On May 8, 1902, Mount Pelée on the West Indies island of Martinique near the seaport town of Saint-Pierre erupted in a cloud of gas and fire in one of the most awesome and destructive pyrotechnic displays ever offered by nature. Four minutes later, thirty thousand citizens lay dead or dying and the town was engulfed in flames. Mother Nature was not entirely to blame for this disaster. In truth, the real culprits in this real-life story were the rather more deplorable traits found in human nature. Then, like now, if not for the dishonesty and corruption of officials who placed politics, greed, and racial intolerance above the welfare of the people, human injustice, loss of lives, and immeasurable suffering could have been avoided. The Last Moon remains 95 percent true to historical facts and personal testimonies. The main characters are either composites of real individuals who lived in Martinique prior to the eruption or actual people who influenced the turn of events. The Creole language, tidal waves, lava and mudflows, volcanic eruptions, foreign ships, deadly reptiles and insects, rich topography, and sequence of events portrayed in the novel are all genuine and based on fact.

This volume presents the current state of knowledge on the osseous projectile weaponry that was produced by Pleistocene cultures across the globe. Through cross-cultural and temporal comparison of manufacturing methods, design, use methods, and associated technology, chapters in this volume identify and discuss differences and similarities between these Pleistocene cultures. The central research questions addressed in this volume include: (a) how did osseous weaponry technology develop and change through time and can these changes be tied to environmental and/or social influences?; (b) how did different Pleistocene cultures design and adapt their osseous weaponry technology to their environment as well as changes in that environment?; and (c) can we identify cultural interaction between neighboring groups through the analysis of osseous weapons technology — and if so — can we use these items to track the movement of peoples and/or ideas across the landscape? Through addressing these three central research questions, this volume creates an integrated understanding of osseous technology during a vital period in Modern Human cultural development which will be useful for students and advanced researchers alike.