
Early Humans: Ice, Stone, and Survival
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Narrated by:
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Suzanne Pilaar Birch
You and the other 8 billion humans alive today are members of the only species that has survived in the genus Homo since its 2.5-million-year evolutionary journey began. Homo habilis, H. erectus, H. neanderthalensis—plus many other species we know of and perhaps dozens yet to be discovered—have all come and gone. H. sapiens alone has endured.
Who were these long-ago ancestors of ours? Where and how did they live and die? And how are we even able to learn about these humans, some of whom became extinct millions of years ago? These are only a few of the myriad fascinating questions explored in Early Humans: Ice, Stone, and Survival. In 20 captivating lectures, Professor Suzanne Pilaar Birch shares her expertise and passion for discovery as she peels back the years to expose the emergence and lives of early humans. You will learn about their environmental challenges, the methods they used to meet their basic needs, cultural development, and the fascinating advances in our own technologies that have allowed us to take their few physical remains and develop a much fuller picture.
Although we might imagine a timeline of the past 2.5 million years as a straight path from the emergence of the genus Homo to modern H. sapiens in the 21st century, the truth of our family tree is much more convoluted and fascinating than that. Who were our direct ancestors? How far back can we trace our lineage? As Dr. Birch explains, we shouldn’t lose sight of what it means to be able to ask those questions in the first place. After all, isn’t it our awareness of the existence of those who came before us what truly makes us human? The answers to these questions and many more will surprise and possibly even shock you as you as you explore Early Humans: Ice, Stone, and Survival.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
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Well packaged introduction
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nice survey of ealy humans and relatives
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While I did learn some interesting new facts from this course, please look elsewhere if you’re looking for an updated narrative of human history before writing and agriculture. Maybe such a thing is unknowable, and what we think we know is subject to such controversy that only describing the evidence for various hypotheses is possible. But even so, it could have been presented in a more rhetorically skillful way.
A pedantic and scattershot view of prehistory
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The lecturer's delivery was solid—I have no idea why other reviewers characterized her delivery as reading a script. Her lectures follow the notes very closely but they're notes from her lecture! She's clearly excited about and invested in the topic.
Same goes for remarks on some course content being a "commentary" on modern life. There's no woke agenda here, just some insight into how modern society has impacted our understanding of prehistoric society. It's very relevant but isn't belabored by any means.
The professor is top notch and brings with her everything that I'd expect from a Great Course lecturer. I hope to see more from her soon!
Terrific overview of prehistoric hominids
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TO AUTHOR
1. IF. you want to know if the snails were EATEN or just crept into each excavation, examine each site for traces of LIME-TYPE ROCK that could fir in your palm like a bar of soap. These stones are STILL in use across central Africa as part of preparing snails. By first SKEWERING the snail & deftly twisting, the snails are easily extracted from their shells. Then by rubbing the lime on their bodies they IMMEDIATELY EXCRETE all their SLIME, which was as detestable THEN as it is NOW. If you FIND these stones near the SITE or near any WATER SOURCE, you’ll have a very strong case that your snails WERE prepared and EATEN, as opposed to being scavengers…
2. The front incisor removal would have been an obvious sign marking a SLAVE, so you now have the unhappy duty of exploring the theory that SLAVE TRADING was alive & well even 10,000 or more years ago. I will watch for you to explore this
3. To call the sinilarities between the pre-Clovis points and the Solutrean points merely nothing more than "cosmetic" testifies to your complete ignorance of the technical complexities of flint knapping. Clearly you personally have never actually touched a meticulously-crafted fluted point, much less attempted to fabricate even a simple point yourself, hinting that your time spent as an "intern" at the Smithsonian where Stafford worked was utterly wasted. As a result you are blind to the immensity of the similarities between these two sets of points, and you simply end up babbling whatever you've been told to babble by your faculty instructors aka "handlers" and whatever dogma they've decided to propagate. No free thinking going on in THIS book I'm afraid...
4. You betray a curious LACK of true Scientific Methodology when you repeatedly (I loss count it happened so many times throughout your book) use the terms "belief" and "believe" to describe the dogma that your own handlers have indoctrinated YOU with. You also have a curious frequency of using the term "feel" to also describe your & your hamdlers' "feelings" about certain DATES and certain THEORIES you find unacceptable.
What have FEELINGS and BELIEFS got to do with SCIENCE??
Choose your words more carefully, more precisely if you wish to be taken seriously as a SCIENTIST. Consider actually LISTENING to Stafford as an example; there is a man who clearly chooses HIS words far more thoughtfully, deliberately and precisely thanyou. May you learn by his example...
Good luck,
Mark Vogt, AI Data Scientist, North Aurora IL (USA)
INTERESTING READ. MEMOIRE STYLE ADDS FLAVOR TO FACTS
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A fascinating look at early humans
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Terrible Narration
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very interesting
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Solid information, what I was looking for.
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Covered various ice ages and migration of humans and Neanderthal.
Really interesting book on ancient man
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