphasizing diversity, continuity, and change in prehistoric and early historic lifeways. Designed for students and researchers in archaeology, history, and allied fields, From Stone to State provides a comprehensive and critical framework for understanding the origins and development of civilization.