Neanderthals on the Edge

Neanderthals on the Edge
Author: Chris Stringer
Publisher: Oxbow Books Limited
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2000
Genre: History
ISBN:

In 1998 a conference was held to mark the 150th anniversary of the famous Gibraltar skull. The papers reflect the state of our knowledge about the role played by Gibraltar and the southern Iberian Peninsula in the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic. Contents: Neandertal landscapes (W Davies, J Stewart & T H van Andel) ; Mediterranean perspective on the Middle/Upper Palaeolithic (O Bar-Yosef) ; Mousterian in Mediterranean France (C C Szmidt) ; Late Neandertals in the South West of France (J-P Rigaud) ; Châtelperronian chronology and the case for Neanderthal/Modern Human `acculturation' (P Mellars) ; Final Acheulian to the Middle Palaeolithic in the Iberian Peninsula (F G Pacheco, A Santiago Perez, J Ma Gutierrez Lopez, E Mata Almonte & L Aguilera Rodriguez) ; Middle Palaeolithic technocomplexes and lithic industries in the Northwest Iberian Peninsula (J A Cano Pan, F Giles Pacheco, E Aguirre, A Santiago Perez, F J Garcia Prieto, E Mata Almonte, J Ma Gutierrez & O Prieto Reina) ; Mousterian hearths at Abric Romaní, Catalonia (I Pastó, E Allué & Josep Vallverdú) ; Late Middle Palaeolithic in the Northwest of the Iberian Peninsula (M Vaquero & E Carbonell) ; Middle-Upper Palaeolithic transition in Cantabrian Spain (V Cabrera, A Pike-Tay, M Lloret & F Bernaldo de Quiros) ; Middle-Upper Palaeolithic transition in Portugal (L Raposo) ; Late extinction of Iberian Neanderthals

The Invaders

The Invaders
Author: Pat Shipman
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 283
Release: 2015-03-10
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0674736761

A Times Higher Education Book of the Week Approximately 200,000 years ago, as modern humans began to radiate out from their evolutionary birthplace in Africa, Neanderthals were already thriving in Europe—descendants of a much earlier migration of the African genus Homo. But when modern humans eventually made their way to Europe 45,000 years ago, Neanderthals suddenly vanished. Ever since the first Neanderthal bones were identified in 1856, scientists have been vexed by the question, why did modern humans survive while their closest known relatives went extinct? “Shipman admits that scientists have yet to find genetic evidence that would prove her theory. Time will tell if she’s right. For now, read this book for an engagingly comprehensive overview of the rapidly evolving understanding of our own origins.” —Toby Lester, Wall Street Journal “Are humans the ultimate invasive species? So contends anthropologist Pat Shipman—and Neanderthals, she opines, were among our first victims. The relationship between Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis is laid out cleanly, along with genetic and other evidence. Shipman posits provocatively that the deciding factor in the triumph of our ancestors was the domestication of wolves.” —Daniel Cressey, Nature

Climate, Clothing, and Agriculture in Prehistory

Climate, Clothing, and Agriculture in Prehistory
Author: Ian Gilligan
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 347
Release: 2019
Genre: Design
ISBN: 1108470084

The first book on the origin of clothes shows why climate change was crucial - for the origin of agriculture too.

How To Think Like a Neandertal

How To Think Like a Neandertal
Author: Thomas Wynn
Publisher: OUP USA
Total Pages: 223
Release: 2012-01-26
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0199742820

In this book, the authors provide a fascinating narrative of the mental life of Neandertals, to the extent that it can be reconstructed from fossil and archaeological remains.

The Last Neanderthal

The Last Neanderthal
Author: Claire Cameron
Publisher: Little, Brown
Total Pages: 267
Release: 2017-04-25
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0316314455

From the author of The Bear, the enthralling story of two women separated by millennia, but linked by an epic journey that will transform them both. Forty thousand years in the past, the last family of Neanderthals roams the earth. After a crushingly hard winter, their numbers are low, but Girl, the oldest daughter, is just coming of age and her family is determined to travel to the annual meeting place and find her a mate. But the unforgiving landscape takes its toll, and Girl is left alone to care for Runt, a foundling of unknown origin. As Girl and Runt face the coming winter storms, Girl realizes she has one final chance to save her people, even if it means sacrificing part of herself. In the modern day, archaeologist Rosamund Gale works well into her pregnancy, racing to excavate newly found Neanderthal artifacts before her baby comes. Linked across the ages by the shared experience of early motherhood, both stories examine the often taboo corners of women's lives. Haunting, suspenseful, and profoundly moving, The Last Neanderthal asks us to reconsider all we think we know about what it means to be human.

Crossing the Human Threshold

Crossing the Human Threshold
Author: Matt Pope
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 294
Release: 2017-11-22
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1315439301

When was the human threshold crossed? What is the evidence for evolving humans and their emerging humanity? This volume explores in a global overview the archaeology of the Middle Pleistocene, 800,000 to 130,000 years ago when evidence for innovative cultural behaviour appeared. The evidence shows that the threshold was crossed slowly, by a variety of human ancestors, and was not confined to one part of the Old World. Crossing the Human Threshold examines the changing evidence during this period for the use of place, landscape and technology. It focuses on the emergence of persistent places, and associated developments in tool use, hunting strategies and the control of fire, represented across the Old World by deeply stratified cave sites. These include the most important sites for the archaeology of human origins in the Levant, South Africa, Asia and Europe, presented here as evidence for innovation in landscape-thinking during the Middle Pleistocene. The volume also examines persistence at open locales through a cutting-edge review of the archaeology of Northern France and England. Crossing the Human Threshold is for the worldwide community of students and researchers studying early hominins and human evolution. It presents new archaeological data. It frames the evidence within current debates to understand the differences and similarities between ourselves and our ancient ancestors.

The Middle and Upper Paleolithic Archeology of the Levant and Beyond

The Middle and Upper Paleolithic Archeology of the Levant and Beyond
Author: Yoshihiro Nishiaki
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 222
Release: 2017-12-06
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9811068267

This volume is a compilation of results from sessions of the Second International Conference on the Replacement of Neanderthals by Modern Humans, which took place between November 30 and December 6, 2014, in Hokkaido, Japan. Similar to the first conference held in 2012 in Tokyo, the 2014 conference (RNMH2014) aimed to compile the results of the latest multidisciplinary approaches investigating the issues surrounding the replacement of Neanderthals by modern humans. The results of the sessions, supplemented by off-site contributions, center on the archeology of the Middle and Upper Paleolithic of the Levant and beyond. The first part of this volume presents recent findings from the Levant, while the second part focuses on the neighboring regions, namely, the Caucasus, the Zagros, and South Asia. The 13 chapters in this volume highlight the distinct nature of the cultural occurrences during the Middle and Upper Paleolithic periods of the Levant, displaying a continuous development as well as a combination of lithic traditions that may have originated in different regions. This syncretism, which is an unusual occurrence in the regions discussed in this volume, reinforces the importance of the Levant as a region for interpreting the RNMH phenomenon in West Asia.

The Wolf

The Wolf
Author: Leo Carew
Publisher:
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2018
Genre: FICTION
ISBN: 9780316521352

Violence and death come to the land under the Northern Sky when two fierce races break their age-old fragile peace and start an all-out war in this thrilling and savagely visceral epic fantasy. Beyond the Black River, among the forests and mountains of the north, lives an ancient race of people. Their lives are measured in centuries, not decades; they revel in wilderness and resilience, and they scorn wealth and comfort. By contrast, those in the south live in the moment, their lives more fleeting. They crave wealth and power; their ambition is limitless, and their cunning unmatched. When the armies of the south flood across the Black river, the fragile peace between the two races is shattered. On a lightning-struck battlefield, the two sides will fight - for their people, for their land, for their very survival. Under the Northern SkyThe Wolf.

Kindred

Kindred
Author: Rebecca Wragg Sykes
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 417
Release: 2020-08-20
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1472937481

** WINNER OF THE PEN HESSELL-TILTMAN PRIZE 2021 ** 'Beautiful, evocative, authoritative.' Professor Brian Cox 'Important reading not just for anyone interested in these ancient cousins of ours, but also for anyone interested in humanity.' Yuval Noah Harari Kindred is the definitive guide to the Neanderthals. Since their discovery more than 160 years ago, Neanderthals have metamorphosed from the losers of the human family tree to A-list hominins. Rebecca Wragg Sykes uses her experience at the cutting edge of Palaeolithic research to share our new understanding of Neanderthals, shoving aside clichés of rag-clad brutes in an icy wasteland. She reveals them to be curious, clever connoisseurs of their world, technologically inventive and ecologically adaptable. Above all, they were successful survivors for more than 300,000 years, during times of massive climatic upheaval. Much of what defines us was also in Neanderthals, and their DNA is still inside us. Planning, co-operation, altruism, craftsmanship, aesthetic sense, imagination, perhaps even a desire for transcendence beyond mortality. Kindred does for Neanderthals what Sapiens did for us, revealing a deeper, more nuanced story where humanity itself is our ancient, shared inheritance.

Updating Neanderthals

Updating Neanderthals
Author: Francesca Romagnoli
Publisher: Academic Press
Total Pages: 384
Release: 2022-06-28
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0128214295

Updating Neanderthals: Understanding Behavioral Complexity in the Late Middle Paleolithic provides comprehensive knowledge on Neanderthals who lived throughout the European and Asian continents. The book synthesizes historical information about the study of Middle Paleolithic populations and presents current debates about their genetics, subsistence, technology, social and cognitive behaviors. It focuses on the last phase of Neanderthal settlements and presents the main patterns of modern humans across Europe. Written by international experts on the Middle Paleolithic who have conducted innovative studies in the last three decades, this book explores the implications of interactions between different human species, including Neanderthals, Denisovans and Sapiens. In addition, the book discusses the diversity and variability of human adaptations and behaviors in the changing climate and environment of the Late Pleistocene, and the relationship between these behaviors, demography and cognitive capabilities. - Offers a comprehensive update on the variability and diversity of Neanderthal behaviors during the Late Pleistocene - Presents an interdisciplinary reconstruction of Neanderthals by assessing archaeology, paleontology, paleoecology, anthropology, genetics and cognition - Reviews the reliability of archaeological data and the theoretical and methodological advances of the last 30 years - Discusses the most debated Neanderthal themes, such as demography, diet, socio-economy and art