The aim of the Deep Past as a Social Asset in the Levant (DEEPSAL) project was to understand how local cultural heritage can contribute to people’s lives today. The research studied two villages in south Jordan — Beidha and Basta — which contain highly significant Neolithic archaeological sites, representing a period of huge change in human history 9000 years ago, when people first began farming and living in large settled communities. The historic impact of this period is fundamental to how we live today, and the process of settling down, and domesticating barley and goats, has an obvious potential resonance with the lives of the modern communities in the region. This study tries to understand how this ‘deep past’ can be an asset to the contemporary lives of the communities who live around the sites today.

A moving account of Madagascar told by a researcher who has spent over fifty years investigating the mysteries of this remarkable island.
 
Madagascar is a place of change. A biodiversity hotspot and the fourth largest island on the planet, it has been home to a spectacular parade of animals, from giant flightless birds and giant tortoises on the ground to agile lemurs leaping through the treetops. Some species live on; many have vanished in the distant or recent past. Over vast stretches of time, Madagascar’s forests have expanded and contracted in response to shifting climates, and the hand of people is clear in changes during the last thousand years or so. Today, Madagascar is a microcosm of global trends. What happens there in the decades ahead can, perhaps, suggest ways to help turn the tide on the environmental crisis now sweeping the world.
 
The Sloth Lemur’s Song is a far-reaching account of Madagascar’s past and present, led by an expert guide who has immersed herself in research and conservation activities with village communities on the island for nearly fifty years. Alison Richard accompanies the reader on a journey through space and time—from Madagascar’s ancient origins as a landlocked region of Gondwana and its emergence as an island to the modern-day developments that make the survival of its array of plants and animals increasingly uncertain. Weaving together scientific evidence with Richard’s own experiences and exploring the power of stories to shape our understanding of events, this book captures the magic as well as the tensions that swirl around this island nation.