The World Before Us

The author is a paleoanthropologist (1) and in this book he describes the current state of our knowledge about ourselves and our ancient relations. This has become a fast moving subject due to advances in technology (2). Although recent finds are often small, such as fingers or teeth rather than skulls and skeletons, new technology provides a lot of information. The new technology also allows old finds to be re-examined and complicates the story (3).This book does not provide a detailed history of our ancestry. Australopithecines are mentioned, but the book tends to focus on the later hominins such as Homo erectus, the Neanderthals, the Denisovians, Homo floresiensis and Homo luzonensis. It does provide details of the new technologies used, written for a non-specialist (4). The book can also be quite personal in places, with the author describing his own work and research.THE BOOK (5) is divided into 17 chapters. There are 37 illustrations in black and white of various sizes. There are matt reproductions of photographs, maps, diagrams, line drawings of stone tools and skulls. Although numerous, they do not intrude and the text always dominates. There is also a section of colour plates on 8 pages containing 23 images. These include photographs of the sites mentioned and artist’s reconstructions of a Neanderthal, a Denisovian and a “Hobbit” (Homo floresiensis). At the end of the book, the References and Notes section (6) is extensive as is the Index, but I would have liked a Glossary as well.___________________________________________________________________________________________(1) He is Professor of Archaeological Science at Oxford and Director of the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit. A video from his lecture tour can be found on YouTube.(2) The new technology includes advances in the use of computers, for example to match partial samples of DNA. Radiocarbon dating is enhanced by new computational methods such as Bayesian chronometric modelling. Pattern recognition and bioinformatics can be used. Mitochondrial mutation rates can be calculated, epigenetics can be applied to DNA samples, LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) is used to find potential sites, proteomics (study of proteins) and 3D modelling (e.g. of skulls), ZooMS (zooarchaeology by spectrometry) are also in use.(3) The author says “I remember studying human evolution as a student in the 1980s. It was so simple and linear then; the story is now much more complex, and infinitely more interesting and puzzling.” (Chapter 2 “Out of Africa” page 17)(4) Although written for the layman, attention is required. Thus at the start of Chapter 5 “The Genetic Revolution” the author states “In this chapter I am going to introduce some quite complex concepts, which might be a bit heavy going at times, but it is important to understand at least the basics of genomics, and it will also come in handy in reading the rest of this book. I hope very much that, by the end of this chapter, if I talk about how many SNPs were identified in an ancient genome, you’ll know immediately what I mean.”(5) Title: The World Before UsSubtitle: How Science is Revealing a New Story of Our Human OriginsList of Illustrations (3 pages); A Note on Time and Dates (1 ¼ pages)1 Introduction; 2 Out of Africa; 3 Neanderthals Emerge into the Light; 4 The Road to Denisova Cave; 5 The Genetic Revolution; 6 A New Species of Human; 7 Where are the Fossil Remains?; 8 Finding Needles in Haystacks; 9 The Science of ‘When’; 10 On the Trail of the Modern Human Diaspora; 11 DNA from Dirt; 12 The Hobbits; 13 The Journey to the East of Wallace’s Line; 14 Homo erectus and the Ghost Population; 15 Disappearing from the World; 16 Our Genetic Legacy; 17 The World Before Us;Acknowledgements, Picture Credits, References and Notes (31 pages), Index (17 pages),(6) The References and Notes section is mostly references to sources used, and these are mostly references to scientific journals. There are a few notes, but not as many as provided as footnotes throughout the book. The few books referenced include: Pat Shipman  The Invaders: How Humans and Their Dogs Drove Neanderthals to Extinction , Morwood and Van Oosterzee  A New Human: The Startling Discovery and Strange Story of the "Hobbits" of Flores, Indonesia , Flood  Archaeology of the Dreamtime  and Trinkaus and Shipman  Neandertals: Changing the Image of Mankind . The Invaders: How Humans and Their Dogs Drove Neanderthals to ExtinctionA New Human: The Startling Discovery and Strange Story of the "Hobbits" of Flores, IndonesiaArchaeology of the DreamtimeNeandertals: Changing the Image of Mankind

If you want a book which brings you bang up to date on the subject then this book is ideal. Informative, well-written and full of fascinating facts, stories and anecdotes. I checked the index of a similar book published a decade ago; thus confirming how much more we now know. Highly recommended.

This book summarises in an accessible way the information revealed by the latest biochemical techniques about the remains found of Homo erectus, Neanderthals, Denisovans and the diminutive humans of the islands of the South East (mainly the “Hobbit” that lived on the island of Flores).A lot of the book is about the archaeologists – including the author – and the circumstances surrounding the archaeological finds and analysis. I was hoping for a book about archaeology, not archaeologists and their emotions. It’s a pity the many anecdotes aren’t in a different font. Readers who enjoy stories about the living could then be entertained whilst others who wish to learn about ancient humans could avoid wasting time.The illustrations are quite good but there’s a lack of reference to them in the text. It would also be better if there were a lot more photos and diagrams to illustrate the many artefacts the author talks about and the hypotheses he discusses. The latter get quite complicated when he speculates about three populations of Denisovans and their possible relation to the migration of modern humans and other groups. A series of diagrammatic maps throughout the ages would make this a lot clearer.More basic information could also have been provided, e.g. the estimated weights of the competing (or warring) hominins, but fortunately Wikipedia has some very good articles on Neanderthals etc. and the animals vital to their survival.Despite my criticisms I’m very glad I bought this book. I’ve learnt a lot from it.

I am a volcanologist and geoscientist at Univ. Leeds. I am fascinated by the science of human migration and the history of the species Homo, in general. I have read many books on this subject and they are also amazing. But this one puts it all together like nothing else. I also liked the library of references on the back, which allows to search for further info on many topics. The book is really up to date and makes you travel around the globe in a ripe attempt to tell a complete story of who we are and where do we come from. Amazingly, the author is honest and outlines areas where we do not yet know what happen and this is appreciated. If I was young and curious- I will sign up to study human history. I highly recommend this book to anyone!

Extremely interesting and very readable (highly informative but not too technical), this is one of the very best (and currently most up-to-date) books on the subject for amateur ('armchair' 🙂) paleoanthropologists like me. Well structured and written, and VERY engaging. Highly recommended.