The Neanderthals Rediscovered: How Modern Science Is Rewriting Their Story (The Rediscovered Series)

by Dimitra Papagianni, Michael A. Morse

Overview

“Even-handed, up-to-date, and clearly written. . . . If you want to navigate between the Scylla and Charybdis of Neanderthal controversies, you’ll find no better guide.” —Brian Fagan, author of Cro-Magnon

In recent years, the common perception of the Neanderthal has been transformed thanks to new discoveries and paradigm-shattering scientific innovations. It turns out that the Neanderthals’ behavior was surprisingly modern: they buried the dead, cared for the sick, hunted large animals in their prime, harvested seafood, and spoke. Meanwhile, advances in DNA technologies have forced a reassessment of the Neanderthals’ place in our own past.

For hundreds of thousands of years, Neanderthals evolved in Europe very much in parallel to the Homo sapiens line evolving in Africa, and, when both species made their first forays into Asia, the Neanderthals may even have had the upper hand. Here, Dimitra Papagianni and Michael A. Morse look at the Neanderthals through the full dramatic arc of their existence—from their evolution in Europe to their expansion to Siberia, their subsequent extinction, and ultimately their revival in popular novels, cartoons, cult movies, and TV commercials.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780500771808
Publisher:	Thames & Hudson
Publication date:	10/23/2013
Series:	The Rediscovered Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	561,640
File size:	26 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Dimitra Papagianni has taught courses on the Neanderthals at the Universities of Cambridge, Oxford, and Bath. She lives in New York State.

Michael A. Morse is the author of How the Celts Came to Britain. They both live in New York State.

Table of Contents

Preface 6

Chapter 1 A Long Underestimated Type of Human 11

Chapter 2 The First Europeans: 1 million to 600,000 years ago 24

Chapter 3 Defeating the Cold: 600,000 to 250,000 years ago 48

Chapter 4 Meet the Neanderthals: 250,000 to 130,000 years ago 73

Chapter 5 An End to Isolation: 130,000 to 60,000 years ago 103

Chapter 6 Endgame: 60,000 to 25,000 years ago 133

Chapter 7 Still With Us? 180

Bibliography 200

Sources of illustrations 205

Index 205

Editorial Reviews

"In the first complete chronological narrative of the species from emergence to extinction . . . archaeologist Dimitra Papagianni and science historian Michael Morse have shaped a gem."

Nature Lib

"Papagianni and Morse explore various aspects of the biology, culture, and demise of the Neanderthals, helping to shed light on many of the myths and controversies . . . that had long surrounded this ancient and enigmatic group."

The Underground Movement

"Readers learn that the common perception of the Neanderthals has been transformed due to new discoveries and paradigm-shattering scientific innovations."

Museum Store Magazine

"Focused squarely on the Neanderthals in their own right—how they lived, how they evolved, how they inhabited Europe for at least two hundred millennia. . . . The Neanderthals Rediscovered has the fresh charm of treating human evolution as a curious story that leads to the Neanderthals, rather than as a moral tale that rises ever upward and inevitably to us godlike moderns."

Harper's

"In the first complete chronological narrative of the species from emergence to extinction . . . archaeologist Dimitra Papagianni and science historian Michael Morse have shaped a gem."

Nature

"Includes the most up-to-date findings and interpretations presented in the technical literature. . . .  Recommended."

Choice

★ 01/01/2014
If you want grounding in our current understanding of our human predecessors, Papagianni, a PhD archaeologist, and Morse (How the Celts Came to Britain), a writer with a PhD in the history of science, have written the book for you. Although focused on Neanderthals, the authors set their discussion accessibly within the deeper context of the scientific study of hominid evolution generally, moving forward in chapters describing what is now understood of how former humans and hominids lived and functioned from about one million years ago to approximately 25,000 years ago. That's the remarkably long time frame within which other humans may have walked the earth. Papagianni and Morse describe the evolution of tool use and manufacture, for example, so that we see what sets Neanderthal tools apart from those of their predecessors such as our common ancestor with Neanderthals, Homo heidelbergensis. (Inserted stand-alone two-to-four- page pieces such as "Stone tools: the basics" are very helpful.) The authors describe the differing points of view among notable paleontologists, archaeologists, and anthropologists (those groups Paabo, above, looks down on) about such matters as where Homo sapiens themselves evolved, Neanderthal burials, and Neanderthal-modern human interbreeding. Last, the authors show some of the ways in which our own culture keeps the Neanderthals with us to this day. VERDICT Highly recommended for general access collections on human evolution.—Margaret Heilbrun, Library Journal

Library Journal