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Cro-Magnon: The Story of the Last Ice Age People of Europe
During the Last Ice Age, Europe was a cold, dry place teeming with mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, reindeer, bison, cave bears, cave hyenas, and cave lions. It was also the home of people physically indistinguishable from humans today, commonly known as the Cro-Magnons. Our knowledge of them comes from either their skeletons or the tools, art, and debris they left behind.
This book tells the story of these dynamic and resilient people in light of recent scientific advances. Trenton Holliday-a paleoanthropologist who has studied the Cro-Magnons for decades-explores questions such as: Where and when did anatomically modern humans first emerge? When did they reach Europe, and via what routes? How extensive or frequent were their interactions with Neandertals? What did Cro-Magnons look like? What did they eat, and how did they acquire their food? What can we learn about their lives from studying their skeletons? How did they deal with the glacial cold? What does their art tell us about them?
Holliday offers new insights into these ancient people from anthropological, archaeological, genetic, and geological perspectives. He also considers how the Cro-Magnons responded to Earth's postglacial warming almost 12,000 years ago, showing that how they dealt with climate change holds valuable lessons for us as we negotiate life on a rapidly warming planet.
This book tells the story of these dynamic and resilient people in light of recent scientific advances. Trenton Holliday-a paleoanthropologist who has studied the Cro-Magnons for decades-explores questions such as: Where and when did anatomically modern humans first emerge? When did they reach Europe, and via what routes? How extensive or frequent were their interactions with Neandertals? What did Cro-Magnons look like? What did they eat, and how did they acquire their food? What can we learn about their lives from studying their skeletons? How did they deal with the glacial cold? What does their art tell us about them?
Holliday offers new insights into these ancient people from anthropological, archaeological, genetic, and geological perspectives. He also considers how the Cro-Magnons responded to Earth's postglacial warming almost 12,000 years ago, showing that how they dealt with climate change holds valuable lessons for us as we negotiate life on a rapidly warming planet.
296 pages, Paperback
Published July 18, 2023
7 people are currently reading
112 people want to read
About the author
Trenton W. Holliday
2 books9 followersI’m a paleoanthropologist interested in the evolutionary emergence of modern humans (i.e., the origins of Homo sapiens) as well as the much earlier origin of the genus Homo. I also investigate the lifeways of prehistoric people via archaeological fieldwork. My first book, Cro-Magnon: The Story of the Last Ice Age People of Europe, published through Columbia University Press in July 2023, deals with modern human origins, the role of the Neandertals therein, and the lifeways of early modern humans. I am currently working on a second book that will take a deep dive into the origins of the genus Homo.
My “day job” is that I am a professor of anthropology at Tulane University in New Orleans.
I was educated at Louisiana State University (BA) and the University of New Mexico (MA, PhD).
My “day job” is that I am a professor of anthropology at Tulane University in New Orleans.
I was educated at Louisiana State University (BA) and the University of New Mexico (MA, PhD).
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
May 21, 2024
Before I begin, I feel compelled to make a complete disclosure. Several months prior to reading this book, I friended the author, Trenton W. Holliday, on Goodreads. As we were both anthropologists, it seemed only natural. That’s when I became aware of his publications. At no time did Holliday **ever** ask me to read his work(s). In fact, he never even mentioned it. While the author and I are both anthropologists and remained in the same subfields (biological anthropology), we picked different areas of expertise. I’ve never met the author, either socially or professionally, and to my utter shame, I’ve never even heard of him. The subfield of Biological Anthropology is relatively small, but academics have a tendency to huddle around those who share the same expertise. I was interested primarily in rural 19th century African American populations and have no expertise in ice age peoples, though I am interested in them.
In addition, although Holliday is employed in academia, I am not. Nor do I wish to be. Holliday **never** offered me a free copy; I purchased the Kindle book with my own money. So, in writing this review, please know that Holliday can offer me NOTHING that I don’t already have or want. In reviewing this book, I simply wanted to satisfy my own interests in human evolution and to support a Goodreads author.
As I read “Cro-Magnon: The Story of the Last Ice Age People of Europe” by Trenton W. Holliday, I began to debate myself: Should I write a full-blown academic review or not? The truth of the matter is that Holliday can get an academic review anywhere. For an excellent glowing review, he can give the book to his students; for a truthful—albeit vengeful—review, he can ask his frenemy in the field. I decided that instead, I would write this review as a member of the educated public.
The paperback of this book was just $30, and the hardcover was (gasp!) $120, so I purchased the Kindle book for the more reasonable price of $16.19. Arranged in twelve chapters, this book was highly educational. What I really love about this book is that the author included a lot of reflexivity. In layman’s terms, when an anthropologist uses reflexivity in their writing, they include their own reflections on what happened at the time and how they felt. Doing so helps people to understand an anthropologist’s mindset. This reflexivity is important because who we are as people and how we think and even our prior experiences can influence our fieldwork and even how we interpret what we find.
Approximately one-fourth of the book is back matter (i.e., index and etc.), and this is expected with university presses. The author takes great care and includes numerous images—photos and line drawings—along with oodles of charts. He explains everything minutely so that any educated reader with no background in anthropology can understand what the author is saying.
When I first opened up this book and read the preface, I felt like I was reading a novel. Ever since I released myself from the prison walls of academia, I’ve been gravitating towards non-academic writing. When I was still an undergraduate, I read Björn Kurtén’s “Dance of the Tiger,” and Holliday’s preface swept me back into time (literally!). The only difference is that Holliday is a better fiction writer. In fact, in Chapters 8, 10, and 11, Holliday includes short snippets of fiction focused on Cro-Magnon’s. I would have liked to see these stories as a continuation of what I read in the preface rather than as totally different stories; it would have been more cohesive.
The book could have been improved with some additional editing for word count and clarity, but overall, this was a really excellent book on Cro-Magnon’s.
As a personal note to the author, I would like to say, “Finish the damned novel!” I want to read it. The fiction you wrote was exciting, and I quickly fell into the world that you created with your characters. I wanted to read more. Even though the information you included was interesting, you’re actually a good fiction writer. And that’s saying a lot coming from the Queen of Recovering Academic Writers (RAW).
I know that I’m preaching to the choir when I tell you that 99.9999% of academic writers are NOT good writers. Or good speakers. Sure, they can whip up a scientific paper (that nobody but scientists can understand). And, yeah, they can give an hours-long presentation that their colleagues will fawn over (while everyone else falls asleep). And they **want** people to ask them questions (even though people later regret it when they can’t understand a damn word the scientist is saying). But in your Preface, I saw something different—I saw that you had the ability and talent to actually write **good** fiction. And coming from our field of stuffy and self-absorbed anthropologists, that is something special and not to be wasted.
I want to **VERY STRONGLY** encourage you to borrow—or better yet—to purchase a copy of “Save the Cat! Writes a Novel” by Jessica Brody. This book will give you the tools that you need to either write an excellent novel or to heavily edit a novel that you’ve already begun writing. How? This book breaks down popular, already published novels to reveal a common pattern found (or is supposed to be found) in novels; good stories are set up almost identically. With this book, you will have the tools you need to write a perfectly crafted novel. I’ve read several of the “Save the Cat!” books, and this one is by far the very best.
As the Queen of RAW, I also encourage you to follow the first holy commandment:
Thou shalt not allow RA’s to edit thine manuscripts.
In fact, don’t let ANY anthropologist edit your manuscript. That’s right! You must deny the temptation! After writing the manuscript, you need to then hire a **professionally trained editor** to to read, proof, and help you to prepare the manuscript so that you can snag an agent who will sell said novel to a Big 5 publisher. And when I say to hire a professional, I don’t mean that you should hunt down a colleague in the English Department—I mean that you must hire a professional, freelance editor. You can even have your RA make spreadsheets of prospective editors and literary agents. And make sure that prior to publication it appears on NetGalley because I want to read it prior to publication (and not have to pay! LOL).
In addition, although Holliday is employed in academia, I am not. Nor do I wish to be. Holliday **never** offered me a free copy; I purchased the Kindle book with my own money. So, in writing this review, please know that Holliday can offer me NOTHING that I don’t already have or want. In reviewing this book, I simply wanted to satisfy my own interests in human evolution and to support a Goodreads author.
As I read “Cro-Magnon: The Story of the Last Ice Age People of Europe” by Trenton W. Holliday, I began to debate myself: Should I write a full-blown academic review or not? The truth of the matter is that Holliday can get an academic review anywhere. For an excellent glowing review, he can give the book to his students; for a truthful—albeit vengeful—review, he can ask his frenemy in the field. I decided that instead, I would write this review as a member of the educated public.
The paperback of this book was just $30, and the hardcover was (gasp!) $120, so I purchased the Kindle book for the more reasonable price of $16.19. Arranged in twelve chapters, this book was highly educational. What I really love about this book is that the author included a lot of reflexivity. In layman’s terms, when an anthropologist uses reflexivity in their writing, they include their own reflections on what happened at the time and how they felt. Doing so helps people to understand an anthropologist’s mindset. This reflexivity is important because who we are as people and how we think and even our prior experiences can influence our fieldwork and even how we interpret what we find.
Approximately one-fourth of the book is back matter (i.e., index and etc.), and this is expected with university presses. The author takes great care and includes numerous images—photos and line drawings—along with oodles of charts. He explains everything minutely so that any educated reader with no background in anthropology can understand what the author is saying.
When I first opened up this book and read the preface, I felt like I was reading a novel. Ever since I released myself from the prison walls of academia, I’ve been gravitating towards non-academic writing. When I was still an undergraduate, I read Björn Kurtén’s “Dance of the Tiger,” and Holliday’s preface swept me back into time (literally!). The only difference is that Holliday is a better fiction writer. In fact, in Chapters 8, 10, and 11, Holliday includes short snippets of fiction focused on Cro-Magnon’s. I would have liked to see these stories as a continuation of what I read in the preface rather than as totally different stories; it would have been more cohesive.
The book could have been improved with some additional editing for word count and clarity, but overall, this was a really excellent book on Cro-Magnon’s.
As a personal note to the author, I would like to say, “Finish the damned novel!” I want to read it. The fiction you wrote was exciting, and I quickly fell into the world that you created with your characters. I wanted to read more. Even though the information you included was interesting, you’re actually a good fiction writer. And that’s saying a lot coming from the Queen of Recovering Academic Writers (RAW).
I know that I’m preaching to the choir when I tell you that 99.9999% of academic writers are NOT good writers. Or good speakers. Sure, they can whip up a scientific paper (that nobody but scientists can understand). And, yeah, they can give an hours-long presentation that their colleagues will fawn over (while everyone else falls asleep). And they **want** people to ask them questions (even though people later regret it when they can’t understand a damn word the scientist is saying). But in your Preface, I saw something different—I saw that you had the ability and talent to actually write **good** fiction. And coming from our field of stuffy and self-absorbed anthropologists, that is something special and not to be wasted.
I want to **VERY STRONGLY** encourage you to borrow—or better yet—to purchase a copy of “Save the Cat! Writes a Novel” by Jessica Brody. This book will give you the tools that you need to either write an excellent novel or to heavily edit a novel that you’ve already begun writing. How? This book breaks down popular, already published novels to reveal a common pattern found (or is supposed to be found) in novels; good stories are set up almost identically. With this book, you will have the tools you need to write a perfectly crafted novel. I’ve read several of the “Save the Cat!” books, and this one is by far the very best.
As the Queen of RAW, I also encourage you to follow the first holy commandment:
Thou shalt not allow RA’s to edit thine manuscripts.
In fact, don’t let ANY anthropologist edit your manuscript. That’s right! You must deny the temptation! After writing the manuscript, you need to then hire a **professionally trained editor** to to read, proof, and help you to prepare the manuscript so that you can snag an agent who will sell said novel to a Big 5 publisher. And when I say to hire a professional, I don’t mean that you should hunt down a colleague in the English Department—I mean that you must hire a professional, freelance editor. You can even have your RA make spreadsheets of prospective editors and literary agents. And make sure that prior to publication it appears on NetGalley because I want to read it prior to publication (and not have to pay! LOL).
July 12, 2023
Disclosure, Trenton Holliday is my dad.
But still, this was a really amazing book. I think if you’re looking for a book to dive deep into the prehistory of Neandertals and Cro-Magnon, this is the book to choose! Yes, the information can be dense, but this is the kind of book where you expect it to be dense with information and maybe a little hard to understand. It’s up to you to choose what sections you’ll make an effort to comprehend vs those you’ll skim on ahead. Trenton Holliday was always thorough with his explanations, so it was completely possible to reread a section and understand the meaning better than when you read it the first time.
Even with the dense information, Trenton Holliday was able to sprinkle in jokes where you least expect them (which always caught me giggling off guard), fun stories of his research in Europe, and fictional narratives of Cro-Magnon (which really help you imagine their lives). Footnotes even had funny stories and useful information in them! Make sure to read the footnotes!!! Overall, 5/5.
But still, this was a really amazing book. I think if you’re looking for a book to dive deep into the prehistory of Neandertals and Cro-Magnon, this is the book to choose! Yes, the information can be dense, but this is the kind of book where you expect it to be dense with information and maybe a little hard to understand. It’s up to you to choose what sections you’ll make an effort to comprehend vs those you’ll skim on ahead. Trenton Holliday was always thorough with his explanations, so it was completely possible to reread a section and understand the meaning better than when you read it the first time.
Even with the dense information, Trenton Holliday was able to sprinkle in jokes where you least expect them (which always caught me giggling off guard), fun stories of his research in Europe, and fictional narratives of Cro-Magnon (which really help you imagine their lives). Footnotes even had funny stories and useful information in them! Make sure to read the footnotes!!! Overall, 5/5.
June 23, 2023
Cro-Magnon: The Story of the Last Ice Age People of Europe, by Trenton Holliday, is a sometimes dense and technical book, but that shouldn’t scare people off of this highly informative exploration of some of our closest ancestors in our evolutionary tree (or bush to be more accurate). It’s certainly a title well worth picking up for anyone who has an interest in human evolutionary history, and it does a nice job of dispelling some stubborn myths about our ancestors.
Holliday covers several broad categories, including how Cro-Magnon and Neandertals differ from Sapiens and each other, biological/physical differences (and similarities), genetics, behavior, encounters between Neandertals and Cro-Magnon, tool us, art, adaptation to a changing environment, and speculation on why they went extinct. We also get a very brief history of how evolution as a theory developed, early discoveries of pre-sapiens fossils and thoughts on those discoveries at the time, explanation of various dating techniques, descriptions of particularly significant fossil/archaeological sites—many of which Holliday himself has either visited or worked on, and more.
For a relatively short work, it’s filled with information and any lay reader will come away far more knowledgeable on the topic. Holliday is always clear and precise and makes for an engaging personal tour guide as well. As noted, the book can get dense in its detail, say for instance when comparing tools, and readers can perhaps get lost in a thicket of names, either personal names of various paleoanthropologists and other scientists or names of various technologies (or “industries” in the field’s terminology), time periods, or anatomical descriptions.
So yes, you can at time get sentences like: “this is known as midfacial prognathism, and it is one of the most salient Neandertal features. In contrast, the Cro-Magnon face, like ours today, is largely nonprojecting, or orthognathic, instead showing neuro-orbital convergence . . .” But as noted, this shouldn’t put you off reading this, for several reasons. One is a very simple if not preferred option: these are relatively brief passages and so one can easily skip/skim through these passages, or through detailed charts/illustrations and not lose the general thrust of whatever Holliday is trying to convey.
Another reason is because while these terms are unfamiliar ones, Holliday always gives the reader an explanation. For instance, in the above-quoted example, before giving us the technical term (midfacial prognathism), he explains how Neandertal faces project outward, particularly around the nose and front teeth, so we can easily visualize what he’s saying before he gives us the tough vocabulary. And while the terms are unfamiliar, they aren’t in ancient Sanskrit, so it’s more a matter of slowing down one’s reading to better understand what is being described as opposed to being completely at sea (as say, one might be in a physics book filled with math equations, Greek symbols, wholly unfamiliar words, and unfamiliar use of familiar words like “spin”). I can’t say I absorbed all the details here, or even that I, at my level of knowledge and interest necessarily needed them, but I’m glad Holliday gave them to me anyway and let me decide how much I needed to know and to what degree.
Two other strengths of the book are how up-to-date the findings are and how transparent Holliday is with regard to those findings and what conclusions are drawn from them. For a number of reasons, archaeological sites, dating conclusions, and behavioral interpretations can all be contested in some fashion and to some degree. It might be simply the built-in error rate of the dating method, it might be that a site (particularly older ones) wasn’t excavated to the most exacting standards. Holliday is always good about presenting any such controversies, giving the reader both viewpoints toward a particular conclusion, say about whether a find shows us Cro-Magnon were responsible for creating art for instance. He gives his stance, but never fails to say whether others might disagree. Or vice versa, where he’ll give another scientist’s conclusion (or several scientists’) and then give his views on whether he disagrees, or maybe agrees but with a lesser degree of confidence, and then tells us his reasoning. I’ve certainly read other popular science works where authors were far less transparent about conclusions, presenting something as a given or a consensus view without the reader being told that in fact there is some significant disagreement with that view within the field.
Coming in at just under 300 pages,, Cro-Magnon couldn’t help but be dense to convey all that Holliday is trying to communicate here, but his clarity, precision, and awareness of audience go a long way to ameliorating any of the difficulties that density might present. As do the large number of very welcome visuals: charts, diagrams of tools, etc. Meanwhile, his voice is always engaging, enhanced by his experience in the field, which lends a nicely personal touch. Highly recommended.
Holliday covers several broad categories, including how Cro-Magnon and Neandertals differ from Sapiens and each other, biological/physical differences (and similarities), genetics, behavior, encounters between Neandertals and Cro-Magnon, tool us, art, adaptation to a changing environment, and speculation on why they went extinct. We also get a very brief history of how evolution as a theory developed, early discoveries of pre-sapiens fossils and thoughts on those discoveries at the time, explanation of various dating techniques, descriptions of particularly significant fossil/archaeological sites—many of which Holliday himself has either visited or worked on, and more.
For a relatively short work, it’s filled with information and any lay reader will come away far more knowledgeable on the topic. Holliday is always clear and precise and makes for an engaging personal tour guide as well. As noted, the book can get dense in its detail, say for instance when comparing tools, and readers can perhaps get lost in a thicket of names, either personal names of various paleoanthropologists and other scientists or names of various technologies (or “industries” in the field’s terminology), time periods, or anatomical descriptions.
So yes, you can at time get sentences like: “this is known as midfacial prognathism, and it is one of the most salient Neandertal features. In contrast, the Cro-Magnon face, like ours today, is largely nonprojecting, or orthognathic, instead showing neuro-orbital convergence . . .” But as noted, this shouldn’t put you off reading this, for several reasons. One is a very simple if not preferred option: these are relatively brief passages and so one can easily skip/skim through these passages, or through detailed charts/illustrations and not lose the general thrust of whatever Holliday is trying to convey.
Another reason is because while these terms are unfamiliar ones, Holliday always gives the reader an explanation. For instance, in the above-quoted example, before giving us the technical term (midfacial prognathism), he explains how Neandertal faces project outward, particularly around the nose and front teeth, so we can easily visualize what he’s saying before he gives us the tough vocabulary. And while the terms are unfamiliar, they aren’t in ancient Sanskrit, so it’s more a matter of slowing down one’s reading to better understand what is being described as opposed to being completely at sea (as say, one might be in a physics book filled with math equations, Greek symbols, wholly unfamiliar words, and unfamiliar use of familiar words like “spin”). I can’t say I absorbed all the details here, or even that I, at my level of knowledge and interest necessarily needed them, but I’m glad Holliday gave them to me anyway and let me decide how much I needed to know and to what degree.
Two other strengths of the book are how up-to-date the findings are and how transparent Holliday is with regard to those findings and what conclusions are drawn from them. For a number of reasons, archaeological sites, dating conclusions, and behavioral interpretations can all be contested in some fashion and to some degree. It might be simply the built-in error rate of the dating method, it might be that a site (particularly older ones) wasn’t excavated to the most exacting standards. Holliday is always good about presenting any such controversies, giving the reader both viewpoints toward a particular conclusion, say about whether a find shows us Cro-Magnon were responsible for creating art for instance. He gives his stance, but never fails to say whether others might disagree. Or vice versa, where he’ll give another scientist’s conclusion (or several scientists’) and then give his views on whether he disagrees, or maybe agrees but with a lesser degree of confidence, and then tells us his reasoning. I’ve certainly read other popular science works where authors were far less transparent about conclusions, presenting something as a given or a consensus view without the reader being told that in fact there is some significant disagreement with that view within the field.
Coming in at just under 300 pages,, Cro-Magnon couldn’t help but be dense to convey all that Holliday is trying to communicate here, but his clarity, precision, and awareness of audience go a long way to ameliorating any of the difficulties that density might present. As do the large number of very welcome visuals: charts, diagrams of tools, etc. Meanwhile, his voice is always engaging, enhanced by his experience in the field, which lends a nicely personal touch. Highly recommended.
June 30, 2023
A truly fascinating account which is very relevant given the current concerns about climate change. The author makes obscure facts extremely accessible and has amassed a wealth of useful references and analysis. This is a gripping book which will make you want to know more about this fascinating period.
July 9, 2023
I enjoyed this book. It could be dense at times, but the author explained the jargon-y terms well and broke up the technical parts with vignettes of his life and imagined vignettes of Cro-Magnon characters. If you are at all interested in early human evolution, this is a good book to pick up.
Full disclosure: I read this for work, where I interviewed the author. Thank you to Columbia University Press for sending me a copy to read.
Full disclosure: I read this for work, where I interviewed the author. Thank you to Columbia University Press for sending me a copy to read.
March 16, 2024
Great easy read. Five stars for sure. This Prof is amazing. Lots and lots of data and analysis pertaining to early humans as well as plenty of lagniappe about the author's views on climate change (there was almost no A/C whatsoever in 1940s as I was growing up so I'm sure we will adjust to the heat, think "Big Yellow Taxi", race ( you might want to read Nicholas Wade's "A Troublesome Inheritance" as well as his "Before The Dawn" for a different take) and a glimpse into the every day real life of a real Indiana Jones type guy, think "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom". Plenty of good stuff about Neanderthals and Cro-Magnon and the like throughout. Tulane students should be given extra credit for renting and watching "One Million B.C." with Victor Mature, "One Million Years B.C." with Raquel Welch and "Year One" with Jack Black in that order after reading this book. Tulane needs to give this guy some more paid leave so he can keep writing. Admission: I graduated from Tulane and have a tenured prof son at a major university in a different state. But I liked this book.
June 20, 2023
There were parts of this book I really loved. These include the author’s personal journey, vignettes of Cro-Magnon life, and the broader discussions of certain concepts. I also loved the discussion on race. On the other hand, when data was presented, it was overwhelming. Some of the information was too technical and I ended up skipping material. Thank you to Edelweiss and Columbia University Press for the digital review copy.
April 2, 2023
I was excited to read Cro-Magnon, but I was very disappointed. I have many books on the Neanderthals, so a book on early modern humans would, I thought, be right in my wheelhouse. Sadly, this author has penned an autobiography that offers, in my opinion, too little science.
March 15, 2024
Popular anthropology for grown-ups, Cro-Magnon presents a detailed and factual picture of the Last Ice Age people living in Europe. Read my full review at https://inquisitivebiologist.com/2024...
November 6, 2025
Read this as a prelude to visiting the Dordogne region and its Paleolithic cave art. Good enough, but felt like too much time was spent on the archaeologists doing the research rather than on their subjects.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews