The Neanderthals rediscovered : how modern science is rewriting their history

by Dimitra Papagianni

Book, 2013

Status

Available

Call number

GN285 .P37

Genres

Collection

NEARA - Nashua NH

Publication

Publisher Unknown

Description

For too long the Neanderthals have been seen as dim-witted evolutionary dead-enders who looked and behaved completely differently from us, but in recent years their story has been transformed thanks to new discoveries and advances in scientific techniques. In a compelling narrative one that has not previously been told in a way that encompasses the entire dramatic arc from evolution to expansion to extinction this book takes a fresh and engaging look at the whole story of the Neanderthals, setting out all the evidence, redressing the balance and arriving at a fairer assessment of a species that was closely related to us and in so doing addresses what it is to be human.--book jacket

User reviews

LibraryThing member DinadansFriend

The title is descriptive, and the prose is workmanlike. The current news is a welcome summing up of the last yen years in this field, which can be quite contentious. Morse and Papagiani seem balanced in their approach, and the flurry of newspaper items in the 2000's was confusing on occasion. They

present a limited number of conclusions, and lay to rest some tropes in the anthropology as well as entertainment worlds. I found it a useful summary of the present state of play.
The maps are a little weak, without some useful levels of detail.

Show Less

4 more

LibraryThing member unclebob53703

An excellent summary of the current state of our knowledge of Neanderthals, which is evolving rapidly. At the price I paid for it ($12) I feel I can afford to keep up with subsequent editions--this is the second. Written for the layman and generously illustrated.

LibraryThing member pomo58

The Neanderthals Rediscovered provides an excellent and up-to-date (as much as possible) overview of Neanderthals. This is one of the few works to concentrate on them as something more than a footnote to evolutionary development. That said, there is still plenty of context so even the lay reader

can understand the role of the Neanderthals within the larger scientific narrative.

I would recommend this book for both those within the field(s) as well as those simply interested, such as myself. The resources cited can be used to answer some questions or, for those more knowledgeable, serve as a springboard into further research. The writing is engaging and the organization is easy to understand and follow.

A copy was provided from the publisher through Goodreads First Reads.

Show Less

LibraryThing member Stbalbach

This is a brief overview of Neanderthals written by a Palaeolithic and stone tool specialist at Cambridge who wrote her PhD on the Neanderthal. It retells the whole story. You can see how they came about and evolved. Apparently the hand axe is the oldest human tool dating to 1.6 mya and used by

multiple human species without much innovation. Neanderthals used their teeth a lot probably in chewing or stripping hides for clothing since they had no needles and thread. Compared to them, modern humans would look like children, just as dogs are adult-puppy versions of wolves, the end result of self-domestication. Neanderthals had speech and were probably quite intelligent, at least in a practical way, symbolic thinking not fully developed. There was tremendous violence most skeletons show blunt force injuries, possibly in encounters with animals, or one another. And they ate one another, at times, but then so do some humans. These were tough people, given a time machine and walking into the dark old-growth forests of Europe, I would be seriously concerned about the natives, but the population density was so thin you may never encounter them. What killed them off remains a mystery, according to this telling. There is an interesting section on Neanderthals in popular culture and an overview of the fiction my favorite being Quest for Fire.

Show Less

LibraryThing member A.Godhelm

A short but very information packed book about neanderthals that digs a little deeper than most and had much of the current information despite being almost a decade old now. A lot of the information dovetails with what we know of early humanoids outside of the neanderthal themselves and serves as

comparison and contrast. It's also generally skeptical (but not entirely dismissive) of the controversial claims about musical instruments and most of the art and funerary rites hypothesised to be connected with neanderthal finds. I found this critical neutrality refreshing, as most books are either too skeptical or entirely credulous.

Show Less

Fewer