Title:  Written In Stone

Author:  Christopher Stevens

Half the world’s population speaks a language that has evolved from a single, prehistoric mother tongue–a mother tongue first spoken in Stone Age times, on the steppes of central Eurasia 6,500 years ago.  It was so effective that a it flourished for two thousand years.  This language spread from the shores of the Black Sea across almost all of Europe and much of Asia, and its is the genetic basis of everything we speak and write today–the DNA of language.

Written in Stone combines detective work mythology, ancient history, archaeology, the roots of society, technology and warfare, and the sheer fascination and love of words to explore this original mother tongue.  Stevens reveals the connections woven throughout the immense vocabulary of English–with some surprising result.

In snappy, lively and often very funny chapters, Stevens uncovers the most influential and important words used by our Neolithic ancestors, and shows how these words are still in constant use today and remain the building blocks of all our most common words and phrases.