-
Cro-Magnon
- How the Ice Age Gave Birth to the First Modern Humans
- Narrated by: James Langton
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $15.47
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's summary
Best-selling author Brian Fagan brings early humans out of the deep freeze with his trademark mix of erudition, cutting-edge science, and vivid storytelling.
Cro-Magnon reveals human society in its infancy, facing enormous environmental challenges - including a rival species of humans, the Neanderthals. For ten millennia, Cro-Magnons lived side by side with Neanderthals, an encounter that Fagan fills with drama. Using their superior intellects and tools, these ingenious problem solvers survived harsh conditions that eventually extinguished their Neanderthal cousins.
Cro-Magnon captures the indomitable adaptability that has made Homo sapiens an unmatched success as a species. Living on a frozen continent with only the most basic tools, Ice Age humans survived and thrived.
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Kindred
- By: Rebecca Wragg Sykes
- Narrated by: Rebecca Wragg Sykes
- Length: 16 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Kindred, Neanderthal expert Becky Wragg Sykes shoves aside the cliché of the shivering ragged figure in an icy wasteland and reveals the Neanderthal you don’t know, who lived across vast and diverse tracts of Eurasia and survived through hundreds of thousands of years of massive climate change. Using a thematic rather than chronological approach, this book will shed new light on where they lived, what they ate and the increasingly complex Neanderthal culture that is being discovered.
-
-
Horrible Recording/Sound Quality
- By Howard Houchen on 11-24-20
-
After the Dinosaurs
- The Age of Mammals (Life of the Past Series)
- By: Donald R. Prothero
- Narrated by: Will Tulin
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The fascinating group of animals called dinosaurs became extinct some 65 million years ago (except for their feathered descendants). In their place evolved an enormous variety of land creatures, especially mammals, which in their way were every bit as remarkable as their Mesozoic cousins. The Age of Mammals, the Cenozoic Era, has never had its Jurassic Park, but it was an amazing time in earth's history, populated by a wonderful assortment of bizarre animals. The rapid evolution of thousands of species of mammals brought forth many incredible creatures—including our own ancestors.
-
-
Mammals are immersed in minutia.
- By Bertha Watkins on 04-01-24
-
The Little Ice Age
- How Climate Made History 1300-1850
- By: Brian Fagan
- Narrated by: Michael Langan
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Little Ice Age tells the story of the turbulent, unpredictable, and often very cold years of modern European history, how climate altered historical events, and what they mean in the context of today’s global warming.
-
-
Good but…
- By lucastoli on 07-14-22
By: Brian Fagan
-
The World Before Us
- The New Science Behind Our Human Origins
- By: Tom Higham
- Narrated by: John Sackville
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A fascinating investigation of the origin of humans based on incredible new discoveries and advanced scientific technology.
-
-
Wonderfully Accessible
- By Deborah N on 11-02-21
By: Tom Higham
-
The Great Warming
- Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations
- By: Brian Fagan
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The history of the Great Warming of a half millennium ago suggests that we may yet be underestimating the power of climate change to disrupt our lives todayand our vulnerability to drought, writes Fagan, is the silent elephant in the room.
-
-
Good book but unpracticed, disjointed narration.
- By Paul on 09-12-10
By: Brian Fagan
-
Weavers, Scribes, and Kings
- A New History of the Ancient Near East
- By: Amanda H. Podany
- Narrated by: Amanda H. Podany
- Length: 18 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this sweeping history of the ancient Near East, Amanda Podany takes listeners on a gripping journey from the creation of the world's first cities to the conquests of Alexander the Great. The book is built around the life stories of many ancient men and women, from kings, priestesses, and merchants to brickmakers, musicians, and weavers. Their habits of daily life, beliefs, triumphs, and crises, and the changes that people faced over time are explored through their own written words and the buildings, cities, and empires in which they lived.
-
-
word of advice
- By Jim Davis on 08-04-23
By: Amanda H. Podany
-
Kindred
- By: Rebecca Wragg Sykes
- Narrated by: Rebecca Wragg Sykes
- Length: 16 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Kindred, Neanderthal expert Becky Wragg Sykes shoves aside the cliché of the shivering ragged figure in an icy wasteland and reveals the Neanderthal you don’t know, who lived across vast and diverse tracts of Eurasia and survived through hundreds of thousands of years of massive climate change. Using a thematic rather than chronological approach, this book will shed new light on where they lived, what they ate and the increasingly complex Neanderthal culture that is being discovered.
-
-
Horrible Recording/Sound Quality
- By Howard Houchen on 11-24-20
-
After the Dinosaurs
- The Age of Mammals (Life of the Past Series)
- By: Donald R. Prothero
- Narrated by: Will Tulin
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The fascinating group of animals called dinosaurs became extinct some 65 million years ago (except for their feathered descendants). In their place evolved an enormous variety of land creatures, especially mammals, which in their way were every bit as remarkable as their Mesozoic cousins. The Age of Mammals, the Cenozoic Era, has never had its Jurassic Park, but it was an amazing time in earth's history, populated by a wonderful assortment of bizarre animals. The rapid evolution of thousands of species of mammals brought forth many incredible creatures—including our own ancestors.
-
-
Mammals are immersed in minutia.
- By Bertha Watkins on 04-01-24
-
The Little Ice Age
- How Climate Made History 1300-1850
- By: Brian Fagan
- Narrated by: Michael Langan
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Little Ice Age tells the story of the turbulent, unpredictable, and often very cold years of modern European history, how climate altered historical events, and what they mean in the context of today’s global warming.
-
-
Good but…
- By lucastoli on 07-14-22
By: Brian Fagan
-
The World Before Us
- The New Science Behind Our Human Origins
- By: Tom Higham
- Narrated by: John Sackville
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A fascinating investigation of the origin of humans based on incredible new discoveries and advanced scientific technology.
-
-
Wonderfully Accessible
- By Deborah N on 11-02-21
By: Tom Higham
-
The Great Warming
- Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations
- By: Brian Fagan
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The history of the Great Warming of a half millennium ago suggests that we may yet be underestimating the power of climate change to disrupt our lives todayand our vulnerability to drought, writes Fagan, is the silent elephant in the room.
-
-
Good book but unpracticed, disjointed narration.
- By Paul on 09-12-10
By: Brian Fagan
-
Weavers, Scribes, and Kings
- A New History of the Ancient Near East
- By: Amanda H. Podany
- Narrated by: Amanda H. Podany
- Length: 18 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this sweeping history of the ancient Near East, Amanda Podany takes listeners on a gripping journey from the creation of the world's first cities to the conquests of Alexander the Great. The book is built around the life stories of many ancient men and women, from kings, priestesses, and merchants to brickmakers, musicians, and weavers. Their habits of daily life, beliefs, triumphs, and crises, and the changes that people faced over time are explored through their own written words and the buildings, cities, and empires in which they lived.
-
-
word of advice
- By Jim Davis on 08-04-23
By: Amanda H. Podany
-
The Scythians
- Nomad Warriors of the Steppe
- By: Barry Cunliffe
- Narrated by: Matthew Waterson
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Scythians were nomadic horsemen who ranged wide across the grasslands of the Asian steppe from the Altai mountains in the east to the Great Hungarian Plain in the first millennium BC. Their steppe homeland bordered on a number of sedentary states to the south and there were, inevitably, numerous interactions between the nomads and their neighbours. The Scythians fought the Persians on a number of occasions, in one battle killing their king and on another occasion driving the invading army of Darius the Great from the steppe.
-
-
Well researched but narrator is terrible
- By John M. on 01-17-21
By: Barry Cunliffe
-
Ancient Bones
- Unearthing the Astonishing New Story of How We Became Human
- By: Madelaine Böhme
- Narrated by: Aimée Ayotte
- Length: 7 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Africa has long been considered the cradle of life - where life and humans evolved - but somewhere west of Munich, Germany, paleoclimatologist and paleontologist Madelaine Böhme and her team make a discovery that is beyond anything they ever imagined: the 12-million-year-old bones of an ancient ape - Danuvius guggenmos - which makes headlines around the world and defies prevailing theories of human history and where human life began.
-
-
Brave Attempt
- By Bill Treat on 10-15-22
By: Madelaine Böhme
-
Powers and Thrones
- A New History of the Middle Ages
- By: Dan Jones
- Narrated by: Dan Jones
- Length: 24 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the once-mighty city of Rome was sacked by barbarians in 410 and lay in ruins, it signaled the end of an era—and the beginning of a thousand years of profound transformation. In a gripping narrative bursting with big names—from St Augustine and Attila the Hun to the Prophet Muhammad and Eleanor of Aquitaine—Dan Jones charges through the history of the Middle Ages. Powers and Thrones takes listeners on a journey through an emerging Europe, the great capitals of late Antiquity, as well as the influential cities of the Islamic West.
-
-
Hard to take a break from it!
- By Mariano's Music on 12-09-21
By: Dan Jones
-
The Birth of Britain
- A History of the English Speaking Peoples, Volume I
- By: Sir Winston Churchill
- Narrated by: Christian Rodska
- Length: 17 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The English-speaking peoples comprise perhaps the greatest number of human beings sharing a common language in the world today. These people also share a common heritage. For his four-volume work, Sir Winston Churchill took as his subject these great elements in world history. Volume 1 commences in 55BC, when Julius Caesar famously "turned his gaze upon Britain" and concludes with the Battle of Bosworth in 1485.
-
-
Birth of Britain
- By Terryl Pettengill on 02-11-07
-
The Neanderthals Rediscovered
- How Modern Science Is Rewriting Their Story (Revised and Updated Edition)
- By: Dimitra Papagianni, Michael A. Morse
- Narrated by: Nigel Patterson
- Length: 5 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In recent years, the common perception of the Neanderthals has been transformed, thanks to new discoveries and paradigm-shattering scientific innovations. It turns out that the Neanderthals' behavior was surprisingly modern: they buried the dead, cared for the sick, hunted large animals in their prime, harvested seafood, and communicated with spoken language. Meanwhile, advances in DNA technologies are compelling us to reassess the Neanderthals' place in our own past.
-
-
Fascinating Subject... Soporific Reader
- By Andrew E. Yarosh on 11-21-17
By: Dimitra Papagianni, and others
-
Neanderthal Man
- In Search of Lost Genomes
- By: Svante Pääbo
- Narrated by: Dennis Holland
- Length: 10 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A preeminent geneticist hunts the Neanderthal genome to answer the biggest question of them all: what does it mean to be human? What can we learn from the genes of our closest evolutionary relatives? Neanderthal Man tells the story of geneticist Svante Pbo’s mission to answer that question, beginning with the study of DNA in Egyptian mummies in the early 1980s and culminating in his sequencing of the Neanderthal genome in 2009.
-
-
Excellent science tale
- By Neuron on 01-19-15
By: Svante Pääbo
-
Fossil Men
- The Quest for the Oldest Skeleton and the Origins of Humankind
- By: Kermit Pattison
- Narrated by: Roger Wayne
- Length: 15 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1994, a team led by fossil-hunting legend Tim White—"the Steve Jobs of paleoanthropology"—uncovered the bones of a human ancestor in Ethiopia's Afar region. The findings challenged many assumptions about human evolution and repudiated a half-century of paleoanthropological orthodoxy. An intriguing tale of scientific discovery, obsession and rivalry that moves from the sun-baked desert of Africa to modern high-tech labs and academic lecture halls, Fossil Men is popular science at its best, and a must-listen for fans of Jared Diamond, Richard Dawkins, and Edward O. Wilson.
-
-
Oh narrator
- By Paul on 01-21-21
By: Kermit Pattison
-
The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs
- A New History of a Lost World
- By: Steve Brusatte
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this stunning narrative spanning more than 200 million years, Steve Brusatte, a young American paleontologist who has emerged as one of the foremost stars of the field - discovering 10 new species and leading groundbreaking scientific studies and fieldwork - masterfully tells the complete, surprising, and new history of the dinosaurs, drawing on cutting-edge science to dramatically bring to life their lost world and illuminate their enigmatic origins, spectacular flourishing, astonishing diversity, cataclysmic extinction, and startling living legacy.
-
-
"The Rise of the Scientists Who Study Dinosaurs"
- By Daniel Powell on 09-16-18
By: Steve Brusatte
-
By Steppe, Desert, and Ocean
- The Birth of Eurasia
- By: Barry Cunliffe
- Narrated by: Jennifer M. Dixon
- Length: 18 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By Steppe, Desert, and Ocean is nothing less than the story of how humans first started building the globalized world we know today. Set on a huge continental stage, from Europe to China, it is a tale covering more than 10,000 years, from the origins of farming around 9000 BC to the expansion of the Mongols in the 13th century AD.
-
-
Remarkable research!
- By B. Dillon on 07-21-22
By: Barry Cunliffe
-
Vanished Kingdoms
- The Rise and Fall of States and Nations
- By: Norman Davies
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 30 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There is something profoundly romantic about lost civilizations. Davies peers through the cracks in the mainstream accounts of modern-day states to dazzle us with extraordinary stories of barely remembered pasts, and of the traces they left behind. This is Norman Davies at his best: sweeping narrative history packed with unexpected insights. Vanished Kingdoms will appeal to all fans of unconventional and thought-provoking history, from listeners of Niall Ferguson to Jared Diamond.
-
-
needs a good editor.
- By Ryan Anderson on 09-25-21
By: Norman Davies
-
The Rise and Reign of the Mammals
- A New History, from the Shadow of the Dinosaurs to Us
- By: Steve Brusatte
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 13 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We humans are the inheritors of a dynasty that has reigned over the planet for nearly 66 million years, through fiery cataclysm and ice ages: the mammals. Our lineage includes saber-toothed tigers, woolly mammoths, armadillos the size of a car, cave bears three times the weight of a grizzly, clever scurriers that outlasted Tyrannosaurus rex, and even other types of humans, like Neanderthals.
-
-
Fantastic Book
- By Peter Jensen on 09-08-22
By: Steve Brusatte
-
Before the Dawn
- Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors
- By: Nicholas Wade
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 12 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Just in the last three years a flood of new scientific findings, driven by revelations discovered in the human genome, has provided compelling new answers to many long-standing mysteries about our most ancient ancestors, the people who first evolved in Africa and then went on to colonize the whole world. Nicholas Wade weaves this host of news-making findings together for the first time into an intriguing new history of the human story before the dawn of civilization.
-
-
Amazing information
- By Albert on 06-15-07
By: Nicholas Wade
Related to this topic
-
First Peoples in a New World
- Colonizing Ice Age America
- By: David J. Meltzer
- Narrated by: Christopher Prince
- Length: 11 hrs
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
More than 12,000 years ago, in one of the greatest triumphs of prehistory, humans colonized North America, a continent that was then truly a new world. Just when and how they did so has been one of the most perplexing and controversial questions in archaeology.
-
-
Last Gasp of American Anthropological Orthodoxy
- By Thomas66 on 01-05-17
By: David J. Meltzer
-
Unbound
- How Eight Technologies Made Us Human, Transformed Society, and Brought Our World to the Brink
- By: Richard L. Currier
- Narrated by: Noah Michael Levine
- Length: 10 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Although we usually think of technology as something unique to modern times, our ancestors began to create the first technologies millions of years ago in the form of prehistoric tools and weapons. Over time, eight key technologies gradually freed us from the limitations of our animal origins.
-
-
Good facts, not much else
- By Joel B. Gordon on 10-30-16
-
The First Signs
- Unlocking the Mysteries of the World's Oldest Symbols
- By: Genevieve von Petzinger
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the most significant works on our evolutionary ancestry since Richard Leakey's Origins, The First Signs is the first-ever exploration of the geometric images that accompany most cave art around the world—the first indications of symbolic meaning, intelligence, and language.
-
-
Crawling through caves-a memoir
- By GraceAgnes on 01-27-21
-
Atlas of a Lost World
- By: Craig Childs
- Narrated by: Craig Childs
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the author of Apocalyptic Planet, an unsparing, vivid, revelatory travelogue through prehistory that traces the arrival of the First People in North America 20,000 years ago and the artifacts that enable us to imagine their lives and fates. This book upends our notions of where these people came from and who they were.
-
-
Blaaaa
- By Josh NJ on 07-26-18
By: Craig Childs
-
Monster of God
- By: David Quammen
- Narrated by: Brian Holsopple
- Length: 16 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For millennia, lions, tigers, and their man-eating kin have kept our dark, scary forests dark and scary, and their predatory majesty has been the stuff of folklore. But by the year 2150 big predators may only exist on the other side of glass barriers and chain-link fences. Their gradual disappearance is changing the very nature of our existence. We no longer occupy an intermediate position on the food chain; instead we survey it invulnerably from above - so far above that we are in danger of forgetting that we even belong to an ecosystem.
-
-
Great book, shame about the performance
- By Shirzy on 05-23-18
By: David Quammen
-
Across Atlantic Ice
- The Origin of America's Clovis Culture
- By: Bruce A. Bruce A. Bradley, Denis J. Stanford
- Narrated by: Christopher Prince
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Who were the first humans to inhabit North America? According to the now familiar story, mammal hunters entered the continent some 12,000 years ago via a land bridge that spanned the Bering Sea. The presence of these early New World people was established by distinctive stone tools belonging to the Clovis culture. But are the Clovis tools Asian in origin? Drawing from original archaeological analysis, paleoclimatic research, and genetic studies, noted archaeologists Dennis J. Stanford and Bruce A. Bradley challenge the old narrative.
-
-
Ice Cold story
- By S. Wells on 06-17-12
By: Bruce A. Bruce A. Bradley, and others
-
First Peoples in a New World
- Colonizing Ice Age America
- By: David J. Meltzer
- Narrated by: Christopher Prince
- Length: 11 hrs
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
More than 12,000 years ago, in one of the greatest triumphs of prehistory, humans colonized North America, a continent that was then truly a new world. Just when and how they did so has been one of the most perplexing and controversial questions in archaeology.
-
-
Last Gasp of American Anthropological Orthodoxy
- By Thomas66 on 01-05-17
By: David J. Meltzer
-
Unbound
- How Eight Technologies Made Us Human, Transformed Society, and Brought Our World to the Brink
- By: Richard L. Currier
- Narrated by: Noah Michael Levine
- Length: 10 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Although we usually think of technology as something unique to modern times, our ancestors began to create the first technologies millions of years ago in the form of prehistoric tools and weapons. Over time, eight key technologies gradually freed us from the limitations of our animal origins.
-
-
Good facts, not much else
- By Joel B. Gordon on 10-30-16
-
The First Signs
- Unlocking the Mysteries of the World's Oldest Symbols
- By: Genevieve von Petzinger
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the most significant works on our evolutionary ancestry since Richard Leakey's Origins, The First Signs is the first-ever exploration of the geometric images that accompany most cave art around the world—the first indications of symbolic meaning, intelligence, and language.
-
-
Crawling through caves-a memoir
- By GraceAgnes on 01-27-21
-
Atlas of a Lost World
- By: Craig Childs
- Narrated by: Craig Childs
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the author of Apocalyptic Planet, an unsparing, vivid, revelatory travelogue through prehistory that traces the arrival of the First People in North America 20,000 years ago and the artifacts that enable us to imagine their lives and fates. This book upends our notions of where these people came from and who they were.
-
-
Blaaaa
- By Josh NJ on 07-26-18
By: Craig Childs
-
Monster of God
- By: David Quammen
- Narrated by: Brian Holsopple
- Length: 16 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For millennia, lions, tigers, and their man-eating kin have kept our dark, scary forests dark and scary, and their predatory majesty has been the stuff of folklore. But by the year 2150 big predators may only exist on the other side of glass barriers and chain-link fences. Their gradual disappearance is changing the very nature of our existence. We no longer occupy an intermediate position on the food chain; instead we survey it invulnerably from above - so far above that we are in danger of forgetting that we even belong to an ecosystem.
-
-
Great book, shame about the performance
- By Shirzy on 05-23-18
By: David Quammen
-
Across Atlantic Ice
- The Origin of America's Clovis Culture
- By: Bruce A. Bruce A. Bradley, Denis J. Stanford
- Narrated by: Christopher Prince
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Who were the first humans to inhabit North America? According to the now familiar story, mammal hunters entered the continent some 12,000 years ago via a land bridge that spanned the Bering Sea. The presence of these early New World people was established by distinctive stone tools belonging to the Clovis culture. But are the Clovis tools Asian in origin? Drawing from original archaeological analysis, paleoclimatic research, and genetic studies, noted archaeologists Dennis J. Stanford and Bruce A. Bradley challenge the old narrative.
-
-
Ice Cold story
- By S. Wells on 06-17-12
By: Bruce A. Bruce A. Bradley, and others
-
The Neanderthals Rediscovered
- How Modern Science Is Rewriting Their Story (Revised and Updated Edition)
- By: Dimitra Papagianni, Michael A. Morse
- Narrated by: Nigel Patterson
- Length: 5 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In recent years, the common perception of the Neanderthals has been transformed, thanks to new discoveries and paradigm-shattering scientific innovations. It turns out that the Neanderthals' behavior was surprisingly modern: they buried the dead, cared for the sick, hunted large animals in their prime, harvested seafood, and communicated with spoken language. Meanwhile, advances in DNA technologies are compelling us to reassess the Neanderthals' place in our own past.
-
-
Fascinating Subject... Soporific Reader
- By Andrew E. Yarosh on 11-21-17
By: Dimitra Papagianni, and others
-
The Great Warming
- Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations
- By: Brian Fagan
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The history of the Great Warming of a half millennium ago suggests that we may yet be underestimating the power of climate change to disrupt our lives todayand our vulnerability to drought, writes Fagan, is the silent elephant in the room.
-
-
Good book but unpracticed, disjointed narration.
- By Paul on 09-12-10
By: Brian Fagan
-
Bison and People on the North American Great Plains
- A Deep Environmental History
- By: Geoff Cunfer, Bill Waiser
- Narrated by: Chuck Buell
- Length: 11 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This audiobook explores the deep past and examines the latest knowledge on bison anatomy and physiology, how bison responded to climate change (especially drought), and early bison hunters and pre-contact trade. It also focuses on the era of European contact, in particular the arrival of the horse, and some of the first known instances of over-hunting. By the 19th century, bison reached a "tipping point" as a result of new tanning practices, an early attempt at protective legislation, and ventures to introducing cattle as a replacement stock.
-
-
Buffalo Gone Baby Gone
- By Jim on 03-24-18
By: Geoff Cunfer, and others
-
The Horse
- The Epic History of Our Noble Companion
- By: Wendy Williams
- Narrated by: Angela Brazil
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Horses have a story to tell - one of resilience, sociability, and intelligence and of partnership with human beings. In The Horse, journalist and equestrienne Wendy Williams brings that story brilliantly to life. Williams chronicles the 56-million-year journey of horses as she visits with experts around the world, exploring what our biological affinities and differences can tell us about the bond between horses and humans and what our longtime companions might think and feel.
-
-
Full of science.
- By Jennifer90046 on 02-07-17
By: Wendy Williams
-
The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs
- A New History of a Lost World
- By: Steve Brusatte
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this stunning narrative spanning more than 200 million years, Steve Brusatte, a young American paleontologist who has emerged as one of the foremost stars of the field - discovering 10 new species and leading groundbreaking scientific studies and fieldwork - masterfully tells the complete, surprising, and new history of the dinosaurs, drawing on cutting-edge science to dramatically bring to life their lost world and illuminate their enigmatic origins, spectacular flourishing, astonishing diversity, cataclysmic extinction, and startling living legacy.
-
-
"The Rise of the Scientists Who Study Dinosaurs"
- By Daniel Powell on 09-16-18
By: Steve Brusatte
-
1491
- New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
- By: Charles C. Mann
- Narrated by: Darrell Dennis
- Length: 16 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Traditionally, Americans learned in school that the ancestors of the people who inhabited the Western Hemisphere at the time of Columbus' landing had crossed the Bering Strait 12,000 years ago; existed mainly in small nomadic bands; and lived so lightly on the land that the Americas were, for all practical purposes, still a vast wilderness. But as Charles C. Mann now makes clear, archaeologists and anthropologists have spent the last 30 years proving these and many other long-held assumptions wrong.
-
-
Exposes Non-Academic Audience to The Debate Between Ideas of Pre-Colombian America's
- By Christopher on 01-19-17
By: Charles C. Mann
-
The Statues That Walked
- Unraveling the Mystery of Easter Island
- By: Terry Hunt, Carl Lipo
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 6 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The monumental statues of Easter Island, both so magisterial and so forlorn, gazing out in their imposing rows over the island’s barren landscape, have been the source of great mystery ever since the island was first discovered by Europeans on Easter Sunday 1722. How could the ancient people who inhabited this tiny speck of land, the most remote in the vast expanse of the Pacific islands, have built such monumental works?
-
-
The "Mystery of Easter Island" remains raveled
- By Diane on 09-14-12
By: Terry Hunt, and others
-
Ancient Bones
- Unearthing the Astonishing New Story of How We Became Human
- By: Madelaine Böhme
- Narrated by: Aimée Ayotte
- Length: 7 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Africa has long been considered the cradle of life - where life and humans evolved - but somewhere west of Munich, Germany, paleoclimatologist and paleontologist Madelaine Böhme and her team make a discovery that is beyond anything they ever imagined: the 12-million-year-old bones of an ancient ape - Danuvius guggenmos - which makes headlines around the world and defies prevailing theories of human history and where human life began.
-
-
Brave Attempt
- By Bill Treat on 10-15-22
By: Madelaine Böhme
-
American Serengeti
- The Last Big Animals of the Great Plains
- By: Dan Flores
- Narrated by: Michael Kramer
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
America's Great Plains once possessed one of the grandest wildlife spectacles of the world, equaled only by such places as the Serengeti, the Masai Mara, or the veld of South Africa. Pronghorn antelope, gray wolves, bison, coyotes, wild horses, and grizzly bears: less than 200 years ago these creatures existed in such abundance that John James Audubon was moved to write "it is impossible to describe or even conceive the vast multitudes of these animals".
-
-
Could have been great, but
- By An Amazon Buyer on 08-29-18
By: Dan Flores
-
Cahokia
- Ancient America’s Great City on the Mississippi
- By: Timothy Pauketat
- Narrated by: George Wilson
- Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Professor Timothy R. Pauketat illuminates the riveting discovery of the largest pre-Columbian city on U.S. soil. Once a flourishing metropolis of 20,000 people in 1050, Cahokia had rotted away by 1400. Its earthen mounds near modern-day St. Louis reveal “woodhenges” and evidence of large-scale human sacrifice.
-
-
probably better in hard copy
- By Mary on 06-05-11
By: Timothy Pauketat
-
Born in Africa
- The Quest for the Origins of Human Life
- By: Martin Meredith
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Born in Africa, Martin Meredith follows the trail of discoveries about human origins made by scientists over the last hundred years, recounting their intense rivalry, personal feuds, and fierce controversies, as well as their feats of skill and endurance. The results have been momentous. Scientists have identified more than 20 species of extinct humans. They have firmly established Africa as the birthplace not only of humankind but also of modern humans.
-
-
A Brief History of Paleoanthropology
- By Jeff Harris on 05-06-13
By: Martin Meredith
-
The Sediments of Time
- My Lifelong Search for the Past
- By: Meave Leakey, Samira Leakey
- Narrated by: Susan Lyons
- Length: 14 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Preeminent paleoanthropologist Meave Leakey brings us along on her remarkable journey to reveal the diversity of our early pre-human ancestors and how past climate change drove their evolution. She offers a fresh account of our past, as recent breakthroughs have allowed new analysis of her team’s fossil findings and vastly expanded our understanding of our ancestors. Meave’s own personal story is replete with drama, from thrilling discoveries on the shores of Lake Turkana to run-ins with armed herders and every manner of wildlife, to raising her children....
-
-
Brilliant!
- By tess koffler on 04-07-21
By: Meave Leakey, and others
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
World Prehistory
- The Basics
- By: Brian M. Fagan, Nadia Durrani
- Narrated by: Lee Goettl
- Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why is world prehistory important in the modern world? What does it tell us about ourselves? Providing a simple, but entertaining and stimulating, account of the prehistoric past from human origins to today from a global perspective, World Prehistory: The Basics is the ideal guide to the story of our early human past and its relevance to the modern world.
By: Brian M. Fagan, and others
-
Prehistory
- Making of the Human Mind
- By: Colin Renfrew
- Narrated by: Robert Ian MacKenzie
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A giant of archaeology, Colin Renfrew has immeasurably improved our understanding of human history. In this passionately argued work, he offers a concise summary of prehistory - human existence that predates the development of written records - while challenging the very definition of prehistory itself.
-
-
not for the intellectually challenged
- By Anthony on 07-14-10
By: Colin Renfrew
-
The Origin of Humankind
- By: Richard Leakey
- Narrated by: John Curless
- Length: 6 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Origin of Humankind is Richard Leakey's personal view of the development of Homo sapiens. At the heart of his new picture of evolution is the introduction of a heretical notion: Once the first apes walked upright, the evolution of modern humans became possible and perhaps inevitable. From this one evolutionary step comes all the other evolutionary refinements and distinctions that set the human race apart from the apes.
-
-
Fizzled out
- By Sarah Tomsick on 10-11-24
By: Richard Leakey
-
When Life Nearly Died
- The Greatest Mass Extinction of All Time
- By: Michael J. Benton
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Today it is common knowledge that the dinosaurs were wiped out by a meteorite impact 65 million years ago that killed half of all species then living. It is far less widely understood that a much greater catastrophe took place at the end of the Permian period 251 million years ago: at least 90 percent of life on earth was destroyed. When Life Nearly Died documents not only what happened during this gigantic mass extinction, but also the recent renewal of the idea of catastrophism.
-
-
Obscurity to Enlightenment - A Mystery Revealed
- By Dipam on 03-18-21
-
The Last Lost World
- Ice Ages, Human Origins, and the Invention of the Pleistocene
- By: Lydia V. Pyne, Stephen J. Pyne
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Pleistocene is the epoch of geologic time closest to our own. It’s a time of ice ages, global migrations, and mass extinctions - of woolly rhinos, mammoths, giant ground sloths, and not least early species of Homo. It’s the world that created ours. But outside that environmental story there exists a parallel narrative that describes how our ideas about the Pleistocene have emerged.
-
-
A history of the idea of the Ice Age
- By Gary on 11-27-12
By: Lydia V. Pyne, and others
-
Before the Dawn
- Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors
- By: Nicholas Wade
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 12 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Just in the last three years a flood of new scientific findings, driven by revelations discovered in the human genome, has provided compelling new answers to many long-standing mysteries about our most ancient ancestors, the people who first evolved in Africa and then went on to colonize the whole world. Nicholas Wade weaves this host of news-making findings together for the first time into an intriguing new history of the human story before the dawn of civilization.
-
-
Amazing information
- By Albert on 06-15-07
By: Nicholas Wade
-
World Prehistory
- The Basics
- By: Brian M. Fagan, Nadia Durrani
- Narrated by: Lee Goettl
- Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why is world prehistory important in the modern world? What does it tell us about ourselves? Providing a simple, but entertaining and stimulating, account of the prehistoric past from human origins to today from a global perspective, World Prehistory: The Basics is the ideal guide to the story of our early human past and its relevance to the modern world.
By: Brian M. Fagan, and others
-
Prehistory
- Making of the Human Mind
- By: Colin Renfrew
- Narrated by: Robert Ian MacKenzie
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A giant of archaeology, Colin Renfrew has immeasurably improved our understanding of human history. In this passionately argued work, he offers a concise summary of prehistory - human existence that predates the development of written records - while challenging the very definition of prehistory itself.
-
-
not for the intellectually challenged
- By Anthony on 07-14-10
By: Colin Renfrew
-
The Origin of Humankind
- By: Richard Leakey
- Narrated by: John Curless
- Length: 6 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Origin of Humankind is Richard Leakey's personal view of the development of Homo sapiens. At the heart of his new picture of evolution is the introduction of a heretical notion: Once the first apes walked upright, the evolution of modern humans became possible and perhaps inevitable. From this one evolutionary step comes all the other evolutionary refinements and distinctions that set the human race apart from the apes.
-
-
Fizzled out
- By Sarah Tomsick on 10-11-24
By: Richard Leakey
-
When Life Nearly Died
- The Greatest Mass Extinction of All Time
- By: Michael J. Benton
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Today it is common knowledge that the dinosaurs were wiped out by a meteorite impact 65 million years ago that killed half of all species then living. It is far less widely understood that a much greater catastrophe took place at the end of the Permian period 251 million years ago: at least 90 percent of life on earth was destroyed. When Life Nearly Died documents not only what happened during this gigantic mass extinction, but also the recent renewal of the idea of catastrophism.
-
-
Obscurity to Enlightenment - A Mystery Revealed
- By Dipam on 03-18-21
-
The Last Lost World
- Ice Ages, Human Origins, and the Invention of the Pleistocene
- By: Lydia V. Pyne, Stephen J. Pyne
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Pleistocene is the epoch of geologic time closest to our own. It’s a time of ice ages, global migrations, and mass extinctions - of woolly rhinos, mammoths, giant ground sloths, and not least early species of Homo. It’s the world that created ours. But outside that environmental story there exists a parallel narrative that describes how our ideas about the Pleistocene have emerged.
-
-
A history of the idea of the Ice Age
- By Gary on 11-27-12
By: Lydia V. Pyne, and others
-
Before the Dawn
- Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors
- By: Nicholas Wade
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 12 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Just in the last three years a flood of new scientific findings, driven by revelations discovered in the human genome, has provided compelling new answers to many long-standing mysteries about our most ancient ancestors, the people who first evolved in Africa and then went on to colonize the whole world. Nicholas Wade weaves this host of news-making findings together for the first time into an intriguing new history of the human story before the dawn of civilization.
-
-
Amazing information
- By Albert on 06-15-07
By: Nicholas Wade
-
Life on a Young Planet
- The First Three Billion Years of Evolution on Earth
- By: Andrew H. Knoll
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Australopithecines, dinosaurs, trilobites - such fossils conjure up images of lost worlds filled with vanished organisms. But in the full history of life, ancient animals, even the trilobites, form only the half-billion-year tip of a nearly four-billion-year iceberg. Andrew Knoll explores the deep history of life from its origins on a young planet to the incredible Cambrian explosion, presenting a compelling new explanation for the emergence of biological novelty.
-
-
The Earliest Life
- By Arden on 02-16-20
By: Andrew H. Knoll
-
Masters of the Planet
- The Search for Our Human Origins
- By: Ian Tattersall
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fifty thousand years ago - merely a blip in evolutionary time - our Homo sapiens ancestors were competing for existence with several other human species, just as their precursors had done for millions of years. Yet something about our species distinguished it from the pack, and ultimately led to its survival while the rest became extinct. Just what was it that allowed Homo sapiens to become masters of the planet? Ian Tattersall, curator emeritus at the American Museum of Natural History, takes us deep into the fossil record to uncover what made humans so special.
-
-
Great Book, Some Sloppy Editing
- By DB on 11-23-20
By: Ian Tattersall
-
Religion in Human Evolution
- From the Paleolithic to the Axial Age
- By: Robert N. Bellah
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 29 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Religion in Human Evolution is a work of extraordinary ambition—a wide-ranging, nuanced probing of our biological past to discover the kinds of lives that human beings have most often imagined were worth living. It offers what is frequently seen as a forbidden theory of the origin of religion that goes deep into evolution, especially but not exclusively cultural evolution.
-
-
extremely biased
- By Kristen on 04-24-24
By: Robert N. Bellah
-
Four Queens
- The Provencal Sisters Who Ruled Europe
- By: Nancy Goldstone
- Narrated by: Josephine Bailey
- Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set against the backdrop of the turbulent 13th century, a time of chivalry and crusades, poetry, knights, and monarchs, comes the story of the four beautiful daughters of the count of Provence, whose brilliant marriages made them the queens of France, England, Germany, and Sicily.
-
-
Interesting, informative
- By Eunice on 12-06-07
By: Nancy Goldstone
-
Life
- The Leading Edge of Evolutionary Biology, Genetics, Anthropology, and Environmental Science
- By: John Brockman
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain, Antony Ferguson, Jonathan Yen
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Scientists' understanding of life is progressing more rapidly than at any point in human history, from the extraordinary decoding of DNA to the controversial emergence of biotechnology. Featuring pioneering biologists, geneticists, physicists, and science writers, Life explains just how far we've come - and takes a brilliantly educated guess at where we're heading.
-
-
A remarkable book
- By PMonaco on 03-06-18
By: John Brockman
-
The First Americans
- In Pursuit of Archaeology's Greatest Mystery
- By: J.M. Adovasio, Jake Page
- Narrated by: Christopher Grove
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
J. M. Adovasio has spent the last thirty years at the center of one of our most fiery scientific debates: Who were the first humans in the Americas, and how and when did they get there? At its heart, The First Americans is the story of the revolution in thinking that Adovasio and his fellow archaeologists have brought about, and the firestorm it has ignited.
-
-
Worth a read/listen
- By Thomas Gordon on 01-16-23
By: J.M. Adovasio, and others
-
Close Encounters with Humankind
- A Paleoanthropologist Investigates Our Evolving Species
- By: Sang-Hee Lee, Shin-Young Yoon
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What can fossilized teeth tell us about our ancient life expectancy? What can big data on fossils reveal about farming's problematic role in human evolution? How can simple geometric comparisons of skull and pelvic fossils suggest an origin to our social nature? In Close Encounters with Humankind, paleoanthropologist Sang-Hee Lee explores some of our biggest evolutionary questions from unexpected new angles. Through a series of entertaining, bite-sized chapters, we gain new perspectives into our first hominin ancestors, our first steps on two feet, and more.
-
-
A different perspective of human ancestry
- By John on 09-15-18
By: Sang-Hee Lee, and others
-
The Story of Evolution in 25 Discoveries
- The Evidence and the People Who Found It
- By: Donald R. Prothero
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The theory of evolution unites the past, present, and future of living things. It puts humanity's place in the universe into necessary perspective. Despite a history of controversy, the evidence for evolution continues to accumulate as a result of many separate strands of incredible scientific sleuthing. In The Story of Evolution in 25 Discoveries, Donald R. Prothero explores the most fascinating breakthroughs in piecing together the evidence for evolution.
-
-
Good synopsis of current understanding
- By Nunya on 05-28-23
-
The Invention of Prehistory
- Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins
- By: Stefanos Geroulanos
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Wiley
- Length: 14 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Books about the origins of humanity dominate bestseller lists, while national newspapers present breathless accounts of new archaeological findings and speculate about what those findings tell us about our earliest ancestors. We are obsessed with prehistory—and, in this respect, our current era is no different from any other in the last three hundred years. In this coruscating work, acclaimed historian Stefanos Geroulanos demonstrates how claims about the earliest humans not only shaped Western intellectual culture, but gave rise to our modern world.
-
-
Too much judgement
- By Historic Philosopher on 04-23-24
-
Human Evolution, 2nd Edition
- A Very Short Introduction
- By: Bernard Wood
- Narrated by: Mike Cooper
- Length: 3 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The study of human evolution is advancing rapidly. Newly discovered fossil evidence is adding ever more pieces to the puzzle of our past, while revolutionary technological advances in the study of ancient DNA are completely reshaping theories of early human populations and migrations. In this Very Short Introduction, Bernard Wood traces the history of paleoanthropology from its beginnings in the 18th century to the very latest fossil finds.
-
-
Brief, simple, and informative
- By Stef on 09-10-24
By: Bernard Wood
-
The Ark Before Noah
- Decoding the Story of the Flood
- By: Irving Finkel
- Narrated by: Irving Finkel, Gareth Armstrong
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Since the Victorian period, it has been understood that the story of Noah, iconic in the Book of Genesis, and a central motif in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, derives from a much older story that existed centuries before in ancient Babylon. But the relationship between the Babylonian and biblical traditions was shrouded in mystery. Then, in 2009, Irving Finkel, a curator at the British Museum and a world authority on ancient Mesopotamia, found himself playing detective.
-
-
excellent, enlightening, entertaining
- By D. Littman on 07-17-14
By: Irving Finkel
-
The Story of Egypt
- The Civilization That Shaped the World
- By: Joann Fletcher
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 17 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The story of the world's greatest civilization - spanning thousands of years - is full of epic stories, spectacular places, and an evolving society rich in inventors, heroes, villains, and pioneers. The story of the world's greatest civilization spans 4,000 years of history that has shaped the world. It is full of spectacular cities and epic stories of a constantly evolving society peopled with inventors, heroes and heroines, villains, artisans, and pioneers.
-
-
Egyptian history is fascinating, this book is not.
- By Mary Elizabeth Reynolds on 08-24-16
By: Joann Fletcher
What listeners say about Cro-Magnon
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
- Karin W.
- 09-09-10
A comprehensive overview of the Ice Age
Not just about the Cro-Magnon, this book also goes into great detail about what scientists currently know about the Neanderthal people and the current scientific knowledge regarding the climactic changes, geology, flora, and fauna of the Ice Age.
I'm an archaeology geek, didn't know much about this period, and found the topic engrossing. It's popular science writing at its best--clear, interesting, and accessible without being condescending.
The narrator is also excellent, with a very pleasant British accent and flawless pronounciation of the many French and German terms in the book, not to mention the occasional Hebrew or !Kung word.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Brian
- 03-18-11
I thoroughly enjoyed this book!
I thought this was an excellent look at our ancestors and extinct close relatives as well as some of the theories on how man became the dominant species on the planet.
I know in many of the reviews people criticized the speculative narrative that the author has put together on what life was like for these groups of individuals. The narrative added to my personal enjoyment of this book. I think anyone reading this realizes that we can only speculate by filling in the missing pieces with the hard evidence that archaeological finds provide.
I thought the narration of this book was excellent.
The author provided a narrative that kept me interested balanced with providing evidence to support the author story.
One interesting comment; I think the author gives a the benefit of the doubt to our ancestors regarding the now extinct Neanderthals. Any casual study of human nature and its brutality would definitely indicate that there probably was significant conflict between humans and Neanderthals that led to their extinction. I did like the authors less heavy-handed take that it's possible these two groups live side-by-side even if it was cautiously with little interaction.
If you're interested in the topic of evolution or the history of early man. I highly recommend this book!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- James
- 09-03-12
Ah Ha... So That's How We All Started Out!!!
This book was an excellent look at the lives, history, culture of the Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal and peoples. The discoveries set forth in this book really helped explain a lot of the lineage of how people spread from Africa, through Europe and Asia and eventually populated the world. It also dealt with the seemingly impossible situations of everyday life that they had to overcome and learn by experience. When I hear people today talk about harsh conditions, and the suffering that they're going through now, there's no comparison!
I've been a vegetarian for almost 30 years, and one thing that I learned in reading this book, was that people have eaten meat (probably through scavenging carcasses that were left behind by predators and animals dying via natural death and accidents) from almost the beginning of time when they could first catch an animal, it is the actual agricultural cultivation of plants and vegetables that began about 10,000 years ago.
I would highly recommend this excellent book!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Thomas
- 05-09-16
An amazing description of our species' history!
One of my best purchases ever! This book carries you into the past and intertwines all of our ancestors into a mosaic of humanity.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
- Helen
- 07-30-10
Enjoyed and wished for more
I thoroughly enjoyed both Part 1 (Neanderthals and the emergence of early modern man) and Part 2 (differences between remnants of known Cro-Magnon sites life and what they hint about the differences in lifestyle, climate and locale).
The speculation as to the daily lives of the people was as interesting as the facts - with carbon-dating, geological surveys, archaeological digs, current (or relatively recent) practices of Arctic, African and Aboriginal dwellers, all contributing.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 06-21-24
Outdated and biased
Totally outdated, still portraying Cro magnon and neanthertals as opposed, adversarial, totally different from each other. He also asserts there was no interbreeding between the two species and insist N. did not have spoken language. All of that has been proven wrong and new theories based on the new findings of the last 14 years have been developed. Lastly, the description of these long ago peoples is tremendously biased. Don’t waste your money on this title.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
- rachel
- 07-31-10
Dense
This was an interesting topic but the book got bogged down at times with information that was too complicated for a someone whose area of expertise is not pre-history, archaeology or anthropology. (particular the former two, I think).
Perhaps others will disagree and find the dense discussion more accessible than I did. However, I don't consider myself a complete neophyte on the subject: I took a graduate level course on ancient technology that covered flintknapping and other technologies. As an art instructor, I am familar with Lascaux and Chauvet and the Venus of Willendorf among others.
There were several times when I wanted the author to just skip the correct terminology and jump to the part where he tells us what it means. There were several other times when I felt a little confused about whether the evidence he'd just outlined supported or refuted the claim he had made at the beginning of the thought. And at least once I wondered why he said that "obviously" wasn't correct. Why was it obvious? Why not remind us? This is a long detailed history, why skip a little "obvious" bit like that?
I listened to this book in my studio while working on several projects. It was a good mellow story, interesting enough to give my mind something to do without being a distraction. I do not recommend listening to this book while driving. The author's voice lulls you into a sleepy state.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- REBECCA J MILLER
- 03-28-15
So much information. Must listen to more than once
Really enjoyed the book. The level of detail gives you people places and institutes to use for further research. Excellent.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Chas Rogers
- 02-20-16
Very Fine Writing
Brian Fagan has compiled a rich web of the most fascinating stories ever written. His compilation of the study of the Cro-Magnon shall live forever.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
- Krista
- 08-15-10
Very interesting
I enjoyed this very much. Great narration and mix of "imagine...." to set the stage to see a Cro-Magnon. Also really enjoyed the details of the different sciences that go into determining age of fossils and other evidence of our ancestors. There were times that were a little slow or the details a little too details for listening, so had to re-listen to parts. If I were reading, they might have sunk in better in the written versus audio format. Still enjoyed very much and I looked up many the places and artifacts mentioned for better understanding of the imagery.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful