'An important book. . . . remarkably complete. For anyone interested in the subject of human origins, seldom has it been possible to find out so much between the covers of a popular work. ' Richard Leakey
In 1856 - just as Darwin was completing ORIGIN OF SPECIES - the fossilized remains of a stocky, powerful human-like creature were discovered in a cave in the Neander Valley in Germany. Opinions about Neandertal Man have veered wildly ever since- he was not human at all, but closer to ape, he was human but not ancient; he was a cannibal, a shuffling, depraved halfwit; an evolutionary dead-end, wiped out by more efficient and intelligent Cro-Magnons. The controversy continues to this day. Erik Trinkaus - the world's leading authority on Neandertals - and anthropologist Pat Shipman vividly tell the whole story, from the discovery of the bones to the latest research. Theirs is a brilliant first-hand account of the search for man's beginnings and out of a particular man - dead for 40, 000 years - who began a revolution that changed the world.
In 1856 - just as Darwin was completing ORIGIN OF SPECIES - the fossilized remains of a stocky, powerful human-like creature were discovered in a cave in the Neander Valley in Germany. Opinions about Neandertal Man have veered wildly ever since- he was not human at all, but closer to ape, he was human but not ancient; he was a cannibal, a shuffling, depraved halfwit; an evolutionary dead-end, wiped out by more efficient and intelligent Cro-Magnons. The controversy continues to this day. Erik Trinkaus - the world's leading authority on Neandertals - and anthropologist Pat Shipman vividly tell the whole story, from the discovery of the bones to the latest research. Theirs is a brilliant first-hand account of the search for man's beginnings and out of a particular man - dead for 40, 000 years - who began a revolution that changed the world.
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