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A Short History of Humanity: A New History of Old Europe
A radical retelling of humanity's restless, genetically mingled history based on the revolutionary science of archaeogenetics.
In this eye-opening book, Johannes Krause, director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, and journalist Thomas Trappe offer a new way of understanding our past, present, and future. Krause is a pioneer in the revolutionary new science of archaeogenetics, archaeology augmented by revolutionary DNA sequencing technology, which has allowed scientists to uncover a new version of human history reaching back more than 100,000 years. Using this technology to re-examine human bones from the distant past, Krause has been able to map not only the genetic profiles of the dead, but also their ancient journeys.
In this concise narrative he tells us their long-forgotten stories of migration and intersection. It's well known that many human populations carry genetic material from Neanderthals; but, as Krause and his colleagues discovered, we also share DNA with a newly uncovered human form, the Denisovans. We know now that a wave of farmers from Anatolia migrated into Europe 8,000 years ago, essentially displacing the dark-skinned, blue-eyed hunter-gatherers who preceded them. The farmer DNA is one of the core genetic components of contemporary Europeans and European Americans. Though the first people to cross into North and South America have long been assumed to be primarily of East Asian descent, we now know that they also share DNA with contemporary Europeans and European Americans. Genetics has an unfortunate history of smuggling in racist ideologies, but our most cutting-edge science tells us that genetic categories in no way reflect national borders.
Krause vividly introduces us to prehistoric cultures such as the Aurignacians, innovative artisans who carved animals, people, and even flutes from bird bones more than 40,000 years ago; the Varna, who buried their loved ones with gold long before the Pharaohs of Egypt; and the Gravettians, big-game hunters who were Europe's most successful early settlers until they perished in the ice age. This informed retelling of the human epic confirms that immigration and genetic mingling have always defined our species and that who we are is a question of culture not genetics.
In this eye-opening book, Johannes Krause, director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, and journalist Thomas Trappe offer a new way of understanding our past, present, and future. Krause is a pioneer in the revolutionary new science of archaeogenetics, archaeology augmented by revolutionary DNA sequencing technology, which has allowed scientists to uncover a new version of human history reaching back more than 100,000 years. Using this technology to re-examine human bones from the distant past, Krause has been able to map not only the genetic profiles of the dead, but also their ancient journeys.
In this concise narrative he tells us their long-forgotten stories of migration and intersection. It's well known that many human populations carry genetic material from Neanderthals; but, as Krause and his colleagues discovered, we also share DNA with a newly uncovered human form, the Denisovans. We know now that a wave of farmers from Anatolia migrated into Europe 8,000 years ago, essentially displacing the dark-skinned, blue-eyed hunter-gatherers who preceded them. The farmer DNA is one of the core genetic components of contemporary Europeans and European Americans. Though the first people to cross into North and South America have long been assumed to be primarily of East Asian descent, we now know that they also share DNA with contemporary Europeans and European Americans. Genetics has an unfortunate history of smuggling in racist ideologies, but our most cutting-edge science tells us that genetic categories in no way reflect national borders.
Krause vividly introduces us to prehistoric cultures such as the Aurignacians, innovative artisans who carved animals, people, and even flutes from bird bones more than 40,000 years ago; the Varna, who buried their loved ones with gold long before the Pharaohs of Egypt; and the Gravettians, big-game hunters who were Europe's most successful early settlers until they perished in the ice age. This informed retelling of the human epic confirms that immigration and genetic mingling have always defined our species and that who we are is a question of culture not genetics.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published February 22, 2019
380 people are currently reading
5232 people want to read
About the author
Johannes Krause
11 books26 followersJohannes Krause is a German biochemist with a research focus on historical infectious diseases and human evolution. Since 2010, he has been professor of archaeology and paleogenetics at the University of Tübingen.
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November 21, 2021
i have re-entered full force into my phase of wanting to learn about early humans. this book came up in a search of my library's database, and i buddy read it with bonnie to force my interests upon her. using dna testing on ancient skeletons, these authors and their colleagues are able to map out the earliest humans and track their migrations and get a glimpse into their lifestyles, which i thought was so fascinating.
some fun facts i learned in this book are that the first musical instrument ever discovered was a flute made from a bird's bone, and it will take white australians 10,000 years to adapt to the sunlight there, as the indigenous people have. not to mention, i'm really upset that the massive Irish Elk is extinct, and disappointed that i'm only now just learning about them because they look cool as fuck.
this is going to be my first book of many on the subject of early humans, and i really liked it! if anything, now i have some fun facts to spout off to new coworkers about humanity, such as the DNA of east and west africans is more different than the DNA of europeans and east asians. cool right??? science!!
some fun facts i learned in this book are that the first musical instrument ever discovered was a flute made from a bird's bone, and it will take white australians 10,000 years to adapt to the sunlight there, as the indigenous people have. not to mention, i'm really upset that the massive Irish Elk is extinct, and disappointed that i'm only now just learning about them because they look cool as fuck.
this is going to be my first book of many on the subject of early humans, and i really liked it! if anything, now i have some fun facts to spout off to new coworkers about humanity, such as the DNA of east and west africans is more different than the DNA of europeans and east asians. cool right??? science!!
October 28, 2020
Over the past weeks, I have read numerous books on archeo-genetics, a new scientific domain that uses genetic research to get a picture of the earliest human history. Initially, this was done through the analysis of the DNA of current populations, and by focusing on the mutations in them, one could look back in time, albeit with very rough margins. By studying the human fossils themselves and extracting DNA from them, one succeeds in digging much deeper and making more precise connections.
Johannes Krause (° 1980) is head of research departments in Jena and Leipzig (Germany) and has definitely earned his spurs in this field. Fortunately, he called on the publicist Thomas Trappe for this book, making it much more readable than Harvard professor David Reich's Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past. For those who follow this rapidly evolving domain of archeo-genetics, Krause's book offers some new elements, but it is especially valuable because of the handsome overview of the early human history (more specific in Europe). Krause is also much more realistic about the possibilities and limitations of archeo-genetics than Reich. Definitely recommended as an introduction. More about the content in my review on my History account on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....
Johannes Krause (° 1980) is head of research departments in Jena and Leipzig (Germany) and has definitely earned his spurs in this field. Fortunately, he called on the publicist Thomas Trappe for this book, making it much more readable than Harvard professor David Reich's Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past. For those who follow this rapidly evolving domain of archeo-genetics, Krause's book offers some new elements, but it is especially valuable because of the handsome overview of the early human history (more specific in Europe). Krause is also much more realistic about the possibilities and limitations of archeo-genetics than Reich. Definitely recommended as an introduction. More about the content in my review on my History account on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....
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October 22, 2024This book on paleo-genetics is less detailed and less technical than David Reich's, Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past, who is the absolute authority in this new field. But Krause's book gives a better overview and is a lot more readable. It gives the state of the art in research on ancient human and pre-human fossils, as of 2019. That's almost 2 years more recent than that of Reich and that is absolutely relevant in this enormously rapidly evolving field. For example, Krause can pay more attention to the revolutionary discovery of the 'Denisova', an extinct human species whose traces can be found mainly in East Asia and Oceania. Denisova lived at about the same time as the well-known Neanderthal and perhaps just as its congener came to an end with the advent of our species, the Homo Sapiens. However, I should point out here that Krause's book, unlike that of Reich, is much more limited to Europe.
The middle part of the book discusses the state of affairs in the research into the various waves of migration in Europe over the last 100,000 years. Krause uses the genetic research here almost exclusively in addition to that of classic archeology. But in the last third of his book, he dives into his specialty: genetic research into diseases and epidemics. This is of course particularly interesting in the light of the current Covid19 pandemic. For example, he formulates the theory that the nomadic population from Southern Russia and Central Asia that flooded Europe some 5,000 years ago may have been able to do so because merchants had just brought the plague bacteria to Europe from the steppe, thereby decimating the population there. It explains why the genetic material of those nomads still dominates the European population. And there are many other interesting titbits to read in this chapter.
Krause's book confirms the view that the new field of paleo-genetics offers many interesting additions and corrections to the classical archaeological picture we have of the earliest human history. But at the same time, it should be approached with the necessary caution and always seen in a broader context (I wrote more on that in my review on David Reich's book).
The middle part of the book discusses the state of affairs in the research into the various waves of migration in Europe over the last 100,000 years. Krause uses the genetic research here almost exclusively in addition to that of classic archeology. But in the last third of his book, he dives into his specialty: genetic research into diseases and epidemics. This is of course particularly interesting in the light of the current Covid19 pandemic. For example, he formulates the theory that the nomadic population from Southern Russia and Central Asia that flooded Europe some 5,000 years ago may have been able to do so because merchants had just brought the plague bacteria to Europe from the steppe, thereby decimating the population there. It explains why the genetic material of those nomads still dominates the European population. And there are many other interesting titbits to read in this chapter.
Krause's book confirms the view that the new field of paleo-genetics offers many interesting additions and corrections to the classical archaeological picture we have of the earliest human history. But at the same time, it should be approached with the necessary caution and always seen in a broader context (I wrote more on that in my review on David Reich's book).
May 7, 2022
A single death is a tragedy. A million deaths is a statistic -- Joseph Stalin
There is a newly-emerging field of science called archeogenetics, and this book describes some of the great new information that this field has donated to our collective wisdom. As with anything that can't be observed directly, it creates a model of the world based on the data collected. Using this method, the authors describe everything from how populations have shifted within Europe over the past 60,000 years or so (high degree of confidence) to where languages came from (highly speculative, in my view.) The weakness of the book is that all of the interpretations of data are presented as fact. Lacking any sort of explanation of how archeogenetics actually works, how is the reader supposed to judge the credibility of the authors' judgements?
Archeogenetics is based on the ability to grind up old bones and extract DNA from them, and then analyzing the DNA. You don't learn much from a single skeleton, but by testing thousands of skeletons from varying epochs, a fairly clear picture has emerged. 40,000 years ago, the inhabitants of Europe were quite arresting-looking:
They have passed down to us through the ages the Venus of Willendorf, the amazing cave paintings in Lascoux, and flutes that can still be played. They displaced the Neanderthals and Denisovans that were already in the area (but not before getting some of those caveman genes into their genetic legacy, about which the less speculation the better as far as I'm concerned. ) These people were hunter-gatherers with amazing dentition and plenty of leisure time for arts (and for domesticating dogs). In addition to lethal weapons they developed a killer sense of style, as this woman buried in present-day Germany with her child demonstrates:
I thought the lipstick was the museum reconstructionists' artistic license getting away from them, but after doing a bit of research I learned that she was indeed buried with a small pouch of what looks for all the world like lipstick. I would like to see dead Capreolus capreolus millenery brought back to catwalk, and pronto. And while her look was to die for, perhaps it worked too well, as she and her type were nearly completely removed from the European gene pool about 8000 years ago, displaced by pale-skinned folk from the Middle East, who pushed west from around Lake Baikal in Russian all the way to the British Isles, but not much south of the Alps.
So far, the story seems to me to be pretty well borne out by the science. The scientists had thousands of skeletons to work from, of well-traced age, and while there were doubtless anomalies, there is enough consistency in the data to ignore the inevitable handful of puzzle pieces that don't quite fit.
At this point, the authors show the dangers of letting their enthusiasm overcome common sense. There was no explanation of the nitty-gritty of how archeogenetic models are actually built, and most crucially, no discussion of the technique's limitations. Is the reader just supposed to sit back and believe, as this book would have us do, that tuberculosis arrived in the New World not with the hacking coughs of our hardy ancestors, but rather arrived from seals who had undertaken the (rather taxing, even for a seal) swim from Africa to Brazil? And does the evolution of language really follow the same rules as genetic evolution, in which changes in spelling are accorded the same weight as changes in the genetic code?
I mean, those seals were sick, too.
Truly masterful writers know the value of writing about a specific individual, whose death strikes the reader as a tragedy. This book was written by amateur writers about statistics. Interesting, but not riveting.
There is a newly-emerging field of science called archeogenetics, and this book describes some of the great new information that this field has donated to our collective wisdom. As with anything that can't be observed directly, it creates a model of the world based on the data collected. Using this method, the authors describe everything from how populations have shifted within Europe over the past 60,000 years or so (high degree of confidence) to where languages came from (highly speculative, in my view.) The weakness of the book is that all of the interpretations of data are presented as fact. Lacking any sort of explanation of how archeogenetics actually works, how is the reader supposed to judge the credibility of the authors' judgements?
Archeogenetics is based on the ability to grind up old bones and extract DNA from them, and then analyzing the DNA. You don't learn much from a single skeleton, but by testing thousands of skeletons from varying epochs, a fairly clear picture has emerged. 40,000 years ago, the inhabitants of Europe were quite arresting-looking:
They have passed down to us through the ages the Venus of Willendorf, the amazing cave paintings in Lascoux, and flutes that can still be played. They displaced the Neanderthals and Denisovans that were already in the area (but not before getting some of those caveman genes into their genetic legacy, about which the less speculation the better as far as I'm concerned. ) These people were hunter-gatherers with amazing dentition and plenty of leisure time for arts (and for domesticating dogs). In addition to lethal weapons they developed a killer sense of style, as this woman buried in present-day Germany with her child demonstrates:
I thought the lipstick was the museum reconstructionists' artistic license getting away from them, but after doing a bit of research I learned that she was indeed buried with a small pouch of what looks for all the world like lipstick. I would like to see dead Capreolus capreolus millenery brought back to catwalk, and pronto. And while her look was to die for, perhaps it worked too well, as she and her type were nearly completely removed from the European gene pool about 8000 years ago, displaced by pale-skinned folk from the Middle East, who pushed west from around Lake Baikal in Russian all the way to the British Isles, but not much south of the Alps.
So far, the story seems to me to be pretty well borne out by the science. The scientists had thousands of skeletons to work from, of well-traced age, and while there were doubtless anomalies, there is enough consistency in the data to ignore the inevitable handful of puzzle pieces that don't quite fit.
At this point, the authors show the dangers of letting their enthusiasm overcome common sense. There was no explanation of the nitty-gritty of how archeogenetic models are actually built, and most crucially, no discussion of the technique's limitations. Is the reader just supposed to sit back and believe, as this book would have us do, that tuberculosis arrived in the New World not with the hacking coughs of our hardy ancestors, but rather arrived from seals who had undertaken the (rather taxing, even for a seal) swim from Africa to Brazil? And does the evolution of language really follow the same rules as genetic evolution, in which changes in spelling are accorded the same weight as changes in the genetic code?
I mean, those seals were sick, too.
Truly masterful writers know the value of writing about a specific individual, whose death strikes the reader as a tragedy. This book was written by amateur writers about statistics. Interesting, but not riveting.
March 7, 2023
This book uses recent findings of the science of archaeogenetics to provide a history of humanity’s multiple migrations and inhabitations of Europe. The first two thirds of the book are about what we’ve learned from the DNA in ancient bones, and the final third is mostly about the plagues that have repeatedly afflicted human kind.
The history goes back more than 400,000 years when there are early signs of Neanderthals arriving in Europe. Subsequently there were multiple advances and retreats of both Neanderthals and modern humans as the Ice Ages periodically made much of Europe uninhabitable.
Modern humans may have left Africa as early as 200,000 years ago but they failed to inhabit Europe in significant numbers for many thousands of years. Remains as old as 40,000 years have been found in Central Europe. However, not all of this early wave managed to survive sufficiently to leave DNA traces in today’s Europeans. The last Ice Age made its maximum encroachment 18,000 years ago which made occupation of Central Europe very difficult. There was also a near-apocalyptic volcanic explosion about 39,000 years ago which made things even worse. This was likely a factor in the disappearance of Neanderthals.
As the ice retreated and Europe warmed by 11,700 years ago Europe was occupied by hunter gathers who were genetically homogeneous. There are indications that they had dark skin and blue eyes. Then around 8,000 years ago farmers from Anatolia started to settle across the whole of Europe. These mostly vegetarian farmers had lighter pigmented skin than the hunter gatherers because of the advantage of lighter skin to produce Vitamin D from the lesser sun light of northern latitudes. The darker skinned hunter gatherers didn’t experience the same drive toward lighter skin because they obtained vitamin D from eating meat.
These two groups coexisted for many years with the hunter gathers retreating to mountainous regions. Then between 5,000 and 4,800 years ago herdsmen from the Eurasian steppe (north of the Caspian Sea) moved into central and western parts of Europe. There are indications that the populations of the farmer and hunter gather groups were diminished when these Eurasians moved into Europe perhaps because of disease pandemic.
The steppe genes dominate much of Europe today except for the areas mentioned in this quote:
There are several chapters discussing the Black Death plagues that have cursed European history. This moves into a discussion of new pandemics and what the future likely holds for us in that regard.
This book concludes with a chapter that emphasizes the global melting pot nature of human DNA and the fallacies of claims of racial superiority.
The following are some excerpts from the book about two mysteries that I found intriguing. The first has to do with a pre-Columbian tuberculosis strain found in the Americas which were shown to have originated in Africa 5,000 years ago at a time with the Bering Strait was flooded. How can that be possible?
Here's a link to an interesting NYT article titled, "Early Europeans Could Not Tolerate Milk but Drank It Anyway, Study Finds."
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/27/sc...
Here's a link to a Harvard Magazine article titled "Telling Humanity's Story through DNA.
https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2022/...
I've included a puzzling excerpt from the above article in this
The following link is to an article that indicates modern humans had larger brains as recently as 3,000 years ago.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20...
NYT article about multiple waves of modern human migration into Europe (not all survived):
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/01/sc...
The history goes back more than 400,000 years when there are early signs of Neanderthals arriving in Europe. Subsequently there were multiple advances and retreats of both Neanderthals and modern humans as the Ice Ages periodically made much of Europe uninhabitable.
Modern humans may have left Africa as early as 200,000 years ago but they failed to inhabit Europe in significant numbers for many thousands of years. Remains as old as 40,000 years have been found in Central Europe. However, not all of this early wave managed to survive sufficiently to leave DNA traces in today’s Europeans. The last Ice Age made its maximum encroachment 18,000 years ago which made occupation of Central Europe very difficult. There was also a near-apocalyptic volcanic explosion about 39,000 years ago which made things even worse. This was likely a factor in the disappearance of Neanderthals.
As the ice retreated and Europe warmed by 11,700 years ago Europe was occupied by hunter gathers who were genetically homogeneous. There are indications that they had dark skin and blue eyes. Then around 8,000 years ago farmers from Anatolia started to settle across the whole of Europe. These mostly vegetarian farmers had lighter pigmented skin than the hunter gatherers because of the advantage of lighter skin to produce Vitamin D from the lesser sun light of northern latitudes. The darker skinned hunter gatherers didn’t experience the same drive toward lighter skin because they obtained vitamin D from eating meat.
These two groups coexisted for many years with the hunter gathers retreating to mountainous regions. Then between 5,000 and 4,800 years ago herdsmen from the Eurasian steppe (north of the Caspian Sea) moved into central and western parts of Europe. There are indications that the populations of the farmer and hunter gather groups were diminished when these Eurasians moved into Europe perhaps because of disease pandemic.
The oldest decoded plague genome dates from this period. It was found in the remains of people from the Yamnaya culture on the steppe, and spread into Europe along the same path as the steppe DNA.
The steppe genes dominate much of Europe today except for the areas mentioned in this quote:
Today’s Spaniards, like Sardinians, Greeks, and Albanians, have the fewest steppe genes of all Europeans.There is a chapter in the book that discusses what can be learned from spoken languages. Generally speaking the study of language differences and similarities provides indications of migrations that are parallel to those produced by DNA.
There are several chapters discussing the Black Death plagues that have cursed European history. This moves into a discussion of new pandemics and what the future likely holds for us in that regard.
This book concludes with a chapter that emphasizes the global melting pot nature of human DNA and the fallacies of claims of racial superiority.
The following are some excerpts from the book about two mysteries that I found intriguing. The first has to do with a pre-Columbian tuberculosis strain found in the Americas which were shown to have originated in Africa 5,000 years ago at a time with the Bering Strait was flooded. How can that be possible?
In 2014, we were able to confirm the diagnosis with genetic analyses of samples from the mummified bones. It was clear that TB had been rife in the Americas long before the arrival of Christopher Columbus, ... By comparing modern tuberculosis bacteria from across the world with pre-Columbian American pathogens, we were able to establish when and where their common ancestors existed: approximately 5,000 years ago somewhere in Africa. None of this fits with the idea that tuberculosis was brought to the Americas by humans 15,000 years ago. Five thousand years later the land bridge to Alaska was underwater, so tuberculosis could not possibly have come to the Americas that way, and certainly not in a cow, because we know that there were no cattle in the pre-Columbian Americas. …This second excerpt is about a mystery that has bothered me ever since I read the book 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed, by Eric H. Cline. Who were the "sea peoples" who caused the collapse of the Bronze Age? DNA analysis is beginning to answer some of the questions about the sea peoples.
What this tells us is that in the past millennia, TB must have taken different routes to the Americas and Europe than previously assumed. In the case of the Americas, we are now quite sure that it swam across from Africa. Pathogens similar to the bovine tuberculosis bacterium have since been found in other animals, including sheep, goats, lions, and wild cattle, but also in seals, and the strain found in seals was the most similar to the variant in the human mummies from Peru. In one of those animals, the bacterium must have found its way from Africa to South America by crossing the Atlantic. In some coastal regions of South America, seals were a popular source of human food, so their resident bacteria would have easily infected the local human population. Over the following millennia, tuberculosis spread across the whole of the Americas, probably evolving into an American variant of the disease. It was this strain that infected—and likely killed—the three mummified individuals in Peru. (p. 196-197)
In order to shed light on this 150-year period after the empires of the Near East collapsed, we examined the skeletons of people who lived in what is now Israel and Lebanon both before and after the crisis. We managed to obtain usable DNA from half a dozen individuals from three of the biblical Philistine settlements and saw a clear shift in the region’s DNA after the presumed arrival date of the sea peoples. A new genetic component from the south of Europe had been introduced. We can infer from this that the Philistines’ homeland may have been located in the Aegean, since the Mycenaeans living there had a similar genetic structure. At the start of this 150-year dark age, the Mycenaean civilization was among the first to crumble, just before raids by the sea peoples were reported in the empires farther east and south. In other words, the sea peoples do seem to have existed, and evidently they came from the area around the southern Mediterranean. The idea that they were Mycenaeans is only conjecture, however, because as yet we haven’t examined enough Mediterranean civilizations from the late Bronze Age to narrow down the origin of the Philistines more precisely. Theoretically, the seafarers’ new genetic component could have come from Cyprus or Sicily. As we don’t currently have enough sequenced genomes from these regions, we can’t rule them out. On the other hand, archaeological findings have suggested a connection between the Philistines and the Aegean. Our analysis revealed another surprise. We found almost no traces of the newly introduced southern Mediterranean DNA in individuals from those Philistine cities a few hundred years after their initial arrival, suggesting that those migrants did not keep to themselves over the following centuries; they rather admixed with the local population. We could not find any significant differences between the local Philistine and Caananite population by 800 BCE, debunking ideas of genetic separation between people from those different cultural groups during the Iron Age. Like everywhere else during this time, they were highly connected through trade and marriage. (p.153)
Here's a link to an interesting NYT article titled, "Early Europeans Could Not Tolerate Milk but Drank It Anyway, Study Finds."
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/27/sc...
Here's a link to a Harvard Magazine article titled "Telling Humanity's Story through DNA.
https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2022/...
I've included a puzzling excerpt from the above article in this
The following link is to an article that indicates modern humans had larger brains as recently as 3,000 years ago.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20...
NYT article about multiple waves of modern human migration into Europe (not all survived):
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/01/sc...
March 14, 2022
A truly impressive read in understandable language about the science of archaeogenetics which through DNA finds new truths in migration of humanity through the millennia, even a new branch of humanity has been discovered.
This is a truly eye-opening book that is easy to read and also gives a little lesson about language as origin, the migration of Diseases virus and bacterial and it has nothing to do with nationalism and borders. If this books shows one thing it is that humanity always pushes the borders and that a variety of genetic building stones we carry will become a bigger soup of unity as we become a world with less borders. As we as humans all find our roots in continent of Africa I can see that some people do not consider themselves family of the man apes but the truth is out.
A very interesting search for mankind and a short read for most people who are interested in our origin and the migration of disease.
A very good read for those that want to look beyond the horizon and want to learn more about modern technics and sciences. I wish I were young again there is so many new science since my youthful years it would probably have altered my interests from early on.
This is a truly eye-opening book that is easy to read and also gives a little lesson about language as origin, the migration of Diseases virus and bacterial and it has nothing to do with nationalism and borders. If this books shows one thing it is that humanity always pushes the borders and that a variety of genetic building stones we carry will become a bigger soup of unity as we become a world with less borders. As we as humans all find our roots in continent of Africa I can see that some people do not consider themselves family of the man apes but the truth is out.
A very interesting search for mankind and a short read for most people who are interested in our origin and the migration of disease.
A very good read for those that want to look beyond the horizon and want to learn more about modern technics and sciences. I wish I were young again there is so many new science since my youthful years it would probably have altered my interests from early on.
May 7, 2021
Overall this is an excellent book for the lay person who has not had particular study in human forensics or anthropology or any science that includes biologic or earth history of homo forms and distributions over masses of time.
It's not perfect but for the length it is apt. Longer and it would have had to include all kinds of historic and nomenclature data of particulars (like the exact origin group or individual for a language or a migration origin etc.). Doing all of that designating to exact degree would have made the book nearly unreadable, and certainly less understandable to those whose do not know much base information upon the overall subject.
Because it cores on the Old Europe origins of humans who resided in that particular location, it is even more narrowed to a scale that can be more easily digested and also frames the larger continental pictures. This was a great way to access information for various lines of homo that were never included in other studies that I myself have had in former schooling of other decades. And I must add, that some of this (probably more than 1/2) is NOT what was taught to us or understood as possible either back in the 1960's or 1980's. Not even in the years up to 2000. The entire field "eyes" have changed.
Because climate changes, geography changes, access to continents and plains change. And also because what is "true" about Homo Sapiens observing today was and is not always the case for a hunter gather vs Neolithic farmer scenario.
The language chapter was beyond my comprehension, I don't know enough about the originals, the intermediates, or any of the existing oddballs today. But other than that I could with a very slow read understand most of this. And also why so many "true" absolutes of my youth and middle age science are virtually just NOT.
I almost gave it 3 stars for his assumptions in the last 20 pages of the book. Some of them were absurd and he should NOT interpret the politico. Neither author should. Their German European cognition is showing and holds a more than miniscule set of "knowing what they know". When at times they just don't have a clue about what they don't know.
I would recommend this book if you ever had interest in different homo forms or you are well into interest for the various DNA of past ancestry that can be now evaluated as these authors did. Excellently too. Using various degrees of gene sequence and other newer methods of comparing same to same or differences or with huge input from the mitrochondrial DNA portions that have come down from millennia maternal lines.
Also interesting to those who study and interpret patriarchy? The DNA tells the tale. Almost all men stayed in one locale and almost all women married or were sent "out" to other locales. A lot of your perceived cultural differences are seated in the biology of not only the farming or "stay put" life either.
Usually I disapprove of taking such a wide non-fiction subject into a single study volume. But this one is defined and exceptional for its organization to fields of comparison/competition (like bacteria and virus developing at the same times). And I do disagree with the other reviews which say that more specific tribal names, origin places or exact designation to type should have been listed if known and proven already in 2020. That would have made this overview nearly impossible to digest. So many people, so many diseases, so many entire populations decimations. Don't think this is going to be a cheery human dominance story in any regard. Humans of every earth age and variety are strong for a lot of very valid reasons. Because of what they have faced is no small part of that perservance. Archeo-genetics in nearly all regards is endlessly enthralling.
It's not perfect but for the length it is apt. Longer and it would have had to include all kinds of historic and nomenclature data of particulars (like the exact origin group or individual for a language or a migration origin etc.). Doing all of that designating to exact degree would have made the book nearly unreadable, and certainly less understandable to those whose do not know much base information upon the overall subject.
Because it cores on the Old Europe origins of humans who resided in that particular location, it is even more narrowed to a scale that can be more easily digested and also frames the larger continental pictures. This was a great way to access information for various lines of homo that were never included in other studies that I myself have had in former schooling of other decades. And I must add, that some of this (probably more than 1/2) is NOT what was taught to us or understood as possible either back in the 1960's or 1980's. Not even in the years up to 2000. The entire field "eyes" have changed.
Because climate changes, geography changes, access to continents and plains change. And also because what is "true" about Homo Sapiens observing today was and is not always the case for a hunter gather vs Neolithic farmer scenario.
The language chapter was beyond my comprehension, I don't know enough about the originals, the intermediates, or any of the existing oddballs today. But other than that I could with a very slow read understand most of this. And also why so many "true" absolutes of my youth and middle age science are virtually just NOT.
I almost gave it 3 stars for his assumptions in the last 20 pages of the book. Some of them were absurd and he should NOT interpret the politico. Neither author should. Their German European cognition is showing and holds a more than miniscule set of "knowing what they know". When at times they just don't have a clue about what they don't know.
I would recommend this book if you ever had interest in different homo forms or you are well into interest for the various DNA of past ancestry that can be now evaluated as these authors did. Excellently too. Using various degrees of gene sequence and other newer methods of comparing same to same or differences or with huge input from the mitrochondrial DNA portions that have come down from millennia maternal lines.
Also interesting to those who study and interpret patriarchy? The DNA tells the tale. Almost all men stayed in one locale and almost all women married or were sent "out" to other locales. A lot of your perceived cultural differences are seated in the biology of not only the farming or "stay put" life either.
Usually I disapprove of taking such a wide non-fiction subject into a single study volume. But this one is defined and exceptional for its organization to fields of comparison/competition (like bacteria and virus developing at the same times). And I do disagree with the other reviews which say that more specific tribal names, origin places or exact designation to type should have been listed if known and proven already in 2020. That would have made this overview nearly impossible to digest. So many people, so many diseases, so many entire populations decimations. Don't think this is going to be a cheery human dominance story in any regard. Humans of every earth age and variety are strong for a lot of very valid reasons. Because of what they have faced is no small part of that perservance. Archeo-genetics in nearly all regards is endlessly enthralling.
May 19, 2024
Excellent Coverage of Europe's History via Genetics
This may not be as detailed and sweeping as David Reich's Who We Are and How We Got Here but this is a great companion read. It is focused on the people of Europe, specifically the waves of migration and their consequences. Provides tons of accessible insights into the Europe of the past and present. Also, provides a great illustration of the value that ancient DNA can provide to the study of human origins and history.
Extended review on Substack
This may not be as detailed and sweeping as David Reich's Who We Are and How We Got Here but this is a great companion read. It is focused on the people of Europe, specifically the waves of migration and their consequences. Provides tons of accessible insights into the Europe of the past and present. Also, provides a great illustration of the value that ancient DNA can provide to the study of human origins and history.
Extended review on Substack
August 14, 2020
Insightful overview of how digital genetic reseatch has changed the history of humanity, including the discovery of the Denisova human, although this book mainly covers the prehistoric migrations which shook up Europe's genetic makeup. The focus predominantly lies on the history of Neanderthals, Denisovan humans and homo sapiens, neolithic migrations towards Europe ca 8000 years ago from Anatolia, the migration wave of steppe inhabitants ca 5000 years ago, and the genetically traceable spread of diseases, such as syphilis, the plague, and tubercolisis. The strength of the analysis lies in the fact that it is embedded in decades of archaeological, linguistic and historical research, which are explained in a clear and comprehensivle way, with room for doubt and venues for future research.
Two main take aways. Firstly, concerning the two key migration waves. The genetic record shows that the genes of Anatolian farmers became almost entirely dominant in most of mainland Europe, suggesting that hunter gatherers were both outnumbered and outcompeted (with the exception of Scandinavia and despite some evidence of coexistence). Agriculture was spread by migration, not by cultural exchange. The migration wave of steppe inhabitants was most likely preceded by a devastating plague (coming from the steppes) which enabled their massive spread across the continent, aided by horses, husbandry and bronze weapons. Secondly, the main genetic makeup of Europe has not changed substantially since these waves of migration. In fact, it made Europeans "whiter" (as the Anatolian agrarians needed tl be paler to receive as much vitamin D as hunter gatherers) Despite the rise of for example the Roman Empire, cultural or linguistic diversity did not alter genetic diversity on a noticeable scale.
The authors show how previous theories of migration or genetics were embedded within nationalist history writing, and racist or even Nazi ideologies, but also how genetics complements existing theories of the spread of Indo European languages. A weakness of the book is its predominant focus on both Germany and German archeology. Still, the message that genetically speaking, Europeans are less different from East Asians than West Africans from South Africans, and that even then, these genetic differences result in minute social differences, is perhaps more important to be spread than ever in an age of growing nativism and gross misunderstanding of "racial" genetics, despite ever diminishing overall genetic differences. The book's warning of the danger of diseases and pandemics (written in 2019) has turned out to be very timely indeed.
Two main take aways. Firstly, concerning the two key migration waves. The genetic record shows that the genes of Anatolian farmers became almost entirely dominant in most of mainland Europe, suggesting that hunter gatherers were both outnumbered and outcompeted (with the exception of Scandinavia and despite some evidence of coexistence). Agriculture was spread by migration, not by cultural exchange. The migration wave of steppe inhabitants was most likely preceded by a devastating plague (coming from the steppes) which enabled their massive spread across the continent, aided by horses, husbandry and bronze weapons. Secondly, the main genetic makeup of Europe has not changed substantially since these waves of migration. In fact, it made Europeans "whiter" (as the Anatolian agrarians needed tl be paler to receive as much vitamin D as hunter gatherers) Despite the rise of for example the Roman Empire, cultural or linguistic diversity did not alter genetic diversity on a noticeable scale.
The authors show how previous theories of migration or genetics were embedded within nationalist history writing, and racist or even Nazi ideologies, but also how genetics complements existing theories of the spread of Indo European languages. A weakness of the book is its predominant focus on both Germany and German archeology. Still, the message that genetically speaking, Europeans are less different from East Asians than West Africans from South Africans, and that even then, these genetic differences result in minute social differences, is perhaps more important to be spread than ever in an age of growing nativism and gross misunderstanding of "racial" genetics, despite ever diminishing overall genetic differences. The book's warning of the danger of diseases and pandemics (written in 2019) has turned out to be very timely indeed.
November 22, 2023
This book tells the early story of humanity using information obtained by a brand new science: archaeogenetics uses the genome of archaic humans and compares it to contemporary DNA.
Archaeogeneticists measure mutations in the “useless” parts of the genome (sequences that do not code proteins and because of that, are not as much subject to positive or negative selection). In this way, a molecular clock is established that allows us to draw conclusions about, e.g. when two populations diverged – the further back this happened, the more new variants (i.e., mutations) will have accumulated in the DNA or altered their frequency.
The book explores the great waves of migration that have shaped Europe since its earliest times, as well as those that began there and founded the Western world. The authors explain why the first Europeans had dark skin, and why it is possible to use DNA analyses to pinpoint individual Europeans on a map but not to draw sharp genetic lines around ethnic groups and certainly not nationalities.
People open to migration will find arguments in this book to support their beliefs, as will those in favour of stricter border control. But as the authors put it, anyone in good faith will not be able to dispute mobility’s integral part of human nature, after reading this book:
Through the journey of our genes, we know that humans are born travellers; we are made to wander.
Archaeogeneticists measure mutations in the “useless” parts of the genome (sequences that do not code proteins and because of that, are not as much subject to positive or negative selection). In this way, a molecular clock is established that allows us to draw conclusions about, e.g. when two populations diverged – the further back this happened, the more new variants (i.e., mutations) will have accumulated in the DNA or altered their frequency.
The book explores the great waves of migration that have shaped Europe since its earliest times, as well as those that began there and founded the Western world. The authors explain why the first Europeans had dark skin, and why it is possible to use DNA analyses to pinpoint individual Europeans on a map but not to draw sharp genetic lines around ethnic groups and certainly not nationalities.
People open to migration will find arguments in this book to support their beliefs, as will those in favour of stricter border control. But as the authors put it, anyone in good faith will not be able to dispute mobility’s integral part of human nature, after reading this book:
Through the journey of our genes, we know that humans are born travellers; we are made to wander.
December 24, 2021
Agriculture and farming lead to genetic changes in Europe
Recent studies in archeology and genetics significantly helped our understanding of human evolution in terms of race and culture in Europe. In this book, the authors address the question of how multiculturalism and racial diversity in ancient world gave rise to the Caucasian race, a distinctive feature of modern-day Europeans. Much has been learnt in the last two decades by studying DNA from skeletons of ancient humans. These results suggest that the light skin seen across Europe today is due to the introduction of agriculture 8,500 years ago. Human genome underwent widespread changes, altering their height, digestion, immune system, and skin color. For example, the LCT gene evolved after intense natural selection to make humans lactose tolerant. Before agriculture and farming, humans ate meat and fish, but the need for LCT gene arose after they started consuming milk from farm animals. In the last 200,000 years of human history, Homo Sapiens were dark skinned for about 192,000 years. The hunter-gatherers, human descendants from Africa migrated to Europe 40,000 years ago. They remained dark as recently as 8,500 years ago, but farmers arriving from Anatolia were light-skinned, and this trait spread through Europe. A shift to agriculture reduced the intake of vitamin D, which may have triggered a change in skin color that were found in Anatolian farmers who migrated from West Asia, a region that includes modern-day Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, and parts of Egypt. Later, about 5,000 years ago a second wave of migration of Yamnaya population occurred from the steppes, north of the Black Sea, a region near the modern-day Ukraine. They had the knowledge of using bronze, proto-writing, and other early features of urban civilization. They also brought Indo-European languages to Europe that evolved into various European languages. The Yamnaya population were also pale-skinned and taller than the farmers from Anatolia, and both were even taller than hunter-gatherers. The European hunter-gatherers had dark skin throughout their stay in the cold climate. They had enough supply of vitamin D in their meal that consisted of meat and fish and did not need paler skin to synthesize vitamin D. A change in diet, and in parallel the living style and social factors played a key role in the evolution of modern humans. Farmers lived longer and had more children than hunter-gatherers. Among hunter-gatherers, the natural selection pressure did not arise to change skin color despite the fact they were in northern latitudes in cold climates. But it became dominant when they stopped the intake of meat & fish and started consuming agriculture and dairy products. The skin tone of early farmers came under selection pressure, only those with lighter skin could manufacture enough vitamin D. Several mutations were required to produce lighter skin. The gene variants like SLC24A5 and SLC45A2 lead to skin-depigmentation, and HERC2/OCA2 is also responsible for blue eyes, light skin, and blond hair. Among Anatolians in whom these genes first emerged were healthier, lived longer, and taller than hunter-gatherers. The farmers also had more children and less stressful life. A recent paper in New Scientist claims that social factors played a key role in the evolution of modern humans.
The authors strenuously argue that since modern Europeans originated from a melting pot created by the human migration, earlier from Africa and the later two migrations due to Anatolian farmers and Yamnaya population. They observe that one must sustain the current wave of migrations from Africa and the Middles East. But I like to point out that human migration in the past occurred due to natural and environmental challenges, but the current migrations are influenced by politics, West-European colonialism, and religion, mainly Islam and Christianism. Manufactured religions have done much harm to human beings and my impact the evolutionary trends.
Recent studies in archeology and genetics significantly helped our understanding of human evolution in terms of race and culture in Europe. In this book, the authors address the question of how multiculturalism and racial diversity in ancient world gave rise to the Caucasian race, a distinctive feature of modern-day Europeans. Much has been learnt in the last two decades by studying DNA from skeletons of ancient humans. These results suggest that the light skin seen across Europe today is due to the introduction of agriculture 8,500 years ago. Human genome underwent widespread changes, altering their height, digestion, immune system, and skin color. For example, the LCT gene evolved after intense natural selection to make humans lactose tolerant. Before agriculture and farming, humans ate meat and fish, but the need for LCT gene arose after they started consuming milk from farm animals. In the last 200,000 years of human history, Homo Sapiens were dark skinned for about 192,000 years. The hunter-gatherers, human descendants from Africa migrated to Europe 40,000 years ago. They remained dark as recently as 8,500 years ago, but farmers arriving from Anatolia were light-skinned, and this trait spread through Europe. A shift to agriculture reduced the intake of vitamin D, which may have triggered a change in skin color that were found in Anatolian farmers who migrated from West Asia, a region that includes modern-day Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, and parts of Egypt. Later, about 5,000 years ago a second wave of migration of Yamnaya population occurred from the steppes, north of the Black Sea, a region near the modern-day Ukraine. They had the knowledge of using bronze, proto-writing, and other early features of urban civilization. They also brought Indo-European languages to Europe that evolved into various European languages. The Yamnaya population were also pale-skinned and taller than the farmers from Anatolia, and both were even taller than hunter-gatherers. The European hunter-gatherers had dark skin throughout their stay in the cold climate. They had enough supply of vitamin D in their meal that consisted of meat and fish and did not need paler skin to synthesize vitamin D. A change in diet, and in parallel the living style and social factors played a key role in the evolution of modern humans. Farmers lived longer and had more children than hunter-gatherers. Among hunter-gatherers, the natural selection pressure did not arise to change skin color despite the fact they were in northern latitudes in cold climates. But it became dominant when they stopped the intake of meat & fish and started consuming agriculture and dairy products. The skin tone of early farmers came under selection pressure, only those with lighter skin could manufacture enough vitamin D. Several mutations were required to produce lighter skin. The gene variants like SLC24A5 and SLC45A2 lead to skin-depigmentation, and HERC2/OCA2 is also responsible for blue eyes, light skin, and blond hair. Among Anatolians in whom these genes first emerged were healthier, lived longer, and taller than hunter-gatherers. The farmers also had more children and less stressful life. A recent paper in New Scientist claims that social factors played a key role in the evolution of modern humans.
The authors strenuously argue that since modern Europeans originated from a melting pot created by the human migration, earlier from Africa and the later two migrations due to Anatolian farmers and Yamnaya population. They observe that one must sustain the current wave of migrations from Africa and the Middles East. But I like to point out that human migration in the past occurred due to natural and environmental challenges, but the current migrations are influenced by politics, West-European colonialism, and religion, mainly Islam and Christianism. Manufactured religions have done much harm to human beings and my impact the evolutionary trends.
January 23, 2023
A fascinating look into the field of archaeo-genetics, ‘A Short History of Humanity’ draws timely conclusions regarding the past, present and future of humanity. While the main thesis is centred around the anthropological history of Europe, a number of more global insights on genetics, disease and culture were worth the read.
March 23, 2022
I'm a sucker for history, especially human prehistory, since there's still so much to be learnt about our past – most of which has been dug out of all manner of locations all over the world. But a science that is fairly new, and is delivering some truly fascinating insights into our social, physiological, and even geological history is that of archaeogenetics. The two authors of A Short History of Humanity – How Migration Made Us Who We Are, Johannes Krause and Thomas Trappe, are both experts in their field, and this little book packs a lot of punch in only 272 pages.
You might be forgiven if you worry that A Short History of Humanity will be above the average reader's pay grade, but this is so not the case. This work has been wonderfully translated into English by Caroline Waight, and is accessible even to readers who have little prior experience on the subjects that are covered.
Who would have thought that the analysis of a small pile of bone dust would lead to the mapping of not only the Neanderthal and Denisovan genome, but there you have it. Not only have the authors untangled the complex web of our relationships with our extinct cousins, but through their work, and others', they've created a timeline that illustrates the gradual expansion of Homo sapiens across Africa, Asia, and Europe, while exploring a complex interrelationship between the different populations of hunter-gatherers and early agriculturalists. The work these archaeogeneticists have done also challenges such tricky subjects such as race and species. How different were our ancestors truly from the Neanderthals if we could interbreed with them and produce fertile offspring? What of those whose heritage mingled the Neanderthal and Denisovan lines?
Yet a history of humanity is incomplete if we don't discuss the looming spectre that follows in our wake – that of the diseases caused by pathogens. The Black Death has stalked among our communities for centuries, and the scientists have uncovered evidence that shows how pandemics played a huge role in human migration, too. A glance at how society has changed in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic is yet another example of how we are shaped by pathogens and how we, as a species, are engaged in a constant arms race with our microscopic nemeses.
What it all boils down to, is that our preconceived notions of race and culture are, to a large extent, social constructs – and we would do well to look past all this to the fact that we share an amazing kinship that stretches through the millennia. Whether we are refugees or travellers, we as a species are not static, and we would do well to remember this and think in terms of a global community, and perhaps one day if we venture forth into the galaxy.
You might be forgiven if you worry that A Short History of Humanity will be above the average reader's pay grade, but this is so not the case. This work has been wonderfully translated into English by Caroline Waight, and is accessible even to readers who have little prior experience on the subjects that are covered.
Who would have thought that the analysis of a small pile of bone dust would lead to the mapping of not only the Neanderthal and Denisovan genome, but there you have it. Not only have the authors untangled the complex web of our relationships with our extinct cousins, but through their work, and others', they've created a timeline that illustrates the gradual expansion of Homo sapiens across Africa, Asia, and Europe, while exploring a complex interrelationship between the different populations of hunter-gatherers and early agriculturalists. The work these archaeogeneticists have done also challenges such tricky subjects such as race and species. How different were our ancestors truly from the Neanderthals if we could interbreed with them and produce fertile offspring? What of those whose heritage mingled the Neanderthal and Denisovan lines?
Yet a history of humanity is incomplete if we don't discuss the looming spectre that follows in our wake – that of the diseases caused by pathogens. The Black Death has stalked among our communities for centuries, and the scientists have uncovered evidence that shows how pandemics played a huge role in human migration, too. A glance at how society has changed in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic is yet another example of how we are shaped by pathogens and how we, as a species, are engaged in a constant arms race with our microscopic nemeses.
What it all boils down to, is that our preconceived notions of race and culture are, to a large extent, social constructs – and we would do well to look past all this to the fact that we share an amazing kinship that stretches through the millennia. Whether we are refugees or travellers, we as a species are not static, and we would do well to remember this and think in terms of a global community, and perhaps one day if we venture forth into the galaxy.
May 19, 2021
A few chapters were amazing. They do know how to tell a story. Chapter 8, about the Black Death, was absolutely riveting. Underlying every plague statistic is the awareness of covid, covid, covid.
The last chapter (Chapter 9) was pretty anti-climactic. The authors say migration is good?
Since returning the book to the library, I have talked up this book high and low. So many ramifications for our present. So maybe it's more of a 4.5 stars than just 4.
In an early chapter, they point out that our human ancestors did overlap with another form of human, and that these two species were able to reproduce successfully. Which meant they were sub-species, not species species. Or something like that (I am not a scientist, obv). Also, evidence that these "encounters" were often violent. Oopsie.
Also, that the last great migration into Central Europe happened just before the last Great Ice Age. And subsequently, no humans existed in Central Europe "for 6000 years." (Small groups of survivors made it, obv, or we wouldn't be here. But to imagine a Central Europe with no people for 6000 years was really something)
The last chapter (Chapter 9) was pretty anti-climactic. The authors say migration is good?
Since returning the book to the library, I have talked up this book high and low. So many ramifications for our present. So maybe it's more of a 4.5 stars than just 4.
In an early chapter, they point out that our human ancestors did overlap with another form of human, and that these two species were able to reproduce successfully. Which meant they were sub-species, not species species. Or something like that (I am not a scientist, obv). Also, evidence that these "encounters" were often violent. Oopsie.
Also, that the last great migration into Central Europe happened just before the last Great Ice Age. And subsequently, no humans existed in Central Europe "for 6000 years." (Small groups of survivors made it, obv, or we wouldn't be here. But to imagine a Central Europe with no people for 6000 years was really something)
January 14, 2021
I enjoyed this book. It struck a great balance between giving me enough detail to help me understand and not too much that I got lost in the minutiae. A similar book where I did get lost in the minutiae is “Kindred” by Rebecca Wragg Sykes. The book by Krause and Trappe was much more fun to read. It includes Krause’s personal journey and is written with a sense of humor and a certain lightness. Although written about Europe, I feel that the general principles are applicable elsewhere. I recommend it for anyone interested in the history of humanity.
Disclosure: I received a complimentary advance reader copy of this book via Netgalley for review purposes.
Disclosure: I received a complimentary advance reader copy of this book via Netgalley for review purposes.
March 16, 2019
A very readable and fascinating account of the migration of populations of people across Europe sine the neolithic times. Full of new research and discussion about the findings. Great read.
February 12, 2024
This collaboration from two Germans, a researcher and a medical writer, results in a very readable primer, translated by Caroline Wright into flowing English (although more than once, little rather than fewer is used...). As this appeared in 2021, the author stress parallels with past pandemics, which ties smoothly into their argument that plagues helped create the patterns of genetics that archeologists can study today to explain how DNA can or can't be extracted to chart human migration into late Neolithic and then the Copper and Bronze ages. They emphasize a broad-minded approach which foregrounds openness to immigration and opposition to restriction on how men and women choose, or are impelled, to move across the world. While I don't share their insistent optimism about the inherent adaptive strength of host cultures no matter how strong the demographic pressures beyond borders, they, given their nation's dark legacy from a century ago towards racist interpretations makes them cautious theorists. They synthesize many scientific studies while keeping their narrative accessible. Even the chapter subheadings prove entertaining. I wished there was coverage of a nagging question of mine...beyond melanin counts, how rapidly did the physiognomies of various European peoples adapt their features, rather rapidly I am guessing, to evolve differently to suit their environments? That is, why do Finns, say, look generally one way, Armenians another, and the Welsh still one more general type of appearance? But I guess that information exists in a book that so far I've yet to track down. I liked this title overall. Even if subtler points didn't always stick in my non-technical mind, the experience benefited me. I find this genetic archeology junction an engrossing path to wander down, and the pace at which new discoveries are made in excavations and laboratories means that surely a second edition may be on its way in not too many more years. (Good maps, too. But the illustrations of Anatolian forebears make them look rather creepy and threatening. They appear more like carvings than human depictions...)
February 28, 2023
Už jsem si zvykla na antirasistické řečičky u amerických spisovatelů. Chápu to tak, že to mají povinné při vydávání nové knihy. Tak se zdá, že už to proniklo i do Německa. Takže otrávil mě konec, jinak to bylo ale hodně zajímavé.
November 25, 2021
3,5
Es ist sehr informativ. Nur braucht man meiner Meinung nach etwas Vor-/Grundkenntnisse was Genetik und die dazugehörige Labormethoden betrifft.
Es ist sehr informativ. Nur braucht man meiner Meinung nach etwas Vor-/Grundkenntnisse was Genetik und die dazugehörige Labormethoden betrifft.
December 16, 2024
Za mě skvělá kniha, pro laika doslova poklad. Přístupné, čtivé, opravdu zajímavé a objevné, co chtít víc. Koho by konečně nezajímalo, odkud přišli jeho předkové? Jak asi vypadali, čím se živili, a nepatří nakonec do naší rodiny i neandertálci? Kudy putovali a kam se všichni poděli? Na všechny tyhle otázky se vám tahle kniha pokusí odpovědět a přidá ještě spoustu dalšího.
A když u toho ještě můžete koukat na výsledky svého testu DNA a všechno si to propojovat, máte bonus navíc.
A když u toho ještě můžete koukat na výsledky svého testu DNA a všechno si to propojovat, máte bonus navíc.
July 9, 2022
Äusserst spannend und sehr verständlich geschrieben, vor allem die verschiedensten Bewegungen der Menschen und Menschenformen (und wie die Forschung das genetisch ermitteln konnte); ein bisschen weniger gilt das die zwei Kapitel über die Krankheiten. Vor allem interessant sind die Bewegungen vor 8000 und vor 5000 Jahren und wie die Veränderungen vor 5000-4000 Jahren unsere Kultur bis heute prägten. 4,5★
September 11, 2021
Put this one on your serious reading list for sure. Translated from the original German ("The Journey of Our Genes"), this is a fact-filled and at times skillfully humorously written gem. Terrific maps precede each chapter and illustrate nicely how peoples, languages, and disease/plague pandemics as well moved with the migration of peoples - ancient (600,000 years ago) to the present as glacial ice cycles waxed and waned. The differences in human skin tone are explained as our adaptation to exposure to the sun as ancient humans lost the fur of our predecessors. Modern DNA analysis of sixty-nine people who lived between 3,000 and 8,000 years ago in modern day Germany explain where they migrated from. One interesting finding is that modern indigenous Americans carry equal shares of DNA from both East Asia and Northern European genes. One little tidbit I found interesting is that genes supporting intelligence are irrelevant to the development of one's personality. A final conclusion of the authors is that the decoding of the human genome is the beginning of perhaps the biggest revolution in human history.
November 22, 2022
An excellent and very wide ranging story of the history of European populations from Neanderthals to the present. By combining the new science of archaeogenetics with traditional archeology scientists have pieced together a fascinating trail of migrations of various groups that has led to today's Europeans. The authors talked about the first hunter gatherers who were slowly replaced by the first farmers and the eventual development of more and more advanced societies. They also included how the plague and other pandemics affected this progress. The advancements that have been made in genetic decoding and the amount of information they can obtain from small amounts of ancient bone is amazing and offers a tremendous amount of clarification to what we already knew. Toward the end of the book the authors also discussed the future of genetic engineering and where that could go. There is an extraordinary amount of information included in the book that makes it difficult to summarize but well worth the read.
January 8, 2022
The book is well written and is a roller coaster. Learnt a lot about the early history of migrations in Europe. Definitely in lines with David Reich's book in the science part (I would say ever better at explaining concepts to people) and has a much more nuanced and holistic opinion about migrations, people and politics. I also was really excited about the chapter on diseases and how the strains can tell us about history of migrations!
December 29, 2019
Der Sprecher war mir etwas zu monoton und langsam, das Buch teilweise eher wie ein Aufsatz mit Pros und Cons. Allerdings waren die Inhalte so fesselnd, dass das kaum eine Rolle spielt. Tolle Darstellung des wissenschaftlichen Stands zur Genetik in der Archäologie.
December 30, 2023
Velmi zajímavý úvod do archeogenetiky. Musím pochválit množství map a přehledné časové osy.
January 21, 2022
Concise - no rambling and gets to the point. Great contemporary starter if you want to learn more about how genetic research affects historical studies. Very informative.
January 21, 2023
An extremely enlightening reading about our evolution and origins as a species. Although packed with information, it's easy to read, and the author occasionally makes funny remarks. The history of our origins suddenly becomes the history of diseases midway through the book —the author is an archaeogenetist and he is tracing how our genes have developed through the centuries. I enjoyed the first half much more —thus the 4 ⭐ instead of 5. It should be noted that the book focuses almost solely in Europe. That's perhaps why in the second edition the subtitle was changed to "A New History of Old Europe" as the "we" in "How Migration Made Us Who We Are" refers mainly to Europeans.
February 23, 2022
The difference in DNA between the people in East Africa and West Africa is twice the size of the difference between European and East Asian DNA. Yet we classify all the African people as one “race:” black, while thinking of Europeans and East Asians as totally different “races.” Just goes to show you how ridiculous our concept of race is. The author points out that pale Irishmen and darker southern Italians are both considered “white,” yet darker-skinned people from Sardinia are about the same color as people of the South African Khoisan. [I do have to point out here, however, that in the past, the US Census distinguished Italians as a non-white “race.” The author is German, so he likely didn’t know that].
The book is a fascinating exploration of the implications of archaeogenetics. Well, I found it fascinating, although I suppose that if you aren’t a fan of archaeology or genetics at all, your eyes might glaze over. More: in 2012, a DNA analysis showed Europeans are more closely related to the indigenous people of North and South America than to people in East and Southeast Asia. It is readily explained, however, by tracking the migrations of different groups of people at different times all across the eastern hemisphere before the first populations crossed the land bridge into the Americas. More: the Sardinians are the only population in Europe largely descended from Anatolian farmers. If you want to know what Europeans looked like before mass migrations came in from the Steppes, look to Sardinia. More: Genetically, Europeans are about 2-2.5% Neanderthal, with the rest from African migration, while the indigenous people of Papua New Guinea and Australia are about 7% descended from Denisovans and Neanderthals, with the rest from Africans. More: Mass migration resulting from climate shifts is nothing new. At the beginning of the Bronze Age, a 300-year drought in the Near East led to political upheavals and the collapse of advanced societies. Around 300,000 people had to find better homes. The Sumerians build a 100 kilometer wall to keep out the refugees from the climate crisis (the wall didn’t work, any better than any other border wall has ever worked).
The numerous waves of immigration all over Europe and Asia can be tracked not only through DNA, but through languages and disease patterns. The book goes a long way to showing how there is really only one “us,” despite what the bigots would like to think.
The book is a fascinating exploration of the implications of archaeogenetics. Well, I found it fascinating, although I suppose that if you aren’t a fan of archaeology or genetics at all, your eyes might glaze over. More: in 2012, a DNA analysis showed Europeans are more closely related to the indigenous people of North and South America than to people in East and Southeast Asia. It is readily explained, however, by tracking the migrations of different groups of people at different times all across the eastern hemisphere before the first populations crossed the land bridge into the Americas. More: the Sardinians are the only population in Europe largely descended from Anatolian farmers. If you want to know what Europeans looked like before mass migrations came in from the Steppes, look to Sardinia. More: Genetically, Europeans are about 2-2.5% Neanderthal, with the rest from African migration, while the indigenous people of Papua New Guinea and Australia are about 7% descended from Denisovans and Neanderthals, with the rest from Africans. More: Mass migration resulting from climate shifts is nothing new. At the beginning of the Bronze Age, a 300-year drought in the Near East led to political upheavals and the collapse of advanced societies. Around 300,000 people had to find better homes. The Sumerians build a 100 kilometer wall to keep out the refugees from the climate crisis (the wall didn’t work, any better than any other border wall has ever worked).
The numerous waves of immigration all over Europe and Asia can be tracked not only through DNA, but through languages and disease patterns. The book goes a long way to showing how there is really only one “us,” despite what the bigots would like to think.
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