What We Are Reading Today: ‘Prehistoric Textiles’ by E.J.W.Barber

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Updated 26 January 2026
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What We Are Reading Today: ‘Prehistoric Textiles’ by E.J.W.Barber

This pioneering work revises our notions of the origins and early development of textiles in Europe and the Near East.

Using innovative linguistic techniques, along with methods from paleobiology and other fields, it shows that spinning and pattern weaving began far earlier than has been supposed.

“Prehistoric Textiles” made an unsurpassed leap in the social and cultural understanding of textiles in humankind’s early history.


What We Are Reading Today: Island at the Edge of the World

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Updated 30 January 2026
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What We Are Reading Today: Island at the Edge of the World

  • Pitts has gone deeper than any other writer in cutting through the miasma of misperceptions that shrouds the island, even if his work sometimes bogs down in numbing detail

Author: Mike Pitts

In his ‘Island at the Edge of the World,’ British archeologist Mike Pitts delves into the misconceptions and legends surrounding a complex ancient culture.
The book is a work of historical revisionism that re-examines the history of Rapa Nui, or Easter Island, using new archeological evidence, a fresh reading of 18th-century European accounts, and the long-overlooked work of early 20th-century anthropologist Katherine Routledge
Pitts’ investigation offers authoritative new insights into what really happened on the island.
Pitts has gone deeper than any other writer in cutting through the miasma of misperceptions that shrouds the island, even if his work sometimes bogs down in numbing detail.
Many questions still remain, but this is the most compelling and comprehensive account yet published of the extraordinary story of Easter Island.