The Neanderthals rediscovered How modern science is rewriting their story

The Neanderthals, of course, are one of the best-understood varieties of early humans, now generally thought to have occupied Europe and parts of western Asia into Siberia 250,000 and 35,000 thousand years ago. Designed for a popular audience, this book by wife and husband team Papagianni (unaffiliated archaeologist) and Morse (science historian and writer) aims to bring together the latest knowledge about Neanderthals and their predecessors and contemporaries, especially to view them in a more positive light. The text flows smoothly and with a very personal flavor, often mentioning the authors' experiences working at some of the sites and presenting their opinions on scientific controversies about which they are not expert. Some points are confusing or incorrect, as is true of part of the story of the fossil from Petralona, Greece, given its own pair of facing pages. In general, however, the details are broadly accurate, and the book includes the most up-to-date findings and interpretations presented in the technical literature. A final chapter discusses popular views of Neanderthals, including television and stories. No technical notes document views presented, but a variety of readings are suggested. Summing Up: Recommended. Public libraries; general and undergraduate collections. E. Delson CUNY Herbert H. Lehman College

If you want grounding in our current understanding of our human predecessors, Papagianni, a PhD archaeologist, and Morse (How the Celts Came to Britain), a writer with a PhD in the history of science, have written the book for you. Although focused on Neanderthals, the authors set their discussion accessibly within the deeper context of the scientific study of hominid evolution generally, moving forward in chapters describing what is now understood of how former humans and hominids lived and functioned from about one million years ago to approximately 25,000 years ago. That's the remarkably long time frame within which other humans may have walked the earth. Papagianni and Morse describe the evolution of tool use and manufacture, for example, so that we see what sets Neanderthal tools apart from those of their predecessors such as our common ancestor with Neanderthals, Homo heidelbergensis. (Inserted stand-alone two-to-four- page pieces such as "Stone tools: the basics" are very helpful.) The authors describe the differing points of view among notable paleontologists, archaeologists, and anthropologists (those groups Paabo, above, looks down on) about such matters as where Homo sapiens themselves evolved, Neanderthal burials, and Neanderthal-modern human interbreeding. Last, the authors show some of the ways in which our own culture keeps the Neanderthals with us to this day. VERDICT Highly recommended for general access collections on human evolution.-Margaret Heilbrun, Library Journal (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.