Early Humans: Ice, Stone, and Survival
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Narrated by:
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Suzanne Pilaar Birch
About this listen
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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Napoleon's Hemorrhoids…And Other Small Events That Changed History
- By: Phil Mason
- Narrated by: LJ Ganser
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Hilarious, fascinating, and a roller coaster of dizzying, historical what-ifs, Napoleon's Hemorrhoids is a potpourri for serious historians and casual history buffs. In one of Phil Mason's many revelations, you'll learn that Communist jets were two minutes away from opening fire on American planes during the Cuban missile crisis, when they had to turn back as they were running out of fuel. You'll discover that before the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon's painful hemorrhoids prevented him from mounting his horse to survey the battlefield.
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They just throw the facts too fast
- By Concerned_llama on 12-11-20
By: Phil Mason
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Plant Science: An Introduction to Botany
- By: Catherine Kleier, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Catherine Kleier
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Original Recording
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Dr. Catherine Kleier invites us to open our eyes to the phenomenal world of plant life and to the process she calls “Natura Revelata”, the joy of celebrating and learning from the secrets of nature. As Dr. Kleier shares her knowledge with contagious excitement for her subject, she emphasizes the middle ground: Instead of focusing on cell microbiology or the study of ecosystems and habitats, she stresses the basic biology, function, and the amazing adaptations of the plants we see all around us.
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Needs accompanying documentation and visual aides
- By Ryan on 04-04-19
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Cosmic Queries
- StarTalk’s Guide to Who We Are, How We Got Here, and Where We’re Going
- By: James Trefil, Lindsey N. Walker - editor, Neil deGrasse Tyson
- Narrated by: Neil deGrasse Tyson, Lauren Fortgang
- Length: 6 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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In this illuminating audiobook, Tyson and coauthor James Trefil, a renowned physicist and science popularizer, take on the big questions that humanity has been posing for millennia - How did life begin? What is our place in the universe? Are we alone? - and provide answers based on the most current data, observations, and theories.
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Not worth it
- By Daniel Earl on 03-15-21
By: James Trefil, and others
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The Theory of Everything: The Quest to Explain All Reality
- By: Don Lincoln, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Don Lincoln
- Length: 12 hrs and 21 mins
- Original Recording
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At the end of his career, Albert Einstein was pursuing a dream far more ambitious than the theory of relativity. He was trying to find an equation that explained all physical reality - a theory of everything. Experimental physicist and award-winning educator Dr. Don Lincoln takes you on this exciting journey in The Theory of Everything: The Quest to Explain All Reality. Suitable for the intellectually curious at all levels and assuming no background beyond basic high-school math, these 24 half-hour lectures cover recent developments at the forefront of particle physics and cosmology.
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Audible’s Best Science Offering, A Gem
- By MikeB on 12-08-18
By: Don Lincoln, and others
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The Quantum Universe
- (And Why Anything That Can Happen, Does)
- By: Brian Cox, Jeff Forshaw
- Narrated by: Samuel West
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Quantum Universe, Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw approach the world of quantum mechanics in the same way they did in Why Does E=mc2? and make fundamental scientific principles accessible - and fascinating - to everyone.The subatomic realm has a reputation for weirdness, spawning any number of profound misunderstandings, journeys into Eastern mysticism, and woolly pronouncements on the interconnectedness of all things. Cox and Forshaw's contention? There is no need for quantum mechanics to be viewed this way.
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Not suitable as an audio book
- By SPN on 03-29-22
By: Brian Cox, and others
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Excellent
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very infornative
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Time with a great scholar & fantastic lecturer
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1066: The Year That Changed Everything
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With this exciting and historically rich six-lecture course, experience for yourself the drama of this dynamic year in medieval history, centered on the landmark Norman Conquest. Taking you from the shores of Scandinavia and France to the battlefields of the English countryside, these lectures will plunge you into a world of fierce Viking warriors, powerful noble families, politically charged marriages, tense succession crises, epic military invasions, and much more.
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History brought to life
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Epigenetics is the science of living DNA, charting the chemical pathways that spur DNA into action by turning genes on and off. While the Human Genome Project of the early 2000s was hailed as the key to understanding human heredity and disease, that historic effort was just the beginning. It has taken epigenetics to fill in the picture, explaining how the fixed code of our genome is implemented in countless living processes.
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Really good
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The Search for Exoplanets: What Astronomers Know
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As recently as 1990, it seemed plausible that the solar system was a unique phenomenon in our galaxy. Thanks to advances in technology and clever new uses of existing data, now we know that planetary systems and possibly even a new Earth can be found throughout galaxies near and far.
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Fun across the universe
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What listeners say about Early Humans: Ice, Stone, and Survival
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Austin
- 08-02-23
Well packaged introduction
The lessons do sound prepared, which is a good thing. These lectures were more in depth (and IMO more interesting) than typical Great Course series.
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- Anonymous User
- 06-20-23
Fascinating and rich subject
There is a lot of gripping material packed in to this course, but it is delivered, apparently, from note cards.
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- Stephen
- 06-16-24
Concise overview
Author gave a useful and concise overview of the current interpretations of available archaeological data about homonim evolution. Role of Neanderthal in Homo sapiens development discussed with much unknown/unknowable. Discussion about effects of climate change as well as other causative factors beyond human generated CO2 fascinating. Easy listen.
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- Jim Nasium
- 12-25-23
Terrific overview of prehistoric hominids
This course is on par with other Great Courses. The lecturer is knowledgeable and insightful, while the content is comprehensive and novel.
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!
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2 people found this helpful
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- Mark Vogt
- 08-03-23
INTERESTING READ. MEMOIRE STYLE ADDS FLAVOR TO FACTS
GLAD I bought the book
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
Good luck,
Mark Vogt, AI Data Scientist, North Aurora IL (USA)
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- Charley Ada
- 12-16-23
A fascinating look at early humans
I’ve always been intrigued by the study of early humans: where they came from, how they lived, how they developed tools, art, culture, and eventually society. The time periods are amazing. Most of us today are familiar only with the past few thousand years of human history, but it’s been all been going on for so much longer than that. Our species emerged around 200,000 years ago, and our human-like ancestors and cousins have been around for much longer than that. Who were these early humans, and what were their lives like? It’s one of the most intriguing mysteries of all time, and every year scholars and scientists are able to reveal just a little more for us. This course does just that, and it does it extremely well. The professor speaks with clarity and emotion, making complex topics (like the scientific aspects) simple, and never losing sight of the big picture - which is that we study past humans to learn something about ourselves. She explains what we know, what we don’t, the controversies, and the significance of it all. I really enjoyed listening to this and hope others will too.
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- Janet Neubaum
- 08-30-23
Terrible Narration
Narrator continually put her emphasis on oddly random words, rather than ideas. It was distracting and annoying.
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- Tyson
- 12-06-23
nice survey of ealy humans and relatives
Very interesting survey of early human and relatives. Does more than just list species and looks at other angles as well
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- Anonymous User
- 06-26-24
A pedantic and scattershot view of prehistory
I was severely disappointed in this lecture series, which promised an engaging overview of human prehistory and instead delivered a selective introduction to prehistoric archeology, focusing heavily on the teacher’s own academic work. The style oscillated between over- and under-explaining key concepts, and was more interested in methodology than narrative.
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.
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- Nancy K. Merbitz
- 09-01-23
Solid information, what I was looking for.
As usual, I note that several listeners, both male and female, fell into the same old trap of critiquing the authors voice. We need to consider all the evidence showing that we expect the voice of authority to be male, and react against the female voice as annoying and somehow less than. You may believe strongly that, oh no it’s just _this_ voice I don’t like, nothing to do with being female, but the data is the data. We’re just not used to it but we should be ready for it: the female voice of authority.
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1 person found this helpful