Could shattering secrets about the deep past of humanity await discovery in North America? Until very recently there was almost universal agreement amongst scientists that human beings first entered the Americas from Siberia around 13,000 years ago by walking into Alaska across the Bering landbridge. Thanks to scientific advances, and to archaeological and geological discoveries made in the past five years, we now know that the Americas were populated by humans for tens of thousands of years before the previously accepted date. Deeply puzzling and hitherto unsuspected genetic connections have also emerged - for example linking Native Americans both with Australian Aborigines and with Western Europeans. In American Before, Hancock puts the final piece of the jigsaw in place, proving that the great, technically advanced civilization that flourished in Britain, Europe and throughout the world before the last Ice Age was centred in Northern America. (P)2019 Hodder & Stoughton Limited