First printed in 1982, this is the third and final volume to be published as a result of the British Academy Major Research Project on the Early History of Agriculture, carried out in the Department of Archaeology in Cambridge under the direction of the late Eric Higgs. After his death in 1976, the Project was drawn to its conclusion by his associates, and this book is effectively a summary of the results of the Project. The first two volumes, Papers in Economic Prehistory and Palacoeconomy, argued that the development of agriculture was a much more gradual and widespread phenomenon than had been thought previously. This book now discusses the origins and early development of prehistoric agriculture within the framework of prehistoric subsistence economies in general. Early human economies are viewed in their adaptation to three crucial resource zones: the uplands, the lowlands and the littorals.
