World Prehistory and Archaeology: Pathways throughTime integrates world prehistory with a discussion of archaeological methods and techniques—emphasizing the relevance of how we know what we know about our human prehistory, providing the tools to allow for a lifelong engagement with archaeology and drawing students into the process of archaeological research and discovery. 

Chazan brings students right up to the cutting edge of archaeological research by presenting the most recent discoveries and theoretical perspectives.  How we know the past is inseparable fromwhat we know of the past. This new text allows students to see that archaeology is a dynamic field in which knowledge is continuously refined through scientific inquiry while providing a sense of the relevance of archaeology in the contemporary world. 

As the cornerstone of this book is to present an integrated picture of prehistory as an active process of discovery, we cannot relegate methodological issues to the opening chapters alone.  While the introduction to archaeological method in the first two chapters is necessary, the questions of how we know the past cannot be abandoned at that point.  A number of features have been developed to draw together an integrated presentation of prehistory throughout the entire text.