In Search of the Neanderthals: Solving the Puzzle of Human Origins, with 183 Illustrations [Paperback]

Christopher Stringer (Author), Clive Gamble (Author), Clive Gambee (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1995

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Compared with Erik Trinkhaus and Pat Shipman's The Neandertals ( LJ 12/92), which traces the history of Neanderthal discoveries, this book is more concerned with current interpretations of the fossil record. English anthropologists Stringer and Gamble hope to settle the controversy over the Neanderthals' proper branch on humanity's family tree by taking their case to a general audience. They marshall the evidence in favor of the "Out of Africa 2" scenario, contending that Neanderthal populations in Europe and the Middle East were replaced by a second African migration between 130,000 and 50,000 years ago. Neanderthals, therefore, are not directly ancestral to modern humans. The authors make a strong case for their interpretations, but they offer little more than a caricature of competing theories. Still, this is an important and readable book, with many good illustrations. Recommended for academic and public libraries.
- Eric Hinsdale, Trinity Univ. Lib., San Antonio
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 248 pages
• Publisher: Thames & Hudson; 1st Paperback Edition edition (April 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0500278075
• ISBN-13: 978-0500278079
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #358,198 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well done..., April 28, 2001

By 

Michael Valdivielso (Alexandria, VA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: In Search of the Neanderthals: Solving the Puzzle of Human Origins, with 183 Illustrations (Paperback)

The authors really do a great job in doing a detailed study of Neanderthals, their lives and their world. They catalogue the fossils found, examine how we know what we know from the bones, tools and even the ash from the fires.
The only problem is that the book was published in 1993-1994 and does not take into account later DNA tests and the four-year-old child who lived five thousand years after the last of the Neanderthals SHOULD of died (found in 1999)who showed signs of interbreeding between modern humans and Neanderthals. So, while the conclusion in the book that we did not come from Neanderthals may not be correct (and still open to debate), the chapters dealing in detail with Neanderthal tools, camp sites, society, art and burial are a must for people interested in the subject...

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant, July 29, 2005

By 

doc peterson (Portland, Oregon USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: In Search of the Neanderthals: Solving the Puzzle of Human Origins, with 183 Illustrations (Paperback)

Having only a cursory knowledge about human pre-history, I asked a colleague in the anthropology department for a good primer. He gave me this. It was a veritable cornicoupia of information, even as the authors sought to provide their own answers to quesitons of acadmeic controversey.

The central question Stringer and Gamble seek to answer is: are modern humans kin to Neaderthals, or are we distantly related? In answering this, readers are treated to a briefing on the ice age world of the Lower and Middle Paleolithic, the relation of Neanderthals to other early humans, the way in which Neanderthals have been understood (and seen) by science and the public, before the book really hits its stride in disucssing the archaeology of Neanderthal sites and what they tell us about these early humans.

The authors belive that modern humans are related to (rather than directly from) Neanderthals, and that by the Upper Paleolithic, were being replaced by modern humans coming out of Africa ("Out of Africa II"). The evidence in support of this is strong, although not overwhelming: mtDNA (mitochondrial DNA) as well as behavioural data are primarily used.

In all, it was a worthwhile and fascinating read, and certainly provides more depth on the specific case of Neanderthals than other books on early humans.

1 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No complaints here!, September 21, 2005

By 

Michelle (Norway) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In Search of the Neanderthals: Solving the Puzzle of Human Origins, with 183 Illustrations (Paperback)

The book was in perfect condition and the shipping was really fast.