Eighteen papers from the World Archaeological Congress on the archaeology of the different regions of the world's drylands held in Cape Town in January 1999. The papers examine the fragility or resilience of settlement in these areas, which account for about 40% of the land area of the planet, by analysing their abundant ancient remains and looking for common themes. The contributors examine climate, intensive and subsistence agriculture, land degradation and irrigation etc in the deserts and drylands of the Near East, Southwestern and Central Asia, Northern, eastern abd Southern Africa, North and South America and Switzeland and the Rhône Valley. Illustrated throughout.