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Homo Sapiens Rediscovered: The Scientific Revolution Rewriting Our Origins
Who are we? How do scientists define Homo sapiens, and how does our species differ from the extinct hominins that came before us? In this accessible, lushly illustrated account palaeoarchaeologist Paul Pettitt shows how the latest scientific advances, especially in genetics, are revolutionizing our understanding of human evolution. Pettitt reveals the extraordinary story of how our ancestors adapted to unforgiving and relentlessly changing climates, leading to remarkable innovations in art, technology, and society that we are only now beginning to comprehend.
Drawing on twenty-five years of experience in the field, Pettitt takes readers from the caves and rock-shelters that provide evidence of our African origins to the far reaches of Eurasia, Australasia, and ultimately the Americas. Popular accounts of the evolution of Homo sapiens emphasize biomolecular research, notably genetics, but this volume also draws from the wealth of information from specific excavations and artifacts, including the author’s own investigations into the origins of art and how it evolved over its first 25,000 years.
Drawn from cutting edge research in this field, with a unique perspective from Pettitt’s own studies focusing on human behavior, this immersive and surprising book paints the clearest picture we have ever had of our own evolution.
Drawing on twenty-five years of experience in the field, Pettitt takes readers from the caves and rock-shelters that provide evidence of our African origins to the far reaches of Eurasia, Australasia, and ultimately the Americas. Popular accounts of the evolution of Homo sapiens emphasize biomolecular research, notably genetics, but this volume also draws from the wealth of information from specific excavations and artifacts, including the author’s own investigations into the origins of art and how it evolved over its first 25,000 years.
Drawn from cutting edge research in this field, with a unique perspective from Pettitt’s own studies focusing on human behavior, this immersive and surprising book paints the clearest picture we have ever had of our own evolution.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published February 7, 2023
26 people are currently reading
423 people want to read
About the author
Paul Pettitt
8 books6 followersDr. Paul Barry Pettitt an archaeologist and academic. He specialises in the Palaeolithic era, with particular focus on claims of art and burial practices of the Neanderthals and Pleistocene Homo sapiens, and methods of determining the age of artifacts from this time. Since 2013, he has been Professor of Archaeology at Durham University. He previously taught at Keble College, Oxford and the University of Sheffield.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
June 18, 2023
I received an audio ARC of “Homo Sapiens Rediscovered: The Scientific Revolution Rewriting Our Origins” by Paul Pettitt from NetGalley and Tantor Audio (Thames & Hudson Ltd.) in an exchange for an honest review.
For non-academics, reading scientific literature can be tiresome. This can be a big problem for scholars because we *want* to share our discoveries with the public in a way that can be easily understood. With gender now in the forefront of people’s minds, books like Paul Pettitt’s are invaluable. You might be asking: ‘What does human evolution and adaptation have to do with the public discussions of gender?’. Trust me, it has *everything* to do with helping people to understand. For an enlightened easy-to-read news article about what DNA research has revealed about human chimeras, I would recommend Walla 2022 https://www.jpost.com/health-and-well...
Normally, I prefer to read a scientific book, but, once again, this goes back to my training and my innate desire to pick apart and analyze everything. Instead, I received an audio ARC, which really changed things for me. My first instinct upon hearing the narrator was to get a pad and pen and start taking notes. But I changed tactics and just listened instead, absorbing everything that the narrator said.
It is nearly impossible for me to separate myself as an anthropologist from myself as just a regular person due to my education. But as I’ve chosen not to scientifically evaluate the book (there are plenty among us who already have and will), I decided to evaluate and review this book as an educated listener.
I do have to admit that every single time the narrator said “Neanderthal,” I found myself grating my teeth. The narrator used the British ‘th’ sound rather than a hard ‘t’ sound (e.g., Neander-THAL vs Neander-TAL). But my anguish at hearing the ‘th’ sound is due primarily to my training, where other academics drilled the use of the hard ‘t’ sound in to me (US scientists often use different sounds for the same words versus their European counterparts).
Is this book for the faint of heart? No. Is this book for someone who thinks religion is infallible? Perhaps not. But this book *is* for the lay public who are interested in how far we’ve come scientifically. Pettitt takes the reader on a journey from our earliest origins—from Australopithecines to Neanderthals to Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH)—and as any good anthropologist does, shows us how the advancements in science and the ongoing research collide and improve our understanding of human development.
Pettit really strives to explain everything as simply as possible, so readers don’t need advanced degrees—or any degree at all—in order to understand what he’s saying. This audio book reminds me of a classroom lecture. And as an educator myself, I know that students don’t remember everything in lectures; but they do retain a lot. In fact, they retain a lot more than they realize.
I would recommend this book to numerous people. For academics and scientists, this book provides a great overview. Although most of us strive to keep abreast of the current literature, the overview will help to solidify what we already know. College students will find this audio book useful, especially if they are taking a science class and need to get information quickly. But other members of the public, I believe, will also benefit greatly from listening to this audio book. You will learn the basics of human evolution and adaptation, along with the new scientific discoveries and dating methods.
For non-academics, reading scientific literature can be tiresome. This can be a big problem for scholars because we *want* to share our discoveries with the public in a way that can be easily understood. With gender now in the forefront of people’s minds, books like Paul Pettitt’s are invaluable. You might be asking: ‘What does human evolution and adaptation have to do with the public discussions of gender?’. Trust me, it has *everything* to do with helping people to understand. For an enlightened easy-to-read news article about what DNA research has revealed about human chimeras, I would recommend Walla 2022 https://www.jpost.com/health-and-well...
Normally, I prefer to read a scientific book, but, once again, this goes back to my training and my innate desire to pick apart and analyze everything. Instead, I received an audio ARC, which really changed things for me. My first instinct upon hearing the narrator was to get a pad and pen and start taking notes. But I changed tactics and just listened instead, absorbing everything that the narrator said.
It is nearly impossible for me to separate myself as an anthropologist from myself as just a regular person due to my education. But as I’ve chosen not to scientifically evaluate the book (there are plenty among us who already have and will), I decided to evaluate and review this book as an educated listener.
I do have to admit that every single time the narrator said “Neanderthal,” I found myself grating my teeth. The narrator used the British ‘th’ sound rather than a hard ‘t’ sound (e.g., Neander-THAL vs Neander-TAL). But my anguish at hearing the ‘th’ sound is due primarily to my training, where other academics drilled the use of the hard ‘t’ sound in to me (US scientists often use different sounds for the same words versus their European counterparts).
Is this book for the faint of heart? No. Is this book for someone who thinks religion is infallible? Perhaps not. But this book *is* for the lay public who are interested in how far we’ve come scientifically. Pettitt takes the reader on a journey from our earliest origins—from Australopithecines to Neanderthals to Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH)—and as any good anthropologist does, shows us how the advancements in science and the ongoing research collide and improve our understanding of human development.
Pettit really strives to explain everything as simply as possible, so readers don’t need advanced degrees—or any degree at all—in order to understand what he’s saying. This audio book reminds me of a classroom lecture. And as an educator myself, I know that students don’t remember everything in lectures; but they do retain a lot. In fact, they retain a lot more than they realize.
I would recommend this book to numerous people. For academics and scientists, this book provides a great overview. Although most of us strive to keep abreast of the current literature, the overview will help to solidify what we already know. College students will find this audio book useful, especially if they are taking a science class and need to get information quickly. But other members of the public, I believe, will also benefit greatly from listening to this audio book. You will learn the basics of human evolution and adaptation, along with the new scientific discoveries and dating methods.
December 4, 2022
3.45 rounded up to 4.
This is a good book for the correct audience. As an academic fan of human evolution and the Palaeolithic, in particular MIS 3 Neanderthals and AMH, I’ve read a lot about our species. Since it’s a more popular science book than an academic read, it acted as a refresher but not a challenging read.
Professor Pettitt, does a fantastic job exploring our species history, the evidence and discussion surrounding what makes us, us. In fact, Pettitt does an amazing job in explaining everything in layman’s terms, and engaging the reader in difficult concepts. In parts however it jumps around a lot especially in narrative and in moments it reads more like an autobiography with a spattering of archaeology than a book, meaning to summarising our species.
For the right audience, this book would get a 4.5 or 5, but for me - as the majority of the book didn’t contain any shocking new facts for me. Although the synthesis of evidence / info about the peopling of Americas and domestications of dogs from wolves was great.
My review shouldn’t (and I mean it) put off those who are unfamiliar with the topic, as it’s a great and informative read about ‘us’; and introduces our species (Homo sapiens) perfectly .
This is a good book for the correct audience. As an academic fan of human evolution and the Palaeolithic, in particular MIS 3 Neanderthals and AMH, I’ve read a lot about our species. Since it’s a more popular science book than an academic read, it acted as a refresher but not a challenging read.
Professor Pettitt, does a fantastic job exploring our species history, the evidence and discussion surrounding what makes us, us. In fact, Pettitt does an amazing job in explaining everything in layman’s terms, and engaging the reader in difficult concepts. In parts however it jumps around a lot especially in narrative and in moments it reads more like an autobiography with a spattering of archaeology than a book, meaning to summarising our species.
For the right audience, this book would get a 4.5 or 5, but for me - as the majority of the book didn’t contain any shocking new facts for me. Although the synthesis of evidence / info about the peopling of Americas and domestications of dogs from wolves was great.
My review shouldn’t (and I mean it) put off those who are unfamiliar with the topic, as it’s a great and informative read about ‘us’; and introduces our species (Homo sapiens) perfectly .
April 24, 2023
I found Homo Sapiens Rediscovered a little curious. There is a lot of very interesting information in it. The author, Paul Pettitt, has written a number of books, one of which, co-written with Mark White, The British Palaeolithic , I found virtually unreadable, mainly due to the writing style which included a great deal of highly technical language as well as non-technical but arcane and obscure language.
This work almost heads in the opposite direction. Here, Pettit frequently adopts a cheery, obtrusively informal style, almost as though writing for an audience of children. “During a break we were treated to a tour of the Niels Bohr Institute of Copenhagen University, or, to be specific, what must surely be the university's coldest room. My teeth chattered as I watched a glaciologist carefully uncover what looked like a gigantic ice-lolly.”
“The consumption of larger animals is also known, although their remains are more partial, and the over-abundance of their head parts relative to others on archaeological sites suggests that brain tissues were scavenged from the remains of carnivore kills of larger animals. Yum!”
I am afraid the humour is of a distinctly “Dad” variety:
“If you were to cut through your thigh and through your femur (don’t try this at home) it would appear relatively thin walled and round in section, unless you’re a top athlete or fitness fanatic.” 121
“scientists form cliques like any other group, and the sudden explosion of radical new techniques, such as the sequencing of ancient DNA, and the totally new insights these often provide into our origins can ruffle more feathers than Archaeopteryx in flight.”
Homo floresiensis “lived alongside the dwarf stegodon (of the elephant family), giant rats and storks, and vultures, all of which (bar the rats, who clearly didn’t desert a sinking ship) had become extinct by 50,000 years ago.”
And the common man (or child) touch sounds decidedly unacademic from time to time: In relation to common physical characteristics, “the fact that they may be seen as important – usually to justify pathetic racist views – is a relatively recent phenomenon.”
In both books Pettitt, as expert palaeontologist, intrudes more than seems necessary.
“The wind was freezing, and the sodden coastal cave stank of seaweed and bird droppings. We huddled together, focused on the task at hand, getting the footage we needed.… I was there with the science broadcaster and writer, and my old friend, Alice Roberts, filming a piece of the cave’s archaeology for a television series.”
“I’m writing this chapter from my apartment in Monrepos Castle, originally the country home of the Princes of the Wied just north of Stuttgart in Germany, but nowadays housing an Archaeological Research Centre and Museum of Human Behavioural Evolution.”
“The two examiners of my doctoral thesis, Clive Campbell and John Gowlett of Southampton and Liverpool Universities respectively, teamed up with the evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar to synthesise what we know about how the uniquely social brain of Homo sapiens evolved.”
“As a student in the late 1980s, returning home from a summer job in field archaeology, I glanced through the window of a junk shop, where several old books stood out in the dusty mess. Among them was John Lubbock's Prehistoric Times of 1865. Lubbock (later Lord Avebury) had been Darwin's friend, and is mainly known in Britain for inventing the bank holiday, but even then I knew of his importance to pre-historians... The book was a first edition and is worth much more than the £8 I paid for it, but i like to think it was a portent. I couldn't have imagined then, muddy little digger that I was, that I would be invited to the Royal Society in 2013 to talk on his contribution to archaeology.”
“I am particularly grateful to you, dear reader, for staying with me on our cold journey through our Pleistocene ancestors’ past. It’s time to leave them now. There is a long and complex story ahead, but that is for others to tell. Let’s take off our parkas, mittens and boots, and warm ourselves back into the present by the side of our own hearths. The lights and distractions of modern life almost – just almost – drown out that distant sound of a wolf howling, way out there in the wild.”
I probably made my point about Pettitt’s style without needing all those excerpts, but the fact I bothered to note them all (and there were more) is indicative of how irritating I found them.
Having listed the various aspects of the book that alienated me, I should add that there were, nevertheless, numbers of elements I found interesting.
• So much of our assumed knowledge about hominid lives from Palaeolithic times is based on clever interpretation of frustratingly few archaeological finds.
• 430m yearrs ago, the Ordovician glacier covered the whole earth, and the only life was under sea-ice. ½ the species from then are now extinct. Humans have existed in only one ice age: the Pleistocene of the last 2.5m years.
• Homo Sapiens-Neanderthal branches separated 500-700K years ago.
• Fire allowed calorific intake to increase 50%, also killed bacteria; deterred predators, allowed more time to socialise: increased communication; relationships caused brain growth. They could now walk further for food. “combination of efficient bipedalism, weapon- and tool-assisted hunting and butchery, and controlled use of fire had created a successful and competitive coloniser”.
• The earliest stone axes date from 3.3m years, used by apes, and were the dominant technology for 1.5m years.
• It has been found that skeletons from 20-30K years ago contained higher fish protein than expected. It is surmised that it would not have been possible to stand in cold rivers for an extended time, so traps may well have been developed as early as this.
• Hunter-gatherers were becoming more sedentary in the late Pleistocene.
• 300K yrs ago Homo Sapiens populated all Africa, then into the Levant 200K years ago.
• Denisova Cave, Russia finds. Denisovans 200K-50K; Denisovan genes in modern Asians, Australians, Melanesians, not in Europeans
• Suggest Neanderthals & Homo Sapiens interspersed various times in Levant though rarely met, but when they did, there were no obstacles to interbreeding. Neanderthals also made stone tools.
• There were only about 2000 Neanderthals throughout the Levant when they occupied the area 300-120K years ago and 80-50K years ago. Neanderthals needed 10% more calories than did Homo Sapiens, putting them at an extinction disadvantage.
• 75K-45K years ago, Neanderthals were the main inhabitants of the Levant, then with climate change, Homo Sapiens took over; they developed a small, light blade-spear and spear-thrower to replace thrust-spear.
• By 40K years, Neanderthals & Denisovans disappeared.
• 40K years, Homo Sapiens blades have been found in the Balkans, Crimea, Spain. They were hunter gatherers operating in small and fluid populations, highly mobile. They were problem-solving, using environmental information, technology.
• It is surmised that the human brain grew disproportionately and this allowed more complex thinking which included socialised behaviour.
• Humans and wolves, then dogs, developed a symbiotic relationship from the late Pleistocene. This is likely to have become a form of domestication around 32,000 years ago.
• It is likely that inhumation of corpses occurred only in rare cases, and often the corpse was de-fleshed beforehand and parts (eg cranium made into a cup) were utilised. Some cannibalism was likely.
• 31-26K yrs Mammoth bone shelters were being constructed in semi-permanent camps.
• A German site dating from 16K years ago has plaquettes engraved with horses, mammoths, woolly rhinos, birds, seals. cave art. Often these are in difficult positions when convenient surfaces were available, or deep in a cave with no natural light, just the light of oil lamps; the cave chambers produce reverberating sounds. Surmise is that the production of such art was a group ritual probably involving music and dance.
So, once untangled from the curious stylisms, the book has a great deal of valuable and interesting information.
This work almost heads in the opposite direction. Here, Pettit frequently adopts a cheery, obtrusively informal style, almost as though writing for an audience of children. “During a break we were treated to a tour of the Niels Bohr Institute of Copenhagen University, or, to be specific, what must surely be the university's coldest room. My teeth chattered as I watched a glaciologist carefully uncover what looked like a gigantic ice-lolly.”
“The consumption of larger animals is also known, although their remains are more partial, and the over-abundance of their head parts relative to others on archaeological sites suggests that brain tissues were scavenged from the remains of carnivore kills of larger animals. Yum!”
I am afraid the humour is of a distinctly “Dad” variety:
“If you were to cut through your thigh and through your femur (don’t try this at home) it would appear relatively thin walled and round in section, unless you’re a top athlete or fitness fanatic.” 121
“scientists form cliques like any other group, and the sudden explosion of radical new techniques, such as the sequencing of ancient DNA, and the totally new insights these often provide into our origins can ruffle more feathers than Archaeopteryx in flight.”
Homo floresiensis “lived alongside the dwarf stegodon (of the elephant family), giant rats and storks, and vultures, all of which (bar the rats, who clearly didn’t desert a sinking ship) had become extinct by 50,000 years ago.”
And the common man (or child) touch sounds decidedly unacademic from time to time: In relation to common physical characteristics, “the fact that they may be seen as important – usually to justify pathetic racist views – is a relatively recent phenomenon.”
In both books Pettitt, as expert palaeontologist, intrudes more than seems necessary.
“The wind was freezing, and the sodden coastal cave stank of seaweed and bird droppings. We huddled together, focused on the task at hand, getting the footage we needed.… I was there with the science broadcaster and writer, and my old friend, Alice Roberts, filming a piece of the cave’s archaeology for a television series.”
“I’m writing this chapter from my apartment in Monrepos Castle, originally the country home of the Princes of the Wied just north of Stuttgart in Germany, but nowadays housing an Archaeological Research Centre and Museum of Human Behavioural Evolution.”
“The two examiners of my doctoral thesis, Clive Campbell and John Gowlett of Southampton and Liverpool Universities respectively, teamed up with the evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar to synthesise what we know about how the uniquely social brain of Homo sapiens evolved.”
“As a student in the late 1980s, returning home from a summer job in field archaeology, I glanced through the window of a junk shop, where several old books stood out in the dusty mess. Among them was John Lubbock's Prehistoric Times of 1865. Lubbock (later Lord Avebury) had been Darwin's friend, and is mainly known in Britain for inventing the bank holiday, but even then I knew of his importance to pre-historians... The book was a first edition and is worth much more than the £8 I paid for it, but i like to think it was a portent. I couldn't have imagined then, muddy little digger that I was, that I would be invited to the Royal Society in 2013 to talk on his contribution to archaeology.”
“I am particularly grateful to you, dear reader, for staying with me on our cold journey through our Pleistocene ancestors’ past. It’s time to leave them now. There is a long and complex story ahead, but that is for others to tell. Let’s take off our parkas, mittens and boots, and warm ourselves back into the present by the side of our own hearths. The lights and distractions of modern life almost – just almost – drown out that distant sound of a wolf howling, way out there in the wild.”
I probably made my point about Pettitt’s style without needing all those excerpts, but the fact I bothered to note them all (and there were more) is indicative of how irritating I found them.
Having listed the various aspects of the book that alienated me, I should add that there were, nevertheless, numbers of elements I found interesting.
• So much of our assumed knowledge about hominid lives from Palaeolithic times is based on clever interpretation of frustratingly few archaeological finds.
• 430m yearrs ago, the Ordovician glacier covered the whole earth, and the only life was under sea-ice. ½ the species from then are now extinct. Humans have existed in only one ice age: the Pleistocene of the last 2.5m years.
• Homo Sapiens-Neanderthal branches separated 500-700K years ago.
• Fire allowed calorific intake to increase 50%, also killed bacteria; deterred predators, allowed more time to socialise: increased communication; relationships caused brain growth. They could now walk further for food. “combination of efficient bipedalism, weapon- and tool-assisted hunting and butchery, and controlled use of fire had created a successful and competitive coloniser”.
• The earliest stone axes date from 3.3m years, used by apes, and were the dominant technology for 1.5m years.
• It has been found that skeletons from 20-30K years ago contained higher fish protein than expected. It is surmised that it would not have been possible to stand in cold rivers for an extended time, so traps may well have been developed as early as this.
• Hunter-gatherers were becoming more sedentary in the late Pleistocene.
• 300K yrs ago Homo Sapiens populated all Africa, then into the Levant 200K years ago.
• Denisova Cave, Russia finds. Denisovans 200K-50K; Denisovan genes in modern Asians, Australians, Melanesians, not in Europeans
• Suggest Neanderthals & Homo Sapiens interspersed various times in Levant though rarely met, but when they did, there were no obstacles to interbreeding. Neanderthals also made stone tools.
• There were only about 2000 Neanderthals throughout the Levant when they occupied the area 300-120K years ago and 80-50K years ago. Neanderthals needed 10% more calories than did Homo Sapiens, putting them at an extinction disadvantage.
• 75K-45K years ago, Neanderthals were the main inhabitants of the Levant, then with climate change, Homo Sapiens took over; they developed a small, light blade-spear and spear-thrower to replace thrust-spear.
• By 40K years, Neanderthals & Denisovans disappeared.
• 40K years, Homo Sapiens blades have been found in the Balkans, Crimea, Spain. They were hunter gatherers operating in small and fluid populations, highly mobile. They were problem-solving, using environmental information, technology.
• It is surmised that the human brain grew disproportionately and this allowed more complex thinking which included socialised behaviour.
• Humans and wolves, then dogs, developed a symbiotic relationship from the late Pleistocene. This is likely to have become a form of domestication around 32,000 years ago.
• It is likely that inhumation of corpses occurred only in rare cases, and often the corpse was de-fleshed beforehand and parts (eg cranium made into a cup) were utilised. Some cannibalism was likely.
• 31-26K yrs Mammoth bone shelters were being constructed in semi-permanent camps.
• A German site dating from 16K years ago has plaquettes engraved with horses, mammoths, woolly rhinos, birds, seals. cave art. Often these are in difficult positions when convenient surfaces were available, or deep in a cave with no natural light, just the light of oil lamps; the cave chambers produce reverberating sounds. Surmise is that the production of such art was a group ritual probably involving music and dance.
So, once untangled from the curious stylisms, the book has a great deal of valuable and interesting information.
April 23, 2025
Pettitt covered quite a bit of detail about early man of the Pleistocene (roughly 2.5 million to 11,000 years ago) starting from 300,000 years when man of the Old Stone Age dispersed across Africa and ventured into continents to the north, the east and the south to later crossing the tundra area known as Beringa that connected Siberia to Alaska and on down to the Americas.
Below is my summary of what would fit into this review (mostly for my later reference as it's damned good info)
Summary
Intro: Many of the techniques that we use today are very new and are radically changing what we think we know about our origins. The Pleistocene climate went through a series of ice ages. The story of our origins spins out of the Ice Age.
Paul Pettitt specializes in Paleolithic archeology, particularly in Europe - literally the Old Stone Age Ch 1 – Skin and Bones
Mary and Louis Leakey in Tanzania Olduvai Gorge began to recover fossils of creature apparently intermediate between living apes and humans in the mid-20th century.
Comparing the genomes of all 4 families of great apes traces back to a common ape ancestor that lived in Africa between 10-16 million yrs ago – a branch to orangutans split off about 10 mill yrs ago; gorillas between 6-10 mill yrs ago; the chimp as late as 5 mill yrs ago Chimps split leading to Homo Sapiens b/t 5-7 mill yrs ago. We share 98% of our genome.
Australopithecines and paranthropines shared more characteristics with apes than with humans.
Africa - Miocene apes (about 17 mill); Ape-hominin split b/t 5-7 mill; Australopithicines; Paranthropines; Early Homo (>2 mill); Homo erectus (1.5 mill); Homo heidelbergensis and other archaic Homo (.4-.5 mill); Homo naledi (.3 mill); Denisovans (.1-.2 mill); Neanderthals (.1); Homo luzonensis and Homo floresiensis; and then Homo sapiens. By 4 mill yrs ago, hominins shared more characteristics with later humans
During the Miocene, Africa was covered in thick forests and most primates lived in the trees. But around 8 million yrs ago, temps began to fall as ice built up around the poles. Some groups became extinct.
Around 12 mill, Danuvius guggenmosi, a small ape known from Bavarian fossils clambered among the branches on two legs. Bipedialism is more energy efficient for travelling.
Miocene apes began to establish in Eurasia from 17 mill and their diets began to diversify as the adapted to different environments. Late Miocene, the forests continued to fragment. Miocene apes preferred fruit and nuts when nothing else was available. From 5 mill, we see a growing dietary diversification.
At least 3.4 mill, some early human groups were obtaining meat. By 2.5 mill, meat was carefully removed from bones. First signs of fire creation. Cooking gets some digestion done artificially and can improve caloric intake by up to 50%. Time spent on communicating and reinforcing relationships led to a bigger brain.
Around 2 mill, Homo habilis, then Homo rudolfensis, Homo ergaster, Homo georgicus, Homo erectus, Homo naledi; and Homo antecessor.
By 1.9 mill, Homo ergaster – the brain had enlarged to about half of our own. Body was larger and legs longer. Now fully committed to life on the ground and meat diets.
Homo georgicus – using Oldawan tools – simple stone tools.
By 1.5 mill, Homo erectus had dispersed as far as China and Indonesia.
Human brains today – roughly 3.5 times those of chimps . Brain – 2% of our body mass, but 15-20% of total resting metabolism.
Homo ergaster – increase of energy-rich foods in meat; Our brains grew particularly in the cerebral cortex region. The need for flexible brain power must have been intense. Human Accelerated Regions (HARs) of the brain underwent rapid change. Relate to the production of general-purpose cells involving cognition, working memory, and the ability to plan and reason, finger dexterity, social learning and tools use.
Social brain hypothesis – increased brain size allows for the maintenance of larger numbers of social relationships. Larger groups come at a cost – a focus of smaller packages of nutritious foods. Stone tools being made around 3.5 mill. Language does not fossilize, but involves complex, goal-oriented actio0ns and the increasing importance of teaching skills.
A huge mental leap with Homo ergaster concerned with attention and predicting.
Homo erectus and Homo heidelbergensis 1.8 mill from Africa to Britain to China. By half a million yrs ago, something very new began to appear.
Ch 2. – The molecular frontier
Earliest Homo sapiens had been unfolding for around 300,000 yrs – origins out of Africa at least 100,000; dispersal to Europe around 40,000. 12,000 - end of the Ice Age.
Radiocarbon takes us back to 50,000. Uranium-thorium dating extends 500,000 into the Ice Age.
Earliest fossils of Homo sapiens more than 300,000 in Morocco. Mitochondrial DNA comparisons.
Ice Age hunter gatherers were highly mobile.
Ch 3 – Climate change and environment
Water, climate , weather and life are locked together in a close symbiosis. Around 430 mill during the Orodvecian – a massive refrigeration of the Earth occurred. Well over half of the living species became extinct. Humans have been on Earth for only one broad Ice Age – its most recent. The 2.5 mill yr Pleistocene – a series of climatic shifts, our last one for the last 117,000. Led to the succeeding Holocene.
Early humans in Africa had to deal with two extreme environmental consequences of the Ice Age. Cool temps of glacial period meant less rainfall and greater aridity. Around 8 mill – initiated the process of diversification and isolation in ape pops. Increased temps during warm interglacials saw major precipitation in the tropics – greening of deserts and expansion of the rain forests and high lake levels.
During this time, the Antarctic and Greenland sheets were kept in balance for the most part during the Pleistocene and into the Holocene. The expanding grasslands and open woodlands offered a diverse and easily accessible set of resources. About 300,000 yrs ago, our species had already diversified across the entire continent.
Ch 4 – Dispersal from Africa to Asia
Went from Africa, then to Asia. Asia had the most dramatically diverse climates on the planet.
First, Afrotropical, then Saharo-Arabian to the north – then to Oriental to the east – then to Palaeoarctic to the north-north – then to Australian to the far south – then to Nearctic (present US)
Ch 5 – Neanderthals and Denisovans
Neanderthals – large-brained human mostly in steppes of Eurasia. Stocky bodies conserved heat. Homo sapiens diverged from Neanderthals (Near East) and Denisovans (Central Asia) around 500,000 to 700,000 yrs ago. Then Denisovans and Neanderthals separated around 600,000 ya.
Today, ppl share b/t 5 to 40% of their DNA with early Eurasians. Europeans shares most of their genetic makeup from a 37,000 yr old unknown ancestor.
The common ancestor for Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals was some time before 360,000 yrs ago.
Four major stages of genetic evolution over the last 2 million years.
1. Early African Homo dispersed across Europe and Asia around 2.1 mill yrs ago leading to Homo erectus.
2. 1.4 mill ya – one Homo lineage split off giving rise to the superarchaics – Neanderthals, Densovans and Homo sapiens.
3. 40,000 ya – Neanderthals and Denisovans disappeared, but there was interbreeding with Homo sapiens. Around 45,000 ya – our genome was about 6% Neanderthal, but it is less than 2% today.
4. Neandethals had indications of low diversity. Pops were declining around 100,000 ya most likely due to unstable climate. Around 45,000 ya, climate deteriorated bringing Neanderthal extinction, leaving the sole inhabitant – Homo sapiens.
Neanderthals occupied the Levant, known as the Goldilocks Zone b/t 300,000 to 120,000 ya. B/t 80,000 – 50,000 ya they were interspersed with Homo sapiens.
Technology did make a major turn around 50,000 ya. New weapons and tools. Differences in art and jewelry b/t 50,000 – 40,000 ya.
Ch 6 - Diversity
Homo sapiens entered a very different world from Africa as they entered the Indian continent – increasingly diverse environments. 65,000-45,000 ya – living in rain forests. Homo erectus – extinct around 125,000 ya.
Philippines show that Homo sapiens arrived before 60,000 ya.
Homo flourensiensis was there about 150,000 ya and was extinct around 50,000 ya. (only 3-ft in height, and brain the size of a chimp, yet made stone tools)
By 30,000 ya, all species of humans other than sapiens disappeared!
50,000 – 35,000 ya – final phase for the development of our species.
Ch 7 – Catastrophe: the coming of Homo sapiens in Europe
Catastrophism – the course of natural history had been interrupted several times by catastrophic events bringing mass extinctions.
Vocanism played a major role in the development of early humans.
One of the largest explosions in the last 550 million years – thought to have a leading cause in the Ordovician-Silurian extinction! This was the 2nd deadliest of 5 mass extinctions in Earth’s history. Currently going through the 6th extinction of wildlife now caused by Homo sapiens. Destroyed over 85% of living species.
Most powerful eruption in recorded history – Tambora in Indonesia in 1815. Year without a summer and crop failures and famine across the world. VEI 6. BUT, from the course of human evolution, it was a light weight.
74,000 ya – the Toba volcano on Sumatra. Southeast Asia is one of the most seismically active places on earth. Erupted only 4 times in more than a million yrs. 74,000 ya – Toba explosion reduced the height of the volcano by around 2,000 meters and became one of the largest crater lakes on Earth. Cooled the earth by 9 degrees, maybe 10 degrees Fahrenheit. Erupted just when climate was changing from cold but relatively mild interstadial conditions into severe cold stadial conditions. Made tough situation far worse for humans.
Some humans were able to survive until the eruption’s middle phase. But indications of remaining pops of humans for several millennia on either side of the super-eruption – were thriving. But, major catastrophic population reductions create genetic bottlenecks.
Neandethals had been at their peak at this time, but their pop saw a gradual decline. Denisovans were similarly affected, along with Homo floresiensis and Homo luzonensis. Homo sapiens dispersed out of Africa to greater distances and far more permanently. African shomo sapiens were building a larger, more connected society.
45,000 ya – Marked change in the control of the material related to weapons – smaller bladelets.
Actual human remains are remarkably rare – probably reduced to dust in the caves. But we do have a few examples. No reliably date Neanderthal are younger than 41,000 ya.
Protoaurignacian technology (named after the site of Aurignac in southwestern France)– elements of multi-part knives and weapon tips AND the diversity of wearable ornaments.
Upper Paleolithic – 50,000 to 12,000 ya.
40,500 year old cranium in Romania – one of the earliest Homo sapiens groups in Europe.
Neanderthals gone from all but the western peripheries of Europe by 43,000 ya and Homo sapiens dispersing around 45,000 ya.
Another catastrophe or two - One of the most powerful explosions of the Pleistocene – VEI 7 – was about 40,000 ya – Phlegraen Fields near Naples, Italy.
Onset of very cold and dry conditions – a Heinrich Event - these events occurred repeatedly over the Pleistocene and are marked in the marine cores - massive discharging (calving) of ice from the polar ice caps into the ocean, drifting southward. This shuts down the circulation of warm, saline waters in the Atlantic, leading to significant cooling. For several thousand years, cold-adapted animals disappeared from the north – hyenas never to return – and woolly mammoths, reindeer and arctic fox back to a southern distribution. Neanderthals and Denisovans were already extinct and Homo sapiens disappeared from a cold Europe for several centuries.
Ch 8 – Stress, Disease and Inbreeding
Cro-Magnon (Ice-Age specimens) – Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta.
First human remains dating to the Ice Age recovered by science, and as a result, the nae Cro-Magnon came to be referred to as Ice Age specimens. About 31,000 ya. Small scale societies; hunter gatherers. Carrying capacity is the size of the pop that an environment can sustain without depletion. No wonder pops were maintained with acceptable levels of inbreeding.
Hunter gatherers evolved a system of fission and fusion in order to minimize their depletion of the land. When resources were abundant, they could aggregate together in relatively large numbers. When resources were low, they split into smaller units with a few nuclear families. This was their annual cycle.
Expansive and complex transgenerational networks, multilevel societies that linked together highly mobile bands. Many things shared over long distances.
Taboos will actively reduce the risk of inbreeding by prohibition. Demanding levels of mobility and networking needed to maintain these populations.
Homo sapiens had modest lowering of infant mortality compared to the Neanderthals. Individuals matured relatively quickly. Eruption of the second and third molars – generally rapid mutation of the skeleton as a whole. - Big brains and tough, middle lives are metabolically expensive. Neanderthals – about 5,000 kcal/day; Homo sapiens – 4,000 kcal/day. Homo sapiens – relatively long bones of the arms and legs relatively thick-walled with markd attachment points for developed muscles – characteristic of high levels of biomechanical stress – comparable to modern competitive cross country runners. Our height is about 4x the length of the femur.
Smaller-bodied with lower metabolic and nutritional demands stood a far greater chance of survival. Muscle build due to paddling boats and throwing javelins.
Clearly a tough life – nutritional stress; trauma-related features were relatively common. Those who sustained deformities or trauma of the lower limbs continued to be mobile. Older ones were left behind to die. Hunter-gatherers have a relatively low rate of pathogens – oral health waw relatively good. But, hypophosphatemia – low levels of phosphates in the blood, leading to breathing trouble and weakness; hydrocephalus – an accumulation of cerebral-spinal fluid in the brain causing headaches, double vision, poor balance, incontinence, mental impairment, seizures, personality disorders and maybe brain tumors; systemic dysplasias – genetic disorders affecting the development of the bone.
Infant mortality was relatively high until recently. The elderly are not as common as they should be. Death by ice age specimens was dominated by adults in the prime of their lives. Could it be that this is a distortion – that maybe the only adults buried were in their prime? Preferential burial of prime adults occurred, but this does not account for higher rates of mortality among the prime adults.
Ch 9 – In Mammoth Country
First example of Paleolithic burial – around 34,000 ya.
Woolly mammoth – evolved around 400,000 ya in Siberia, spreading to Europe around 150,000 ya. Their ecosystem was particularly rich in nutrients, so they were particularly rich preying grounds for humans. Woollys were found only in northern latitudes, specifically adapted to cold grasslands.
Upper-Paleolithic – about 20,000 - 11,000 ya. Art on ivory – carvings. Woolly’s dung gives good clues about distance and direction; size; when it died; at what speed; and in what health it was. Hunters would build a complex mental maps. Woollys were responsible for helping the spread of humans into landscapes. Woolly’s tracks could be easily tracked – they helped navigate and orientate humans. Herds and humans were often found together. Woollys offered meat, fat, sinew, short wool, long hair, and ivory.
The Ivory Age.
Nitrogen is informative as to diet re: the amount of meat for their dietary protein, and carbon as to whether this animal protein was aquatic or terrestrial prey.
Woollys, foxes, - fox canines and wolly tusks.
Aurignacians of the early upper paleolithic were able to exploit mammoth bone, tools, art and jewelry.
Caves’ exquisite sculpted figurines; instruments – a new human scoiety – 37,000 ya
Dance, song, and storytelling. – culture related to body ornamentation, symbolism; observations and allusions; metaphor; mental and physical maps;
Lion Man – Hohlenstein-Stadel – one of the most evocative objects surviving from the Paleolithic. At least 36,000 yrs old
Ch 10 – Cold
Constructed shelters out of mammoth bones (31,000 – 15,000) – where woolly ivory was carved into jewelry
A shift in population was occurring in Central Europe – drawn eastward to the hunting grounds of the great Russian plain.
32,000 – 21,000 ya – Mid Upper Paleolithic – from France to Siberia (homo sapiens) Stone technology was spreading all over. Tools were technical response in increasingly severe conditions. Mammoths played a crucial role as providers of meat and fat and bones.
By now, widespread set of spiritual beliefs had arisen, perhaps serving to unite far flung ppl around shared myths and codes of behavior.
Pavlovians, an early Gravettian culture, Czech Republic and Austria and Slovakia – 31,000 – 26,000 ya
Exceptionally rich; regional identity of its own; enjoyed the benefits of long distance contact; high quality flints; high levels of mobility; maintain connections with others from their own group - Cultural surviving in sub-arctic temp was remarkable.
The world of the Venuses - obese lady, carefully polished and colored with red ochre – Venus of Willendorf. Others founds between 31,000 – 27,000 ya. Pubic areas, breasts and belly commonly emphasized; all female
Conditions deteriorating about 27,000 ya- the Pavlovian disappeared!
Last Glacial Maximum - severe climate conditions – ended about 18,500 -17,000 ya.
Mezinian culture - impressive residential sites; used mammoth ivory in sophisticated ways; mammoth-bone architecture and followed some general blueprints as each home was built similarly. Art and jewelry.
The rise of monumentality – the investment of huge amounts of labor in highly visible structures, such as temples of the Neolithic Near East. Archaeologists first encounter with man having amber.
Ch 11 – Refuge
Northern England and Ireland (at least 700m or 2300 ft thick!) around 25,000 ya was under glacial ice for several thousand years. Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) – between 26,000 – 19,000 ya (the last significant cold period of the Pleistodene). Cold snaps occurred right up to the Holocene, but they were nowhere near as severe.
Below is my summary of what would fit into this review (mostly for my later reference as it's damned good info)
Summary
Intro: Many of the techniques that we use today are very new and are radically changing what we think we know about our origins. The Pleistocene climate went through a series of ice ages. The story of our origins spins out of the Ice Age.
Paul Pettitt specializes in Paleolithic archeology, particularly in Europe - literally the Old Stone Age Ch 1 – Skin and Bones
Mary and Louis Leakey in Tanzania Olduvai Gorge began to recover fossils of creature apparently intermediate between living apes and humans in the mid-20th century.
Comparing the genomes of all 4 families of great apes traces back to a common ape ancestor that lived in Africa between 10-16 million yrs ago – a branch to orangutans split off about 10 mill yrs ago; gorillas between 6-10 mill yrs ago; the chimp as late as 5 mill yrs ago Chimps split leading to Homo Sapiens b/t 5-7 mill yrs ago. We share 98% of our genome.
Australopithecines and paranthropines shared more characteristics with apes than with humans.
Africa - Miocene apes (about 17 mill); Ape-hominin split b/t 5-7 mill; Australopithicines; Paranthropines; Early Homo (>2 mill); Homo erectus (1.5 mill); Homo heidelbergensis and other archaic Homo (.4-.5 mill); Homo naledi (.3 mill); Denisovans (.1-.2 mill); Neanderthals (.1); Homo luzonensis and Homo floresiensis; and then Homo sapiens. By 4 mill yrs ago, hominins shared more characteristics with later humans
During the Miocene, Africa was covered in thick forests and most primates lived in the trees. But around 8 million yrs ago, temps began to fall as ice built up around the poles. Some groups became extinct.
Around 12 mill, Danuvius guggenmosi, a small ape known from Bavarian fossils clambered among the branches on two legs. Bipedialism is more energy efficient for travelling.
Miocene apes began to establish in Eurasia from 17 mill and their diets began to diversify as the adapted to different environments. Late Miocene, the forests continued to fragment. Miocene apes preferred fruit and nuts when nothing else was available. From 5 mill, we see a growing dietary diversification.
At least 3.4 mill, some early human groups were obtaining meat. By 2.5 mill, meat was carefully removed from bones. First signs of fire creation. Cooking gets some digestion done artificially and can improve caloric intake by up to 50%. Time spent on communicating and reinforcing relationships led to a bigger brain.
Around 2 mill, Homo habilis, then Homo rudolfensis, Homo ergaster, Homo georgicus, Homo erectus, Homo naledi; and Homo antecessor.
By 1.9 mill, Homo ergaster – the brain had enlarged to about half of our own. Body was larger and legs longer. Now fully committed to life on the ground and meat diets.
Homo georgicus – using Oldawan tools – simple stone tools.
By 1.5 mill, Homo erectus had dispersed as far as China and Indonesia.
Human brains today – roughly 3.5 times those of chimps . Brain – 2% of our body mass, but 15-20% of total resting metabolism.
Homo ergaster – increase of energy-rich foods in meat; Our brains grew particularly in the cerebral cortex region. The need for flexible brain power must have been intense. Human Accelerated Regions (HARs) of the brain underwent rapid change. Relate to the production of general-purpose cells involving cognition, working memory, and the ability to plan and reason, finger dexterity, social learning and tools use.
Social brain hypothesis – increased brain size allows for the maintenance of larger numbers of social relationships. Larger groups come at a cost – a focus of smaller packages of nutritious foods. Stone tools being made around 3.5 mill. Language does not fossilize, but involves complex, goal-oriented actio0ns and the increasing importance of teaching skills.
A huge mental leap with Homo ergaster concerned with attention and predicting.
Homo erectus and Homo heidelbergensis 1.8 mill from Africa to Britain to China. By half a million yrs ago, something very new began to appear.
Ch 2. – The molecular frontier
Earliest Homo sapiens had been unfolding for around 300,000 yrs – origins out of Africa at least 100,000; dispersal to Europe around 40,000. 12,000 - end of the Ice Age.
Radiocarbon takes us back to 50,000. Uranium-thorium dating extends 500,000 into the Ice Age.
Earliest fossils of Homo sapiens more than 300,000 in Morocco. Mitochondrial DNA comparisons.
Ice Age hunter gatherers were highly mobile.
Ch 3 – Climate change and environment
Water, climate , weather and life are locked together in a close symbiosis. Around 430 mill during the Orodvecian – a massive refrigeration of the Earth occurred. Well over half of the living species became extinct. Humans have been on Earth for only one broad Ice Age – its most recent. The 2.5 mill yr Pleistocene – a series of climatic shifts, our last one for the last 117,000. Led to the succeeding Holocene.
Early humans in Africa had to deal with two extreme environmental consequences of the Ice Age. Cool temps of glacial period meant less rainfall and greater aridity. Around 8 mill – initiated the process of diversification and isolation in ape pops. Increased temps during warm interglacials saw major precipitation in the tropics – greening of deserts and expansion of the rain forests and high lake levels.
During this time, the Antarctic and Greenland sheets were kept in balance for the most part during the Pleistocene and into the Holocene. The expanding grasslands and open woodlands offered a diverse and easily accessible set of resources. About 300,000 yrs ago, our species had already diversified across the entire continent.
Ch 4 – Dispersal from Africa to Asia
Went from Africa, then to Asia. Asia had the most dramatically diverse climates on the planet.
First, Afrotropical, then Saharo-Arabian to the north – then to Oriental to the east – then to Palaeoarctic to the north-north – then to Australian to the far south – then to Nearctic (present US)
Ch 5 – Neanderthals and Denisovans
Neanderthals – large-brained human mostly in steppes of Eurasia. Stocky bodies conserved heat. Homo sapiens diverged from Neanderthals (Near East) and Denisovans (Central Asia) around 500,000 to 700,000 yrs ago. Then Denisovans and Neanderthals separated around 600,000 ya.
Today, ppl share b/t 5 to 40% of their DNA with early Eurasians. Europeans shares most of their genetic makeup from a 37,000 yr old unknown ancestor.
The common ancestor for Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals was some time before 360,000 yrs ago.
Four major stages of genetic evolution over the last 2 million years.
1. Early African Homo dispersed across Europe and Asia around 2.1 mill yrs ago leading to Homo erectus.
2. 1.4 mill ya – one Homo lineage split off giving rise to the superarchaics – Neanderthals, Densovans and Homo sapiens.
3. 40,000 ya – Neanderthals and Denisovans disappeared, but there was interbreeding with Homo sapiens. Around 45,000 ya – our genome was about 6% Neanderthal, but it is less than 2% today.
4. Neandethals had indications of low diversity. Pops were declining around 100,000 ya most likely due to unstable climate. Around 45,000 ya, climate deteriorated bringing Neanderthal extinction, leaving the sole inhabitant – Homo sapiens.
Neanderthals occupied the Levant, known as the Goldilocks Zone b/t 300,000 to 120,000 ya. B/t 80,000 – 50,000 ya they were interspersed with Homo sapiens.
Technology did make a major turn around 50,000 ya. New weapons and tools. Differences in art and jewelry b/t 50,000 – 40,000 ya.
Ch 6 - Diversity
Homo sapiens entered a very different world from Africa as they entered the Indian continent – increasingly diverse environments. 65,000-45,000 ya – living in rain forests. Homo erectus – extinct around 125,000 ya.
Philippines show that Homo sapiens arrived before 60,000 ya.
Homo flourensiensis was there about 150,000 ya and was extinct around 50,000 ya. (only 3-ft in height, and brain the size of a chimp, yet made stone tools)
By 30,000 ya, all species of humans other than sapiens disappeared!
50,000 – 35,000 ya – final phase for the development of our species.
Ch 7 – Catastrophe: the coming of Homo sapiens in Europe
Catastrophism – the course of natural history had been interrupted several times by catastrophic events bringing mass extinctions.
Vocanism played a major role in the development of early humans.
One of the largest explosions in the last 550 million years – thought to have a leading cause in the Ordovician-Silurian extinction! This was the 2nd deadliest of 5 mass extinctions in Earth’s history. Currently going through the 6th extinction of wildlife now caused by Homo sapiens. Destroyed over 85% of living species.
Most powerful eruption in recorded history – Tambora in Indonesia in 1815. Year without a summer and crop failures and famine across the world. VEI 6. BUT, from the course of human evolution, it was a light weight.
74,000 ya – the Toba volcano on Sumatra. Southeast Asia is one of the most seismically active places on earth. Erupted only 4 times in more than a million yrs. 74,000 ya – Toba explosion reduced the height of the volcano by around 2,000 meters and became one of the largest crater lakes on Earth. Cooled the earth by 9 degrees, maybe 10 degrees Fahrenheit. Erupted just when climate was changing from cold but relatively mild interstadial conditions into severe cold stadial conditions. Made tough situation far worse for humans.
Some humans were able to survive until the eruption’s middle phase. But indications of remaining pops of humans for several millennia on either side of the super-eruption – were thriving. But, major catastrophic population reductions create genetic bottlenecks.
Neandethals had been at their peak at this time, but their pop saw a gradual decline. Denisovans were similarly affected, along with Homo floresiensis and Homo luzonensis. Homo sapiens dispersed out of Africa to greater distances and far more permanently. African shomo sapiens were building a larger, more connected society.
45,000 ya – Marked change in the control of the material related to weapons – smaller bladelets.
Actual human remains are remarkably rare – probably reduced to dust in the caves. But we do have a few examples. No reliably date Neanderthal are younger than 41,000 ya.
Protoaurignacian technology (named after the site of Aurignac in southwestern France)– elements of multi-part knives and weapon tips AND the diversity of wearable ornaments.
Upper Paleolithic – 50,000 to 12,000 ya.
40,500 year old cranium in Romania – one of the earliest Homo sapiens groups in Europe.
Neanderthals gone from all but the western peripheries of Europe by 43,000 ya and Homo sapiens dispersing around 45,000 ya.
Another catastrophe or two - One of the most powerful explosions of the Pleistocene – VEI 7 – was about 40,000 ya – Phlegraen Fields near Naples, Italy.
Onset of very cold and dry conditions – a Heinrich Event - these events occurred repeatedly over the Pleistocene and are marked in the marine cores - massive discharging (calving) of ice from the polar ice caps into the ocean, drifting southward. This shuts down the circulation of warm, saline waters in the Atlantic, leading to significant cooling. For several thousand years, cold-adapted animals disappeared from the north – hyenas never to return – and woolly mammoths, reindeer and arctic fox back to a southern distribution. Neanderthals and Denisovans were already extinct and Homo sapiens disappeared from a cold Europe for several centuries.
Ch 8 – Stress, Disease and Inbreeding
Cro-Magnon (Ice-Age specimens) – Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta.
First human remains dating to the Ice Age recovered by science, and as a result, the nae Cro-Magnon came to be referred to as Ice Age specimens. About 31,000 ya. Small scale societies; hunter gatherers. Carrying capacity is the size of the pop that an environment can sustain without depletion. No wonder pops were maintained with acceptable levels of inbreeding.
Hunter gatherers evolved a system of fission and fusion in order to minimize their depletion of the land. When resources were abundant, they could aggregate together in relatively large numbers. When resources were low, they split into smaller units with a few nuclear families. This was their annual cycle.
Expansive and complex transgenerational networks, multilevel societies that linked together highly mobile bands. Many things shared over long distances.
Taboos will actively reduce the risk of inbreeding by prohibition. Demanding levels of mobility and networking needed to maintain these populations.
Homo sapiens had modest lowering of infant mortality compared to the Neanderthals. Individuals matured relatively quickly. Eruption of the second and third molars – generally rapid mutation of the skeleton as a whole. - Big brains and tough, middle lives are metabolically expensive. Neanderthals – about 5,000 kcal/day; Homo sapiens – 4,000 kcal/day. Homo sapiens – relatively long bones of the arms and legs relatively thick-walled with markd attachment points for developed muscles – characteristic of high levels of biomechanical stress – comparable to modern competitive cross country runners. Our height is about 4x the length of the femur.
Smaller-bodied with lower metabolic and nutritional demands stood a far greater chance of survival. Muscle build due to paddling boats and throwing javelins.
Clearly a tough life – nutritional stress; trauma-related features were relatively common. Those who sustained deformities or trauma of the lower limbs continued to be mobile. Older ones were left behind to die. Hunter-gatherers have a relatively low rate of pathogens – oral health waw relatively good. But, hypophosphatemia – low levels of phosphates in the blood, leading to breathing trouble and weakness; hydrocephalus – an accumulation of cerebral-spinal fluid in the brain causing headaches, double vision, poor balance, incontinence, mental impairment, seizures, personality disorders and maybe brain tumors; systemic dysplasias – genetic disorders affecting the development of the bone.
Infant mortality was relatively high until recently. The elderly are not as common as they should be. Death by ice age specimens was dominated by adults in the prime of their lives. Could it be that this is a distortion – that maybe the only adults buried were in their prime? Preferential burial of prime adults occurred, but this does not account for higher rates of mortality among the prime adults.
Ch 9 – In Mammoth Country
First example of Paleolithic burial – around 34,000 ya.
Woolly mammoth – evolved around 400,000 ya in Siberia, spreading to Europe around 150,000 ya. Their ecosystem was particularly rich in nutrients, so they were particularly rich preying grounds for humans. Woollys were found only in northern latitudes, specifically adapted to cold grasslands.
Upper-Paleolithic – about 20,000 - 11,000 ya. Art on ivory – carvings. Woolly’s dung gives good clues about distance and direction; size; when it died; at what speed; and in what health it was. Hunters would build a complex mental maps. Woollys were responsible for helping the spread of humans into landscapes. Woolly’s tracks could be easily tracked – they helped navigate and orientate humans. Herds and humans were often found together. Woollys offered meat, fat, sinew, short wool, long hair, and ivory.
The Ivory Age.
Nitrogen is informative as to diet re: the amount of meat for their dietary protein, and carbon as to whether this animal protein was aquatic or terrestrial prey.
Woollys, foxes, - fox canines and wolly tusks.
Aurignacians of the early upper paleolithic were able to exploit mammoth bone, tools, art and jewelry.
Caves’ exquisite sculpted figurines; instruments – a new human scoiety – 37,000 ya
Dance, song, and storytelling. – culture related to body ornamentation, symbolism; observations and allusions; metaphor; mental and physical maps;
Lion Man – Hohlenstein-Stadel – one of the most evocative objects surviving from the Paleolithic. At least 36,000 yrs old
Ch 10 – Cold
Constructed shelters out of mammoth bones (31,000 – 15,000) – where woolly ivory was carved into jewelry
A shift in population was occurring in Central Europe – drawn eastward to the hunting grounds of the great Russian plain.
32,000 – 21,000 ya – Mid Upper Paleolithic – from France to Siberia (homo sapiens) Stone technology was spreading all over. Tools were technical response in increasingly severe conditions. Mammoths played a crucial role as providers of meat and fat and bones.
By now, widespread set of spiritual beliefs had arisen, perhaps serving to unite far flung ppl around shared myths and codes of behavior.
Pavlovians, an early Gravettian culture, Czech Republic and Austria and Slovakia – 31,000 – 26,000 ya
Exceptionally rich; regional identity of its own; enjoyed the benefits of long distance contact; high quality flints; high levels of mobility; maintain connections with others from their own group - Cultural surviving in sub-arctic temp was remarkable.
The world of the Venuses - obese lady, carefully polished and colored with red ochre – Venus of Willendorf. Others founds between 31,000 – 27,000 ya. Pubic areas, breasts and belly commonly emphasized; all female
Conditions deteriorating about 27,000 ya- the Pavlovian disappeared!
Last Glacial Maximum - severe climate conditions – ended about 18,500 -17,000 ya.
Mezinian culture - impressive residential sites; used mammoth ivory in sophisticated ways; mammoth-bone architecture and followed some general blueprints as each home was built similarly. Art and jewelry.
The rise of monumentality – the investment of huge amounts of labor in highly visible structures, such as temples of the Neolithic Near East. Archaeologists first encounter with man having amber.
Ch 11 – Refuge
Northern England and Ireland (at least 700m or 2300 ft thick!) around 25,000 ya was under glacial ice for several thousand years. Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) – between 26,000 – 19,000 ya (the last significant cold period of the Pleistodene). Cold snaps occurred right up to the Holocene, but they were nowhere near as severe.
March 17, 2023
4.5 stars for Homo sapiens: Rediscovered
I went into good a little jaded, not going to lie. As someone who is a professional archaeologist and has studied human evolution, osteology and physical anthropology I went in thinking ‘This is either going to be good, or its going to be more pseudo-science nonsense,’ Well Dr.Pettitt, you did not disappoint, I loved this book. The writing was concise and engaging and I was impressed with how complex archaeological methodologies and theories were explained in such a way that the reader didn’t get bogged down with jargon (something the field is notorious for). His writing explains new developments in the field with ease and I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in human evolution and our origins. I learned a lot reading this and it is a breath of fresh air since the field has been surrounded by disappointing pseudoscience for years now. I’ll definitely be recommending this to colleagues when it hits shelves!
I went into good a little jaded, not going to lie. As someone who is a professional archaeologist and has studied human evolution, osteology and physical anthropology I went in thinking ‘This is either going to be good, or its going to be more pseudo-science nonsense,’ Well Dr.Pettitt, you did not disappoint, I loved this book. The writing was concise and engaging and I was impressed with how complex archaeological methodologies and theories were explained in such a way that the reader didn’t get bogged down with jargon (something the field is notorious for). His writing explains new developments in the field with ease and I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in human evolution and our origins. I learned a lot reading this and it is a breath of fresh air since the field has been surrounded by disappointing pseudoscience for years now. I’ll definitely be recommending this to colleagues when it hits shelves!
August 2, 2023
I've only read a couple of books about early human biological and cultural evolution and this book builds on some of them. There are a few ideas that seem to point to what led to our unique evolutionary path and . One of these being a changing climate during the early Pleistocene (Ice Age). As the climate cooled and dried, the dense tropical African jungles began to recede and give way to open savannah. We also began hunting and eating more meat, and getting more nutrition from our food by cooking it with fire. But one of the most significant factors was our complex social networks. This probably had the greatest impact on the development of our proportionally large brains.
Besides these topics, the author traces human evolution from about 300K ya to 10K ya, about the time many cultures became sedentary and agriculture developed. Throughout this long period of our history, people left traces of stone tools, animal bones, burial sites, wall art, and engraving in locations across Europe and Asia. There were also several periods of dispersal and reconnection among people, leading to genetic diversity and mixing.
This book added another layer to my understanding of our evolution and gave me a better appreciation for the artwork created over the 300K years before modern industrial culture.
Besides these topics, the author traces human evolution from about 300K ya to 10K ya, about the time many cultures became sedentary and agriculture developed. Throughout this long period of our history, people left traces of stone tools, animal bones, burial sites, wall art, and engraving in locations across Europe and Asia. There were also several periods of dispersal and reconnection among people, leading to genetic diversity and mixing.
This book added another layer to my understanding of our evolution and gave me a better appreciation for the artwork created over the 300K years before modern industrial culture.
January 13, 2023
Homeostapiens rediscovered by Paul Pettitt presented as an audiobook was an extremely informative book about the homo sapiens. I was sent a copy of the audiobook and it orator was very engaging, as well as, using inflection in their voice to bring forth a point.
As one that has researched a little on their own and read several books , I was still intrigued by all the information he was giving. He delves in and helps you understand where these names came from and why. He also has an in-depth look as to what each one means and how they were able to get names for them and how they relate to us now.
As a lay person, I found this book extremely easy to understand and very informative. For one that's more of a scholar of this it may be repetitive, but the new information that he has and presents in the book is fascinating.
I encourage everyone that wants to learn a little bit more about where we came from to pick up a copy either physical print or on an audio and give it a chance. You will be surprised as to what you learned.
As one that has researched a little on their own and read several books , I was still intrigued by all the information he was giving. He delves in and helps you understand where these names came from and why. He also has an in-depth look as to what each one means and how they were able to get names for them and how they relate to us now.
As a lay person, I found this book extremely easy to understand and very informative. For one that's more of a scholar of this it may be repetitive, but the new information that he has and presents in the book is fascinating.
I encourage everyone that wants to learn a little bit more about where we came from to pick up a copy either physical print or on an audio and give it a chance. You will be surprised as to what you learned.
January 10, 2023
If you’re already an enthusiast of this topic, you probably won’t learn a ton from this book, but for a newbie like me this was a good summary of the latest knowledge about our species and the science used to study its origin. Accessible, easy to follow but still sufficiently in-depth and detailed.
A couple of things that I didn’t like:
- seeing words such as “rediscovered” or “rewriting” in the title made me expect finding some ground-breaking information in the book. If that’s the reason why you want to read this book, you might be left disappointed
- there’s MANY instances in the book where the author briefly introduces a new concept just to tell you that “we will come back to it in chapter XYZ”, which felt fragmented at times
A couple of things that I didn’t like:
- seeing words such as “rediscovered” or “rewriting” in the title made me expect finding some ground-breaking information in the book. If that’s the reason why you want to read this book, you might be left disappointed
- there’s MANY instances in the book where the author briefly introduces a new concept just to tell you that “we will come back to it in chapter XYZ”, which felt fragmented at times
November 20, 2024
Excellent over view, in lay person's terms, of human origins and dispersal. Homo sapiens started to leave Africa and roam the earth about 45,000 years ago. Soon after the other hominid branch, Neanderthals, would become extinct. Were they unable to adapt to changing climatic conditions or was there competition with the Sapiens? I won't give you the paleontological historical synopsis, read the book for that.
One thing that particularly stood out for me was the author's attention to paleo art, and how that along with archeology and anthropologic studies allow us amazing insights into our ancestors. It wasn't just the famous wall paintings, but also little portable objects made from stone, shells, bone, ivory and clay, such as small plaques, beads and amulets, carved, incised, colored with ocher and other pigments ... even bone tools were decorated and carried by nomadic peoples following grazing herd animals. Many wall paintings and carvings were of animals.
I hadn't really appreciated the depth of paleo art. Imagine what was lavished on organic materials that are lost to us... wood and animal skins [ many needles have been found so they were sewing, maybe practicing other needlework]. They used seeds and all sorts of plant materials. It boggles the mind. There carved flutes and possibly drums... which means the likelihood of music, dance, chants, story telling, who knows what other entertainments? Our cavemen ancestors weren't just dumb brutes.
One thing that particularly stood out for me was the author's attention to paleo art, and how that along with archeology and anthropologic studies allow us amazing insights into our ancestors. It wasn't just the famous wall paintings, but also little portable objects made from stone, shells, bone, ivory and clay, such as small plaques, beads and amulets, carved, incised, colored with ocher and other pigments ... even bone tools were decorated and carried by nomadic peoples following grazing herd animals. Many wall paintings and carvings were of animals.
I hadn't really appreciated the depth of paleo art. Imagine what was lavished on organic materials that are lost to us... wood and animal skins [ many needles have been found so they were sewing, maybe practicing other needlework]. They used seeds and all sorts of plant materials. It boggles the mind. There carved flutes and possibly drums... which means the likelihood of music, dance, chants, story telling, who knows what other entertainments? Our cavemen ancestors weren't just dumb brutes.
May 4, 2023
This was great -- a really accessible round up of current scientific research into paleolithic cultures and it's totally fascinating. The amount of data that has been collected and interpreted in recent times is really astonishing, and Dr. Pettitt's summary manages to avoid getting bogged down between the theoretical and the known. I am a lay-person sort of reader -- I did sometimes zone out while listening to the audio book, but often went back to review because I wanted to understand the topic. I liked the 'dad jokes' sensibility mentioned by another reviewer, because it lightened the narrative and let me re-engage. I had the audio book version -- I see that this is lavishly illustrated, and I think that would add a lot to the experience. I also was torn between immediately wanting to go re-read Clan of the Cave Bear (yes, I know, it's terrible) and wanting to go look up paleolithic art. Great gateway for readers who want to know more without pursuing a degree.
Advanced reader's copy provided by Libro.fm
Advanced reader's copy provided by Libro.fm
April 8, 2025
After reading this work by a partner with Lee Berger(Books on Right) and I’m fascinated by this concept of “Ghost DNA.” Folks have between 5-40% of their genetic makeup from these “Ghost Ancestral Populations.” We only know of them through gene sequencing and have zero archaeological evidence of their physical existence. A second wild finding was of harpoons/hooks made from Homo Sapien bones and found on the Baltic coast. Dated to 40,000+ years, this would have coincided with interactions between Neanderthal and Modern Humans. Is it a sign of conflict or even more bizarre, evidence of funerary activity in which the body is consumed and utilized?
September 3, 2025
I've recently become interested in early humans and hominids, and so I choose this book after finding the audio version in my library app Hoopla. I was fascinated by the research, which is clearly presented, and recommend this book to anyone else interested in deep history. However, because I don't have much background knowledge on the subject yet, I got a little bit lost at times and had to rewind to see if we were talking about 12,000 years ago or 250,000 years ago, if we were in South Africa or Germany, etc, because there was a lot of information and I did want to understand. If you are similarly new to the topic, be warned that it might be a little tricky to keep it all straight.
April 6, 2023
Pettitt makes a compelling case – beautifully so – for the notion that hunter-gatherers had a rich and complex civilization. Art, imagination, spirituality (perhaps), compassion, industry, and a network of bands connected by a visual language that delighted in ornament and gift giving and understood that health was best served by breeding partners not too close to home. Humanity created culture, not agriculture.
Who is this book for? Curious people with the time to retune their understanding of who we are.
Who is this book for? Curious people with the time to retune their understanding of who we are.
December 28, 2024
This is a good book for those interested in how humans came to be from an evolutionary perspective(if a little dry and verbose). Which I am partially.
I scanned about half the book in an hour and found some interesting stuff I hadn’t heard before - eg how the ice age led to jungle giving way to grasslands and bipedal walking becoming an evolutionary advantage.
But whilst I would fairly happily read this book if I had no others, in practice I have a long list of higher priority texts to get through.
I scanned about half the book in an hour and found some interesting stuff I hadn’t heard before - eg how the ice age led to jungle giving way to grasslands and bipedal walking becoming an evolutionary advantage.
But whilst I would fairly happily read this book if I had no others, in practice I have a long list of higher priority texts to get through.
August 9, 2025
Thoroughly enjoyed this book. It’s a narrative of evolution and prehistory from an expert but not targeted to a scholarly panel but someone like me. I’m interested in the movements and cultures of early hominids without having any expertise at all. Pettit personalizes the discoveries through his own career. I listened to the book so I am very grateful that rather than citing pages and books he describes the scholars who made the discoveries. I often read archeological headlines. This book put the facts into context.
December 28, 2025
I’ve been wanting to learn more about early human evolution and this certainly did the job. The writing isn’t always stellar, but it’s written by an actual paleoarchaeologist researcher which is refreshing. The beginning and ending portions of the book were most interesting. It drags quite a bit in the middle - you’ll have to push through seemingly endless descriptions of very similar cave art and figurines. I also wish the book wasn’t so European-focused, but I guess that’s the artist’s area of expertise. Ultimately glad I read it and learned a lot.
January 29, 2023
Interesting enough, particularly at the beginning. Anyone who has taken a few anthropology classes knows most of this (and may or may but agree depending on what theories their professors liked — it kind of cracks me up whenever I read one of these and the writer tosses out “facts” about alternative theories as of no one in their right mind would believe them. But we’re talking differing interpretations of research, not conspiracy theories here.
August 31, 2024
A good brief overview of early homo sapien culture and development. It was very interesting when the author talked exclusively about archaeology and anthropology, but less interesting when he talked about his connections and travels. If there was more focus on the former aspect the book would have been more interesting (to me, your mileage may vary).
February 19, 2023
A huge attempt at summarising the whole of research into human origins in the last decade or so, and it works brilliantly. So many other books covered specifics, but this one has it all, and manages to weld the isolated bits and pieces into a whole and comprehensive story. Bravo!
February 10, 2023
A really wonderful look at humanity in the ice age. Full of the latest science, but written in plain language and with more of a focus on culture than technology. Very enjoyable.
May 7, 2023
3.75
June 10, 2023
An absolutely fantastic book for the lay person who wished they had studied archaeology in school.
September 21, 2024
Really good overview of the latest thoughts on the evolution of Home Sapiens.
December 14, 2024
I don't believe there to be anything factually wrong with this book, it just didn't hold my attention as well as most of the other nonfiction books I read.
December 24, 2025
Great book about humans evolution, including Neanderthals, w more focus on culture and behavior. Reread twice.
January 7, 2026
Beautifully written - accessible
June 29, 2024
(1 February, 2024)
Easily readable, full of information (a small of it already outdated, with no fault to the author, it has to be said) and great pics.
A fluid, confident style whisks one through human evolution, with many relevant subjects along the way; food; climate; art; burial rites and more. Pettitt held my interest from page 1 till the very end, quite the achievement for a non-fiction book.
Easily readable, full of information (a small of it already outdated, with no fault to the author, it has to be said) and great pics.
A fluid, confident style whisks one through human evolution, with many relevant subjects along the way; food; climate; art; burial rites and more. Pettitt held my interest from page 1 till the very end, quite the achievement for a non-fiction book.
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