Lost World (2026)by Patrick Wyman

 Audiobook Review

Lost World (2026)

by Patrick Wyman

  I love the subject of "pre-history" or the history of pre or semi-literate peoples.  The frontiers of linguistic history have been joined with incredible advances in DNA science and LIDAR ground-scanning technology to produce a new knowledge about complex cultures in pre-history outside of those who developed writing.  Wyman has a podcast, but he is well versed on his linguistics.  I'm not as sure of his grasp of the underlying science of dna and human genetics- a historical pitfall for linguistics trying to stretch historical identity back into non-historical times.  But there is no denying that DNA is a big improvement over 20th century nonsense about "blood" and "race," neither of which exist as they relate to identifying human cohorts.

  Wyman does an excellent job traversing the recent work in these various fields and harnessing them to a narrative that roughly tracks the theoretical outline of scholar James C. Scott and his successors like David Graeber, i.e. not taking for granted that the concept that we know as "civilization" through Ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt and the Mediterranean somehow represents the ONLY way for humans to organize complex society.  As recently as a decade ago this was mostly speculation, but the confluence of DNA science and LIDAR archeology has really pushed back the frontiers of knowledge in non-western places like Bronze age Ireland, the Amazon, the Andes, China, etc.  Even if we don't know what DNA specifically represents, we can use it to track the kinship of people we find in archeological settings.  

  Lost World is at its least interesting when it gets into the familiar proto-indo-european game- although it's clear that genetic evidence has borne out the truth of the traditional thesis of horse writing redheads who came and conquered Europe, especially in the north and west.  More interesting to me was the less familiar material- firming up the Anatolian Farmers vs. the European Hunter-Gatherer groups and showing how they persist in modern DNA despite the loss of their culture.    His description of the expansion of the Malay-Austronesian language group from a small patch of land in present day Taiwan to a present geographic territory encompassing everywhere from Malaysia to Hawaii is a welcome counterpart to the western intensive PIE hypothesis. 

  I also thought the archeological evidence was interesting- here he mostly discusses recent discoveries in modern day Turkey and Ireland, making the case that pre-bronze age Earthworks (think Stonehenge) were not a product of elites and enslaved a la the Egyptian pyramids but rather a more cooperative, voluntary endeavor.