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I will start the review off with a warning, this book is not a light read. Although aimed at the popular market rather that the dusty halls of academia, Oppenheimer's book is not only large, at over 500 pages, but is brimming with scientific information and new theories. That said, if you find that questioning the accepted history of the birth of civilization, is worth the time and effort this book demands, then you will be richly rewarded.

As a general outline, the book is about the effect of events in South-East Asia in ancient times, and their affect on the growth of civilization as we know it. There are not many authors, in the Western World anyway, who have tackled the issue from this geographical view point. Most books on the development of civilization, have a very occidental bias, and imply that all important migrations and technological breakthroughs have began in the west or middle east and been exported eastwards to the orient. Oppenheimer presents a case for redressing that unbalanced opinion.

As the Ice Age came to an end and large amounts of water were released into the Sea, naturally the Sea level rose, flooding low lying lands and coastal area. One area that has been largely ignored, which was lost to this affect was the Sunda shelf. This shelf was once a land mass the size of India, the remnants of which can be seen as the islands and archipelagos of South-East Asia. One of the obvious points drawn is that in an area of that size, a massive amount of archaeological information would have been lost below the water. In the same way that the academics are starting to realise that the such for the mysteries of the Sumerian culture would be aided by underwater research in the Persian Gulf, the search for the ancient culture bearers of the far east should take place under the waters around, Malaya, Java, Vietnam and the surrounding Islands. The second obvious point to be drawn is, if so much land was inundated, where did the population go? And that is the very heart of the book.
Oppenheimer`s back ground is medical and it was through his work in the field of genetics that his interest in the problem started. As a result of not being a historical or archaeological biased researcher, he conducts his study from many different disciplines, ones that are normally overlooked by the mainstream academics. As well as genetics, linguistics play an important role, as do botany and mythology. It is by using this multi-discipline approach that interesting links

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