The author was born in Cheshire, educated at the Wirral Grammar School, served on a destroyer in the Mediterranean, read history and archaeology at Cambridge University, and worked there as a research assistant. After experience on numerous excavations in Britain, including as assistant director and director, in 1961 he went to Nigeria, where he spent ten years excavating and on fieldwork. In 1971, he moved to the University of New England in Australia, founding the archaeology department there and later becoming its foundation professor. He returned to Nigerian fieldwork in 1978 and 1981 and subsequently excavated in Egyptian Nubia and Uganda. He also contributed to Australian historical archaeology and founded the journal Australasian Historical Archaeology. He is a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities, MA (Cantab), [...] (UNE), and holds the Order of Australia.

Preface and acknowledgements; 1. Ways of looking at the past; 2. The African savanna and Lake Chad; 3. Environment and Man in north-west Nigeria; 4. The archaeological landscape and its interpretation; 5. The earliest evidence; 6. The firki response: Daima I; 7. The firki response: Daima II; 8. The firki response: Daima III; 9. Sand adaptations and the Yobe advantage; 10. Urbanisation and state development; 11. Towards an understanding; Bibliography; Index.