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Cro-Magnons were the first fully modern Europeans--not only the creators of the stunning cave paintings at Lascaux and elsewhere, but the most adaptable and technologically inventive people that had yet lived on earth. The prolonged encounter between the Cro-Magnons and the archaic Neanderthals, between 45,000 and 30,000 years ago, was one of the defining moments of history. The Neanderthals survived for some 15,000 years in the face of the newcomers, but were finally pushed aside by the Cro-Magnons' vastly superior intellectual abilities and cutting-edge technologies. What do we know about this remarkable takeover? Who were these first modern Europeans and what were they like? How did they manage to thrive in such an extreme environment? And what legacy did they leave behind them after the cold millennia? This is the story of a little known, yet seminal, chapter of human experience.--From publisher description.… (more)
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LibraryThing member rybie2
Veteran anthropologist Brian Fagan has provided a truly fascinating account of the development and spread of early modern humans into Europe, and their potential interactions with the Neandertal humans. Fagan draws on a wealth of evidence that includes geology, archaeology, anthropology, and
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genetics to reconstruct what is arguably the most fascinating element of human prehistory. While his reconstruction is heavily based in fact, he also uses "stories" or scenarios to give his readers a picture of how events may have transpired. Fagan considers it highly significant that cave art and use of jewlery and decoration were characteristic of the European "Cro-Magnons" but not the Neandertals, and speculates that the latter therefore lacked capacities for imagination and for recognition of a supernatural realm. Here his perspective grows conjectural. However, we know vastly more about both Neandertals and early modern H. sapiens than even 20 years ago, and scenarios such as Fagan's can be thought of as hypotheses available for future testing. I found this book thoroughly fascinating, and filled it with underlinings and marginal comments. While I cannot accept all of its conclusions, I recommend this book highly. Show Less
LibraryThing member bragan
Cro-Magnon tells the story of the first anatomically modern humans in Europe and (to a lesser extent) that of the Neanderthals they replaced. Fagan aims to give a layman's overview of the subject, without too much technical detail. I'd say his success at this is variable. Many passages were dry,
However, although I would have preferred it if the writing were a bit livelier and more concise, I did find this worth reading. The subject is interesting, and Fagan does offer interesting information about it. If nothing else, he successfully dispels some popular misconceptions, such as the stereotype of Neanderthals as ugly, clumsily brutish cavemen, and the notion of the Ice Age as one long, unbroken, icy winter. He also repeatedly invites the reader to imagine what it might have been like to live in those distant times and to walk among these vanished people. I found that mental exercise both exciting and rewarding, and it's Fagan's ability to evoke that response that is the book's real strength.
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with perhaps a bit more specific information than I really wanted. And these are interspersed with speculative imagined scenes of Cro-Magnon life, which I often found somewhat unsatisfying, in that it wasn't always clear how much was based on actual archeological knowledge and how much was sheer assumption. Fagan's writing also tends to be a bit rambly and repetitive; he likes to make the same basic points over and over, often in exactly the same words.However, although I would have preferred it if the writing were a bit livelier and more concise, I did find this worth reading. The subject is interesting, and Fagan does offer interesting information about it. If nothing else, he successfully dispels some popular misconceptions, such as the stereotype of Neanderthals as ugly, clumsily brutish cavemen, and the notion of the Ice Age as one long, unbroken, icy winter. He also repeatedly invites the reader to imagine what it might have been like to live in those distant times and to walk among these vanished people. I found that mental exercise both exciting and rewarding, and it's Fagan's ability to evoke that response that is the book's real strength.
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LibraryThing member TomVeal
Popular histories of human evolution have been appearing faster than the effects of punctuated equilibrium. The primary impetus is genetic studies that make it possible to probe our ancestry in ways that weren't conceivable a couple of decades ago. Also making large contributions are advances in
In Cro-Magnon, Brian Fagan, a veteran archeologist and climate historian, offers a straightforward narrative of the expansion of homo sapiens into Europe during what is conventionally called the "Ice Age", from about 115,000 to 12,000 years before the present. Unlike many other writers in this field, he spends little space on theorizing, technical discussions or the details of scholarly disputes. Thus, for instance, he refers to the findings of analyses of mitochondrial DNA without expatiating on what it is or how it is used to trace anatomically modern humans back to their African origins. Similarly, he does not argue at length for some of his more controversial views, e. g., that the Neanderthals were incapable of fully articulate speech and differed cognitively from our own species.
The scanting of explanation and argumentation will disappoint some readers. It is often unclear whether Dr. Fagan is presenting well-established facts or tenuous conjecture. As compensation, there is more room for a rounded picture of how the first Europeans lived and, especially, how they adapted over time to constantly changing climatic conditions. Anyone whose image of "cave men" still bears traces of Alley Oop will be surprised. Cro-Magnon painting and ivory carving can hold their own with the finest products of civilization. It is not unreasonable to extrapolate that their intellectual and spiritual life was likewise sophisticated. There is even (see p. 245) slender evidence of proto-writing 11,000 years ago in Provence.
What the classic Cro-Magnon way of life lacked was the ability to sustain a large population. When agriculture arrived from western Asia, around 6,000 B.C., it rapidly pushed the hunter-gatherer economy to the margins of the continent. The old artistic and cultural traditions faded, too. The descendants of cave painters and reindeer hunters kept chickens and tilled the soil.
It is easy to romanticize the pre-agricultural era. The vignettes that Dr. Fagan scatters through his text are in that vein: Living in harmony with nature, the Cro-Magnons hunt abundant game, fish in rivers stocked with dense schools of salmon and sturgeon, decorate their gear with paint and incisions, experience a rich spirituality, exchange songs and stories, and generally enjoy what look like perpetual vacations. Missing from these scenes, though acknowledged to exist, are cold, hunger, disease, violence and early death. The lives of our forebears may not have been solitary, nasty and brutish; they were unquestionably poor and short.
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dating methods and the study of Earth's past climates. Books only a few years old are already out of date.In Cro-Magnon, Brian Fagan, a veteran archeologist and climate historian, offers a straightforward narrative of the expansion of homo sapiens into Europe during what is conventionally called the "Ice Age", from about 115,000 to 12,000 years before the present. Unlike many other writers in this field, he spends little space on theorizing, technical discussions or the details of scholarly disputes. Thus, for instance, he refers to the findings of analyses of mitochondrial DNA without expatiating on what it is or how it is used to trace anatomically modern humans back to their African origins. Similarly, he does not argue at length for some of his more controversial views, e. g., that the Neanderthals were incapable of fully articulate speech and differed cognitively from our own species.
The scanting of explanation and argumentation will disappoint some readers. It is often unclear whether Dr. Fagan is presenting well-established facts or tenuous conjecture. As compensation, there is more room for a rounded picture of how the first Europeans lived and, especially, how they adapted over time to constantly changing climatic conditions. Anyone whose image of "cave men" still bears traces of Alley Oop will be surprised. Cro-Magnon painting and ivory carving can hold their own with the finest products of civilization. It is not unreasonable to extrapolate that their intellectual and spiritual life was likewise sophisticated. There is even (see p. 245) slender evidence of proto-writing 11,000 years ago in Provence.
What the classic Cro-Magnon way of life lacked was the ability to sustain a large population. When agriculture arrived from western Asia, around 6,000 B.C., it rapidly pushed the hunter-gatherer economy to the margins of the continent. The old artistic and cultural traditions faded, too. The descendants of cave painters and reindeer hunters kept chickens and tilled the soil.
It is easy to romanticize the pre-agricultural era. The vignettes that Dr. Fagan scatters through his text are in that vein: Living in harmony with nature, the Cro-Magnons hunt abundant game, fish in rivers stocked with dense schools of salmon and sturgeon, decorate their gear with paint and incisions, experience a rich spirituality, exchange songs and stories, and generally enjoy what look like perpetual vacations. Missing from these scenes, though acknowledged to exist, are cold, hunger, disease, violence and early death. The lives of our forebears may not have been solitary, nasty and brutish; they were unquestionably poor and short.
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LibraryThing member gwernin
Fagan starts his book with the description of an imagined encounter between a family of Cro-Magnons (the first anatomically modern humans to settle in Europe) and a Neanderthal, 40,000 years ago during the Ice Age. Next he spends a chapter discussing the world of the Cro-Magnons and the possible
He then moves to the African savanna, 2.5 million year, to examine the earlier human evolution which led to both. Homo habilis, homo ergaster, homo erectus and homo heidelbergensis bring us -- by way of brief discussions of their fossils, weapons, and probable diet -- to the Europe and Asia of 600,00 years ago, and eventually, sometime between then and 100,000 years ago, to the first true Neanderthals. Along the way they acquired fire, a facility for making stone tools and wooden spears, and a primitive hunting and gathering culture.
Two chapters on the Neanderthals and their world follows, with occasional side trips into the history of archaeology and climatology. Fagan paints vivid portraits of the Neanderthals themselves, who were much more agile and clever than the popular stereotype, making good use of their challenging and varied habitats.
Fagan then drops back to Africa about 150,000 years ago, as interpreted by mitochondrial DNA studies, and the origins of anatomically modern homo sapiens. Some of these people moved north and east to the Middle East and Southeast Asia, where they and most of their stay-at-home African relatives were almost wiped out by the eruption of Mount Toba 73,500 years ago -- the greatest volcanic event of the last 23 million years. Perhaps as few as 10,000 people worldwide survived the ash clouds and the ensuing climatic effects. Some time during the next 20,000 years their descendants evolved the cooperative and cognitive skills which we have today, probably including articulate speech; moved back into the Near East, Eurasia, and Europe; and became the Cro-Magnons.
Fagan follows these people as they move up from Africa and into Europe, working his way slowly through the various cultural and archeological stages. The Campanian ash fall event of 39,000 years ago forms a useful reference horizon relative to the scattered remains of the settlements. The narration is sometimes somewhat repetitive, enlivened only by brief but well-drawn scenes of daily life in the different periods. Ice ages come and go, art and artifacts evolve, and the Neanderthal neighbors fade away. Finally the ice withdraws, and with the discovery and spread of agriculture the Cro-Magnons' hunting culture disappears, but their genetic lineages are still here in most modern Europeans.
This book took me a while to read; I laid it down in the middle and had difficulty returning to it. I have an undergraduate minor in anthropology and a life-long interest in archeaology, so the material was interesting to me, and Fagan does a good job of blending modern cultural studies with physical remains to bring the past to life. His knowledge is encyclopedic, and his enthusiasm for his subject is contagious, but the layout of the book -- mostly text with some occasional sidebar material; a scattering of line drawings, maps, and black and white illustrations; and eight pages of small but stunningly beautiful color illustrations in the middle -- lets him down. A more graphic presentation in a larger format could had made this a wonderful book. As it is, despite the author's expertise, it misses the mark for me.
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interactions between the two types of humans. He then moves to the African savanna, 2.5 million year, to examine the earlier human evolution which led to both. Homo habilis, homo ergaster, homo erectus and homo heidelbergensis bring us -- by way of brief discussions of their fossils, weapons, and probable diet -- to the Europe and Asia of 600,00 years ago, and eventually, sometime between then and 100,000 years ago, to the first true Neanderthals. Along the way they acquired fire, a facility for making stone tools and wooden spears, and a primitive hunting and gathering culture.
Two chapters on the Neanderthals and their world follows, with occasional side trips into the history of archaeology and climatology. Fagan paints vivid portraits of the Neanderthals themselves, who were much more agile and clever than the popular stereotype, making good use of their challenging and varied habitats.
Fagan then drops back to Africa about 150,000 years ago, as interpreted by mitochondrial DNA studies, and the origins of anatomically modern homo sapiens. Some of these people moved north and east to the Middle East and Southeast Asia, where they and most of their stay-at-home African relatives were almost wiped out by the eruption of Mount Toba 73,500 years ago -- the greatest volcanic event of the last 23 million years. Perhaps as few as 10,000 people worldwide survived the ash clouds and the ensuing climatic effects. Some time during the next 20,000 years their descendants evolved the cooperative and cognitive skills which we have today, probably including articulate speech; moved back into the Near East, Eurasia, and Europe; and became the Cro-Magnons.
Fagan follows these people as they move up from Africa and into Europe, working his way slowly through the various cultural and archeological stages. The Campanian ash fall event of 39,000 years ago forms a useful reference horizon relative to the scattered remains of the settlements. The narration is sometimes somewhat repetitive, enlivened only by brief but well-drawn scenes of daily life in the different periods. Ice ages come and go, art and artifacts evolve, and the Neanderthal neighbors fade away. Finally the ice withdraws, and with the discovery and spread of agriculture the Cro-Magnons' hunting culture disappears, but their genetic lineages are still here in most modern Europeans.
This book took me a while to read; I laid it down in the middle and had difficulty returning to it. I have an undergraduate minor in anthropology and a life-long interest in archeaology, so the material was interesting to me, and Fagan does a good job of blending modern cultural studies with physical remains to bring the past to life. His knowledge is encyclopedic, and his enthusiasm for his subject is contagious, but the layout of the book -- mostly text with some occasional sidebar material; a scattering of line drawings, maps, and black and white illustrations; and eight pages of small but stunningly beautiful color illustrations in the middle -- lets him down. A more graphic presentation in a larger format could had made this a wonderful book. As it is, despite the author's expertise, it misses the mark for me.
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LibraryThing member GoofyOcean110
I am waffling about what to rate this one. It was interesting but probably could have been shortened a bit and I felt there were some flaws and some stylistic things I would have preferred otherwise.
It was a fast read (for me) - about a week, with most of it going by on two airplanes. The content
Its written for a general audience as a narrative of what we know and can surmise about Cro-Magnon evolution, migration/geography, contact with and domination over Neanderthals, and general way of life/culture/art etc. This book does a great job of not getting bogged down in minutiae, classifications, or jargon, all of which abound in the technical fields. It also does a great job of sticking to the big picture and broad sweeps of human pre-history. There's a lot we don't know and that's stated up front. There's a lot we can infer and that's stated up front. And there's a lot we can imagine things being like and that's stated up front.
But there was also a lot that was stated that was overstated. There were a lot of "must have been"s when really it's "could have been". Climate changes and shifts in glaciers and temperatures would very likely have an impact on animal and human migration and settlement patterns, but I'm not yet convinced to make the leap that climate change would directly influence the human human evolution or the propensity for culture, religion, art, etc.
I'm also fairly skeptical that life was quite as static over the millenia as is repeatedly stated -- while I can't think of a way to prove it, it just doesn't seem quite right that there weren't social changes that just may not be reflected in the archaeological artifacts. There were many comparisons made to current hunter/gatherer societies - but I have to imagine there were some pretty substantial differences there as well. Finally, throughout the book there were fluffy imaginary scenes meant to illustrate these peoples and make them 'real' which I felt were superfluous and made the book feel more like historical fiction. There were also many side bars that two 2-3 pages each that disrupted the flow of reading. Often figures didn't appear anywhere near where they were being discussed which resulted in a lot of page flipping. And there was a lot of poor quality foreshadowing that sounded sort of like "well this is a really cool topic, but we won't talk about it until Chapter 6".
Overall, the book was really good at piquing my interest and at pointing out all the things that we really *don't* know about life for the first anatomically modern humans. There just isn't the evidence or archaeological record to say much at all with confidence. Ultimately, this remains a book that says much and means little in a generally interesting way.
Cautiously recommended - go ahead if you're looking for something intriguing and big picture but take it with a grain of salt. 3.5 stars.
It was a fast read (for me) - about a week, with most of it going by on two airplanes. The content
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is fascinating, looking at the big picture was done well, and the story was well told in terms of bringing together the changes in climate/ice ages with the archaeology, anthropology, stone age technology and society.Its written for a general audience as a narrative of what we know and can surmise about Cro-Magnon evolution, migration/geography, contact with and domination over Neanderthals, and general way of life/culture/art etc. This book does a great job of not getting bogged down in minutiae, classifications, or jargon, all of which abound in the technical fields. It also does a great job of sticking to the big picture and broad sweeps of human pre-history. There's a lot we don't know and that's stated up front. There's a lot we can infer and that's stated up front. And there's a lot we can imagine things being like and that's stated up front.
But there was also a lot that was stated that was overstated. There were a lot of "must have been"s when really it's "could have been". Climate changes and shifts in glaciers and temperatures would very likely have an impact on animal and human migration and settlement patterns, but I'm not yet convinced to make the leap that climate change would directly influence the human human evolution or the propensity for culture, religion, art, etc.
I'm also fairly skeptical that life was quite as static over the millenia as is repeatedly stated -- while I can't think of a way to prove it, it just doesn't seem quite right that there weren't social changes that just may not be reflected in the archaeological artifacts. There were many comparisons made to current hunter/gatherer societies - but I have to imagine there were some pretty substantial differences there as well. Finally, throughout the book there were fluffy imaginary scenes meant to illustrate these peoples and make them 'real' which I felt were superfluous and made the book feel more like historical fiction. There were also many side bars that two 2-3 pages each that disrupted the flow of reading. Often figures didn't appear anywhere near where they were being discussed which resulted in a lot of page flipping. And there was a lot of poor quality foreshadowing that sounded sort of like "well this is a really cool topic, but we won't talk about it until Chapter 6".
Overall, the book was really good at piquing my interest and at pointing out all the things that we really *don't* know about life for the first anatomically modern humans. There just isn't the evidence or archaeological record to say much at all with confidence. Ultimately, this remains a book that says much and means little in a generally interesting way.
Cautiously recommended - go ahead if you're looking for something intriguing and big picture but take it with a grain of salt. 3.5 stars.
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LibraryThing member fyrefly98
Summary: The world was a very different place 45,000 years ago: Europe was colder and drier, with mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, and huge herds of reindeer wandering across France, and not one but two species of humans. However, one of these species - the Neanderthals - was declining, while the
Review: Some degree of story-telling is inevitable in the study of early human history, mainly because the questions we most want answers to are the ones that are least likely to leave traces in the archeological record. We can know what Cro-Magnons were like as as tool maker, we can extrapolate what they were like as hunters, but questions about what they were like as a culture are forever going to remain guesswork at best. To that end, Fagan does engage in quite a bit of storytelling, as well as extensive extrapolation from Inuit and other cold-weather traditional hunter-gatherers. To some extent, that's unavoidable in writing a book like this one, especially for a popular audience. However, I thought that Fagan wasn't always as clear as he could have been which parts of his storytelling was speculation, and which parts were supported by archaeological or comparative evidence.
The other problem with this book's extensive storytelling is that it allows Fagan's biases to shine through. During the section on the invention of the eyed needle, his description of sewing animal skins as "women's work" irked me, but what really bothered me was his treatment of the Neanderthals. Neanderthals are a tricky and fascinating case, at once so like us and yet so very different. Yet Fagan seemed predisposed to treat "different" as "less than" - most tellingly in his descriptions of bestiaries of animal fauna of the time, "of which [the Neanderthals] were a part", but which only "surrounded" the Cro-Magnons. (I call speciesism!) He was also determined to deny the Neanderthals any hint of a symbolic understanding or spiritual life, since they left behind no permanent trace of such (like cave paintings or carvings.) Given my early exposure to Jean Auel's Clan of the Cave Bear, and my (limited) knowledge of the diversity of modern tribal hunter-gatherer religions, this really got my hackles up: it felt like the equivalent of saying that if you don't build stone churches, not only are you not religious, you can't even conceive of what religion is. So I guess my problem was not that Fagan's interpretations are biased towards his perspective - again, that's unavoidable in a work like this - it's that his biases didn't match my own, and he didn't marshal enough evidence to convince me that his interpretation was right.
So, while I didn't always agree with his conclusions, I did think the book was put together in a nice way. Fagan is good at describing both archaeological facts and early human life in a way that is accessible to the layperson and that feels very immediate and familiar. There was also a nice section of color plates, as well as quite a few black and white illustrations and photos throughout the text itself. The book did feel like it was a bit rushed into production; the text in a few places could have used another pass by a copy editor to catch typesetting errors and stray commas, but more damningly, there were at least three pictures where the caption did not match the illustration (i.e. the picture showed stone tools labeled A through G, but the caption only described A through D.) Overall, though, I did learn some new things, and thought that Fagan did a nice job of putting all of the fragments of rock and bone back into their environmental and social contexts. 3.5 out of 5 stars.
Recommendation: Despite some reservations about Fagan's interpretations, I thought this was a readable and reasonably complete summation of early human history, and I would recommend it to any layperson with an interest in the subject... as long as they were willing to read with a critical eye.
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other - the Cro-Magnons, the first anatomically modern Homo sapiens - was expanding. Fagan argues that the Cro-Magnon's adaptability and innovative thinking allowed them to persist and thrive as the climate cooled and the challenges of Ice Age set in, and that their legacy persists today, not only in the cave paintings and stone tools they left behind, but also in every one of their descendants.Review: Some degree of story-telling is inevitable in the study of early human history, mainly because the questions we most want answers to are the ones that are least likely to leave traces in the archeological record. We can know what Cro-Magnons were like as as tool maker, we can extrapolate what they were like as hunters, but questions about what they were like as a culture are forever going to remain guesswork at best. To that end, Fagan does engage in quite a bit of storytelling, as well as extensive extrapolation from Inuit and other cold-weather traditional hunter-gatherers. To some extent, that's unavoidable in writing a book like this one, especially for a popular audience. However, I thought that Fagan wasn't always as clear as he could have been which parts of his storytelling was speculation, and which parts were supported by archaeological or comparative evidence.
The other problem with this book's extensive storytelling is that it allows Fagan's biases to shine through. During the section on the invention of the eyed needle, his description of sewing animal skins as "women's work" irked me, but what really bothered me was his treatment of the Neanderthals. Neanderthals are a tricky and fascinating case, at once so like us and yet so very different. Yet Fagan seemed predisposed to treat "different" as "less than" - most tellingly in his descriptions of bestiaries of animal fauna of the time, "of which [the Neanderthals] were a part", but which only "surrounded" the Cro-Magnons. (I call speciesism!) He was also determined to deny the Neanderthals any hint of a symbolic understanding or spiritual life, since they left behind no permanent trace of such (like cave paintings or carvings.) Given my early exposure to Jean Auel's Clan of the Cave Bear, and my (limited) knowledge of the diversity of modern tribal hunter-gatherer religions, this really got my hackles up: it felt like the equivalent of saying that if you don't build stone churches, not only are you not religious, you can't even conceive of what religion is. So I guess my problem was not that Fagan's interpretations are biased towards his perspective - again, that's unavoidable in a work like this - it's that his biases didn't match my own, and he didn't marshal enough evidence to convince me that his interpretation was right.
So, while I didn't always agree with his conclusions, I did think the book was put together in a nice way. Fagan is good at describing both archaeological facts and early human life in a way that is accessible to the layperson and that feels very immediate and familiar. There was also a nice section of color plates, as well as quite a few black and white illustrations and photos throughout the text itself. The book did feel like it was a bit rushed into production; the text in a few places could have used another pass by a copy editor to catch typesetting errors and stray commas, but more damningly, there were at least three pictures where the caption did not match the illustration (i.e. the picture showed stone tools labeled A through G, but the caption only described A through D.) Overall, though, I did learn some new things, and thought that Fagan did a nice job of putting all of the fragments of rock and bone back into their environmental and social contexts. 3.5 out of 5 stars.
Recommendation: Despite some reservations about Fagan's interpretations, I thought this was a readable and reasonably complete summation of early human history, and I would recommend it to any layperson with an interest in the subject... as long as they were willing to read with a critical eye.
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LibraryThing member JeffV
In Cro-Magnon, Brian Fagan delivers the current state-of-knowledge regarding our stone-age selves and summarizes archeological evidence to date. As someone with a casual interest the subject, I might read up on it every 10 years or so; watching a handful of documentaries in the meantime. Fagan
So what's new with the old? For starters, better dating techniques and mitochondrial DNA analysis has improved our understanding of the timeline. The Cro-Magnon (and focus of this book) are the ancestors of modern Europeans, and the book begins with their co-habitation with the neanderthal before moving into a series of eras defining differences in Cro-Magnon cultures. Fagan intersperses analysis of the current evidence with tales describing what he imagines daily life to be in a certain place and time. Much of this is speculation, and on problem with the book is that historic record is very fragmented and only very durable (ie, stone) artifacts remain. Make no mistake, the author does make some very good educated guesses that fit with the evidence at hand, but still, there is an awful lot of conjecture, and parts of the story are bound to change over time. In the end, I was less interested in the speculation and more interested in the significance of actual evidence.
There were a few editorial problems with the book worthy of note -- most having to do with captions of illustrations and references to them in the text. Some compound illustrations, for example, were lettered but the caption neither explained all of the letters, nor were always in sync with what the letter actually represented.
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collects the various wealth of scientific knowledge, and distills it for mass consumption.So what's new with the old? For starters, better dating techniques and mitochondrial DNA analysis has improved our understanding of the timeline. The Cro-Magnon (and focus of this book) are the ancestors of modern Europeans, and the book begins with their co-habitation with the neanderthal before moving into a series of eras defining differences in Cro-Magnon cultures. Fagan intersperses analysis of the current evidence with tales describing what he imagines daily life to be in a certain place and time. Much of this is speculation, and on problem with the book is that historic record is very fragmented and only very durable (ie, stone) artifacts remain. Make no mistake, the author does make some very good educated guesses that fit with the evidence at hand, but still, there is an awful lot of conjecture, and parts of the story are bound to change over time. In the end, I was less interested in the speculation and more interested in the significance of actual evidence.
There were a few editorial problems with the book worthy of note -- most having to do with captions of illustrations and references to them in the text. Some compound illustrations, for example, were lettered but the caption neither explained all of the letters, nor were always in sync with what the letter actually represented.
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LibraryThing member davesmind
Brian Fagan is an anthropologist and emeritus professor at UC Santa Barbara. He is an author of a number of books and scholarly articles on early man. This new book "Cro-Magnon is written for the non-specialist, but it does a good job at communicating much of the new research in the field. Overall,
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Fagan's writing is excellent. He begins many of the chapters with a narrative of life in the cro-magnon world. Although much of this narrative is speculative, I thought it was a good way to introduce the current interpretations of the findings. For me, the middle of the book was a bit slow, but it picked up towards the end. I certainly enjoyed the section on Magdalenian art (e.g., Lascaux caves). Show Less
LibraryThing member stretch
In Cro-Magnon, Brian Fagan summarizes the current archeological evidence of our anatomical ancestors to date. The book begins with their co-habitation of Cro-Magnon with the neanderthal before moving into a series of eras of defining differences in Cro-Magnon cultures. Fagan intersperses analysis
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of the current evidence with tales describing what he imagines daily life to be in a certain place and time. Much of this book is speculation with no definitive line between the fictional and factual aspects, which was quite frustrating. Make no mistake, the author does make some very good educated guesses that fit the evidence, but still, there is an awful lot of conjecture. In the end, I was less interested in the speculation and more interested in the significance of actual evidence. Show Less
LibraryThing member shadowmatter
I found "Cro-Magnon" to be a fine book for general audiences. I personally prefer more in-depth information. It was nice to be told in the Author's Note that the subject would not be specialized.
While reading I found myself asking questions and wanting to learn more. The Chapter Notes provided the
Overall I found the book easy to read and understand. It was a good starting place to discover what other information I might be interested in reading about.
While reading I found myself asking questions and wanting to learn more. The Chapter Notes provided the
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opportunity to seek more information. I found several references that I would like to read further.Overall I found the book easy to read and understand. It was a good starting place to discover what other information I might be interested in reading about.
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LibraryThing member cweller
Fascinating book on the early life of modern man. Brian Fagan provides a clear picture on how modern humans emerged and their interactions with Neanderthal man.
LibraryThing member stevetempo
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Brian Fagan's latest work. I don't have formal training in paleontology, but I do enjoy reading a broad range of popular work on science and Cro-Magnon fills an area I've often been curious about but have never had the opportunity to delve deeper. Though out the book,
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Dr. Fagan's enthusiasm and objective analysis held my fascination as he uses the latest research and informed speculation to paint the most current view science can offer of these early humans. The book also gives a great intro to prehistoric history as science currently understands, by detailing the latest scientific knowledge and techniques. Many of these detailed essays of current knowledge areas are broken out (many with diagrams) and placed appropriately within given sections of the book. I liked how the first half of the book contrasts the Neanderthal with the Cro-Magnon. This approach provided insights into both hominids. Dr. Fagan also started many of his chapters with a vivid description and account of a possible moment in the life of Cro-Magnons. From this vivid image he delved into the specific topic making it very understandable and more meaningful. A excellent popular science book on a topic not always so available. Highly recommended! Show Less
LibraryThing member Stbalbach
I know very little about pre-history and thought this would be a good introduction to Europe 60k->11k BP. Maybe it was because I listened to the audio-version, I wanted to give it higher marks, but it just didn't gel. The first half is either a repeat of well known information, or specialized
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knowledge that I could not follow. The second half is better as it gets into how humans lived, however as soon as things got interesting it quickly moved on. If the first half of the book had been condensed into a chapter or two, and second half filled out more, I think it would have been better. In any case I did learn some things and look forward to exploring more, it peaked my interest, Fagan gives some dramatic and evocative scenes that illustrate the character of the age. Show Less
LibraryThing member OldRoses
Brian Fagan is one of my favorite authors. I was first introduced to his books in college. They were the text books in the prehistory courses I took for my major in archeology. More recently, he has been writing about the effects of climate change on human history. He has a talent for writing about
With his most recent book, he has returned to the subject of prehistory with a comprehensive overview of the first anatomically modern humans, who he refers to as “Cro- Magnon” after the rock shelter where the first remains were discovered. Cro-Magnons are best known as the people who created the magnificent cave paintings in Europe.
When Cro-Magnons migrated into Europe from the Near East, it was already inhabited by the Neanderthals, relatives but not direct ancestors. Dr. Fagan refers to the Neanderthals as the “Quiet People” because they lacked fluent speech. They also lacked symbolism, religion, art and innovation. Their way of life was unchanged for hundreds of thousands of years. Unable to compete with their more advanced cousins, the Cro-Magnons, the Neanderthals gradually died out.
The Ice Age was not uniformly cold. There were periods of warmth when vegetation and animal populations changed. The Cro-Magnons were experts at adapting to the changing conditions, hunting large game when it was cold and smaller game when it was warm. The tools they left behind reflect the constant innovations that made them so successful. Their art, musical instruments and burials reveal their rich spiritual life.
The Cro-Magnons spread out all over Europe, hunting, foraging, constantly adapting to changing conditions for tens of thousands of years until the next wave of migration swept into Europe: farmers from the Near East. Did the Cro-Magnons die out like the Neanderthals before them? DNA tells us no. 85% of Europeans are direct descendants of Cro-Magnons.
“Cro-Magnon” offers the latest theories developed from hundreds of years of archeology devoted to European prehistory. The information is presented in a very readable form. No prior knowledge is needed by the reader. All specialized terms are explained. Brian Fagan has done it again, taken a vast and complicated subject and produced a book that is both educational and engaging.
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complex subjects like climate change so that they are comprehensible to the lay reader without “dumbing down” the material. With his most recent book, he has returned to the subject of prehistory with a comprehensive overview of the first anatomically modern humans, who he refers to as “Cro- Magnon” after the rock shelter where the first remains were discovered. Cro-Magnons are best known as the people who created the magnificent cave paintings in Europe.
When Cro-Magnons migrated into Europe from the Near East, it was already inhabited by the Neanderthals, relatives but not direct ancestors. Dr. Fagan refers to the Neanderthals as the “Quiet People” because they lacked fluent speech. They also lacked symbolism, religion, art and innovation. Their way of life was unchanged for hundreds of thousands of years. Unable to compete with their more advanced cousins, the Cro-Magnons, the Neanderthals gradually died out.
The Ice Age was not uniformly cold. There were periods of warmth when vegetation and animal populations changed. The Cro-Magnons were experts at adapting to the changing conditions, hunting large game when it was cold and smaller game when it was warm. The tools they left behind reflect the constant innovations that made them so successful. Their art, musical instruments and burials reveal their rich spiritual life.
The Cro-Magnons spread out all over Europe, hunting, foraging, constantly adapting to changing conditions for tens of thousands of years until the next wave of migration swept into Europe: farmers from the Near East. Did the Cro-Magnons die out like the Neanderthals before them? DNA tells us no. 85% of Europeans are direct descendants of Cro-Magnons.
“Cro-Magnon” offers the latest theories developed from hundreds of years of archeology devoted to European prehistory. The information is presented in a very readable form. No prior knowledge is needed by the reader. All specialized terms are explained. Brian Fagan has done it again, taken a vast and complicated subject and produced a book that is both educational and engaging.
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LibraryThing member Paul_S
Well, this became dated and wrong rather quickly. A lot of far reaching assumptions and author's imagination running wild without any scientific basis given.
LibraryThing member The_Hibernator
[Cro-Magnon], by Brian Fagan introduces what is currently known (and speculated) about Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals. Fagan spices up his narrative with imaginative vignettes of Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons as they may have lived. I imagine such vignettes would appeal to most everyone in the general
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public, including teens, though they may be a little irritating to a hard-core scientist who isn't interested in imaginative speculation (just a guess...I loved them!). Another excellent feature of this book is that it has incorporated historic scientific discoveries about prehistoric peoples with modern science like mitochondrial DNA tracing. Again, this feature would be of interest to most of the general public, but isn't meant for experts--there are a lot of simplifications for the sake of clarity. I think this book is an excellent introduction to prehistoric peoples that could be enjoyed by both adults and teens (even precocious pre-teens). Show Less
LibraryThing member Dystopos
Because of rapid advances in climatology, statistical analysis of artifacts and genetic research, there is a clear need for general re-surveys of what we can now know about early European populations. We are indebted to Fagan for making such a well-informed stab at it. He is clearly steeped in the
The story itself is both sparse and vast. Sparse in the sense that there's very little evidence to go on, and vast in the sense that we have to extrapolate such meager pickings to tell the story of hundreds of thousands of years of human activity across three continents.
It's a very tough task, and Fagan gamely makes the best of it, assembling a few vivid scenes -- verbal dioramas -- that evoke a reasonable sense of authenticity. More valuable, perhaps, are the descriptions of how specific kinds of research have provided new knowledge and shed some faint light from different angles.
Unfortunately, Fagan easily gets bogged down when there's not enough material. Several times you find yourself re-reading descriptions of the same things described with the same adverbs. I think the book would benefit greatly from stripping out the fluff and providing more description of specific sites, the evidence they have provided, and the manner in which that evidence has been unearthed and analyzed. Where he does go into that kind of detail, the writing feels more sure and spare. Where he tries to develop the bigger picture, the misty gaps become too apparent.
Lastly, there are several annoyances I found with my copy, which was marked "advanced reading copy" and carries the disclaimer that it is printed from uncorrected proofs. The final publication will benefit greatly from careful editing. In particular, there were problems with redundancy, spelling, grammar, and botched references to illustrations. (And I missed having the color plates to enjoy)
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current state of knowledge and we can be grateful for his willingness to share with general readers. The story itself is both sparse and vast. Sparse in the sense that there's very little evidence to go on, and vast in the sense that we have to extrapolate such meager pickings to tell the story of hundreds of thousands of years of human activity across three continents.
It's a very tough task, and Fagan gamely makes the best of it, assembling a few vivid scenes -- verbal dioramas -- that evoke a reasonable sense of authenticity. More valuable, perhaps, are the descriptions of how specific kinds of research have provided new knowledge and shed some faint light from different angles.
Unfortunately, Fagan easily gets bogged down when there's not enough material. Several times you find yourself re-reading descriptions of the same things described with the same adverbs. I think the book would benefit greatly from stripping out the fluff and providing more description of specific sites, the evidence they have provided, and the manner in which that evidence has been unearthed and analyzed. Where he does go into that kind of detail, the writing feels more sure and spare. Where he tries to develop the bigger picture, the misty gaps become too apparent.
Lastly, there are several annoyances I found with my copy, which was marked "advanced reading copy" and carries the disclaimer that it is printed from uncorrected proofs. The final publication will benefit greatly from careful editing. In particular, there were problems with redundancy, spelling, grammar, and botched references to illustrations. (And I missed having the color plates to enjoy)
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LibraryThing member robrod1
This prehistoric history of mankind was fascinating. The author's narrative describes the survival of the fittest in very real terms. Anyone interested in archaeology or the evolution of man would find this book to be an excellent primer. Fagen takes us through the general framework of cultural
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labels based on tool methadologies, such as the Mousterian, Aurignacian, Gravettian and Magdalenian cultures. He describes a great deal about their way of life and hunting strategies, based on extant people who are still facing extreme environments. I found the book to be relevant and interesting and complete, with super notes for those interested in more. The only problem I noticed with this book is that some of the diagrams are confusing or maybe wrong, but I figured them out, I think. Maybe it is the edition that I have which was printed in 2011. However, the colorplates in the paperback edition that I have were quite good. Show Less
LibraryThing member Arkrayder
This was a really interesting book and the author went into good descriptive detail about the history of the Cro-Magnons. Fascinating to think Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon shared the earth for a time.
LibraryThing member Yiggy
Cro-Magnon was a fascinating splice of a sort of docu-drama, re-enactment of prehistoric life with an explanation of some of the key archaeological findings concerning early humans.
Fagan starts with neanderthals, breathing life into our late evolutionary cousins. The 'scenes' Fagan depicts in this
This, in a way, is a theme of the book- as Fagan progresses chronologically he has more evidence to work with, making his re-enactments more believable but necessarilly less fantastic. As the book is finishing up the content feels a little drier since there are more findings to describe, but none-the-less Fagan provides some teasing glimpses of the first breaths of more complex civilization.
In the end I think Cro-Magnon is a blend of predominantly non-fiction with a sprinkling of fiction that mostly works.
Fagan starts with neanderthals, breathing life into our late evolutionary cousins. The 'scenes' Fagan depicts in this
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opening theme of the book are some of the funnest to think about, but seem the least plausible given the paucity of findings from that time. This, in a way, is a theme of the book- as Fagan progresses chronologically he has more evidence to work with, making his re-enactments more believable but necessarilly less fantastic. As the book is finishing up the content feels a little drier since there are more findings to describe, but none-the-less Fagan provides some teasing glimpses of the first breaths of more complex civilization.
In the end I think Cro-Magnon is a blend of predominantly non-fiction with a sprinkling of fiction that mostly works.
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LibraryThing member gcorrell
I like Fagan and appreciate his ability as a scientist and writer. I wanted more, though. I feel guilty even saying this.
It's not that he doesn't write evocative passages about what life for Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons must have been like. And his science is as details-rich and thorough as one
It's an organization problem. Because there are so many gaps in the science, what we don't know is a huge problem for the best writer, and he is certainly one of those. He is left to repetition. I think a sequence and visual re-organization would fix this.
Every time he gets going on imagining scenes from 9,000, 15,000, 40,000 years ago, he veers abruptly back to facts and methods, artifacts and details. understand, not a bit of it is wrong or out of place. And I love both. It's just that I was left with a feeling of being in a '67 Jaguar E type chained to a rock. Revving, revving, then engine off.
See why I feel guilty? This book more than satisfies as time-travel and science. Brian knows this material, and there is no other book like it. I just wanted him to let 'er rip more. Perhaps every other chapter should have been "let me take you back".
It's not that he doesn't write evocative passages about what life for Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons must have been like. And his science is as details-rich and thorough as one
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would hope.It's an organization problem. Because there are so many gaps in the science, what we don't know is a huge problem for the best writer, and he is certainly one of those. He is left to repetition. I think a sequence and visual re-organization would fix this.
Every time he gets going on imagining scenes from 9,000, 15,000, 40,000 years ago, he veers abruptly back to facts and methods, artifacts and details. understand, not a bit of it is wrong or out of place. And I love both. It's just that I was left with a feeling of being in a '67 Jaguar E type chained to a rock. Revving, revving, then engine off.
See why I feel guilty? This book more than satisfies as time-travel and science. Brian knows this material, and there is no other book like it. I just wanted him to let 'er rip more. Perhaps every other chapter should have been "let me take you back".
Show Less
Original publication date
2010-03-02