The Neanderthals Rediscovered

Starred review from January 1, 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

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