In Search of the Neanderthals by Chris Stringer
Ever since the first discovery of their bones, the Neanderthals have provoked controversy. Who were they? How were they related to modern people? What caused their disappearance 35,000 years ago? The Neanderthals have become the archetype of all that is primitive. But what is their true story? Today Neanderthal specialists are locked in one of the fiercest debates in modern science. One side, the "multiregional" school, argues that the Neanderthals and their contemporaries evolved semi-independently into modern humans. Christopher Stringer leads the "out of Africa" school, which believes that the Neanderthals were replaced by modern people from Africa. Here he sets out his views for the first time, with the archaeologist Clive Gamble. Step by step the authors put forward their case. The Neanderthals had an anatomy crucially different from our own, adapted to Ice Age Europe. Neanderthal behaviour similarly points to fundamental differences. New genetic evidence strongly suggests a single origin for modern humans in Africa. The authors argue that, capable and intelligent as the Neanderthals were, they proved no match for the better-organized, better-equipped newcomers, and died out.
Gamble, Clive: - Clive Gamble is Professor of Archaeology at the University of Southampton and one of the world's leading authorities on the archaeology of early human societies. He is founder of the Centre for the Archaeology of Human Origins at the University of Southampton. Gamble has travelled extensively to see firsthand the evidence for social change from our earliest past and most recently visited every continent while filming an acclaimed six part documentary entitled Where Do We Come From? for the UK's 5 network. He has held visiting positions at the Australian National University; the Museo de la Plata, Argentina; and the universities of LaTrobe, Boston and Alaska. He is much sought after as a keynote speaker at international conferences and has been a frequent contributor to national radio. His many groundbreaking books include The Palaeolithic Settlement of Europe (1986); Timewalkers: The Prehistory of Global Colonisation (1993); The Palaeolithic Societies of Europe (1999), the 2000 winner of the Society of American Archaeology Book Award; Archaeology: The Basics (2001); and Origins and Revolutions: Hominin Identity in Earliest Prehistory (2007). In 2005 Gamble was awarded the Rivers Memorial Medal by the Royal Anthropological Institute in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the field and in 2008 he won the Henry Stopes Medal from the Geologists' Association. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2000, appointed a Trustee to the British Museum in 2010, and elected President of the Royal Anthropological Institute in 2011, the first archaeologist to hold this post in more than thirty years.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780500278079 |
| ISBN 10 | 0500278075 |
| Title | In Search of the Neanderthals |
| Author | Chris Stringer |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Thames & Hudson Ltd |
| Year published | 1994-08-30 |
| Number of pages | 248 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |