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An extraordinary exploration of the ancestry of Britain through seven burial sites. By using new advances in genetics and taking us through important archaeological discoveries, Professor Alice Roberts helps us better understand life today. ‘This is a terrific, timely and transporting book - taking us heart, body and mind beyond history, to the fascinating truth of the prehistoric past and the present’ Bettany Hughes We often think of Britain springing from nowhere with the arrival of the Romans. But in Ancestors, pre-eminent archaeologist, broadcaster and academic Professor Alice Roberts explores what we can learn about the very earliest Britons, from burial sites and by using new technology to analyse ancient DNA. Told through seven fascinating burial sites, this groundbreaking prehistory of Britain teaches us more about ourselves and our history: how people came and went and how we came to be on this island. It explores forgotten journeys and memories of migrations long ago, written into genes and preserved in the ground for thousands of years. This is a book about belonging: about walking in ancient places, in the footsteps of the ancestors. It explores our interconnected global ancestry, and the human experience that binds us all together. It’s about reaching back in time, to find ourselves, and our place in the world. PRE-ORDER CRYPT, THE FINAL BOOK IN ALICE ROBERTS' BRILLIANT TRILOGY – OUT FEBRUARY 2024.
This book focuses on the development of the National Museum of Natural History’s David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins. As one of the most visited human evolution exhibits in the world and the largest such exhibit in the United States, it has tremendous influence on public perception and knowledge of human evolution. The chapters explore how this exhibit came about, how it has changed since opening, and the associated educational and public outreach activities of members of the Smithsonian’s Human Origins Program. The author uses the term “adaptive resilience” to describe a central theme of the exhibit, our species’ adaptation to changing environments as a key feature of our success, and to refer to the resilience of Richard B. Potts in creating his vision for the hall. Contextual sections situate the hall’s development within the history of paleoanthropology, the politics of evolution and climate change, and African contributions. The book will be of particular interest to scholars of anthropology and museum studies as well as the history of science and science communication.
This book combines documentation and analysis of the contents of exhibits in 12 museums (Part 1) with interviews with experts involved in the creation of exhibits (Part 2) to explore variation in human evolution exhibits. To be successful, museum exhibits must make a personal connection with visitors, inspiring them to learn more. Human evolution exhibits thus need contemporary relevance. It is crucial to find ways to bind our deep past to our lives today. Presenting our story, and our collective history, some human evolution exhibits reach an audience of millions each year. An understanding of evolution is fundamental to modern biology, and a lack of knowledge of basic principles has practical consequences, including impairing reception of health messages. The goal of the volume is to stimulate discussion of how the presentation of evolution, and in particular human evolution, can be improved, contributing to scientific literacy and engagement with evolutionary science. To enhance relevance to a broader public, the author argues that incorporation of evolutionary medicine and clearer explanations of ancestry and human biological variation are needed. The surveyed museums include four in Texas, the author’s home state, seven additional renowned U.S. museums, and the Natural History Museum in London. Some of the 35 interviewees are prominent academic researchers; other contribute their expertise in design, art, and education. Topics discussed include exhibit content and changing exhibits, the ideal vs. reality in exhibit creation, self-assessments of exhibits, education and “edutainment,” and exhibit content intersections with religion, politics, and the history of representations of race / human biological variation. A bibliographic essay, appendices, and text boxes provide additional information for readers desiring more in-depth study. This volume is of interest to a wide range of readers in anthropology, museum studies, and science communication.
Humanity has often found itself on the precipice. We've survived and thrived because we've never stopped moving... 'Stops you dead in your tracks ... An absolute revelation' Sue Black, bestselling author of All That Remains In this eye-opening book, Johannes Krause, Chair of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Humanity, offers a new way of understanding our past, present and future. Marshalling unique insights from archaeogenetics, an emerging new discipline that allows us to read our ancestors' DNA like journals chronicling personal stories of migration, Krause charts two millennia of adaption, movement and survival, culminating in the triumph of Homo Sapiens as we swept through Europe and beyond in successive waves of migration - developing everything from language, the patriarchy, disease, art and a love of pets as we did so. We also meet our ancestors, from those many of us have heard of - such as Homo Erectus and the Neanderthals - to the wildly unfamiliar but no less real: the recently discovered Denisovans, who ranged across Asia and, like humans, interbred with Neanderthals; the Aurignacians, skilled artists who, 40,000 years ago, brought about an extraordinary transformation in what our species could invent and create; the Varna, who buried their loved ones with gold long before the Pharaohs of Egypt did; and the Gravettians, big game hunters who were Europe's most successful early settlers until they perished in the face of the toughest opponent humanity had ever faced: the ice age. As well as being a radical new telling of our shared story, this book is a reminder that the global problems that keep us awake at night - climate catastrophe; the sudden emergence of deadly epidemics; refugee crises; ethnic conflict; over-population - are all things we've faced, and overcome, before.
This breakthrough book brings science into history to offer a dazzling new vision of humanity across time. Team-written by leading experts in a variety of fields, it maps events, cultures, and eras across millions of years to present a new scale for understanding the human body, energy and ecosystems, language, food, kinship, migration, and more.
Envisioning the Past: Archaeology and the Image is a groundbreaking collection of original essays that brings together archaeologists, art historians and anthropologists to provide new perspectives on the construction of knowledge concerning the antiquity of man. Covers a wide variety of time periods and topics, from the Renaissance and the 18th century to the engravings, photography, and virtual realities of today Questions what we can learn from considering the use of images in the past and present that might guide our responsible use of them in the future Available within the prestigious New Interventions in Art History series, published in connection with the Association of Art Historians.
This generously illustrated book tells the story of the human family, showing how our species' physical traits and behaviors evolved over millions of years as our ancestors adapted to dramatic environmental changes. In What Does It Means to Be Human? Rick Potts, director of the Smithsonian's Human Origins Program, and Chris Sloan, National Geographic's paleoanthropolgy expert, delve into our distant past to explain when, why, and how we acquired the unique biological and cultural qualities that govern our most fundamental connections and interactions with other people and with the natural world. Drawing on the latest research, they conclude that we are the last survivors of a once-diverse family tree, and that our evolution was shaped by one of the most unstable eras in Earth's environmental history. The book presents a wealth of attractive new material especially developed for the Hall's displays, from life-like reconstructions of our ancestors sculpted by the acclaimed John Gurche to photographs from National Geographic and Smithsonian archives, along with informative graphics and illustrations. In coordination with the exhibit opening, the PBS program NOVA will present a related three-part television series, and the museum will launch a website expected to draw 40 million visitors.
Rethinking Evolution in the Museum explores the ways diverse natural history museum audiences imagine their evolutionary heritage. In particular, the book considers how the meanings constructed by audiences of museum exhibitions are a product of dynamic interplay between museum iconography and powerful images museum visitors bring with them to the museum. In doing so, the book illustrates how the preconceived images held by museum audiences about anthropology, Africa, and the museum itself strongly impact the human origins exhibition experience. Although museological theory has come increasingly to recognize that museum audiences ‘make meaning’ in exhibitions, or make their own complex interpretations of museum exhibitions, few scholars have explicitly asked how. Rethinking Evolution in the Museum, however, provides a rare window into visitor perceptions at four world-class museums—the Natural History Museum and Horniman Museum in London, the National Museums of Kenya in Nairobi and the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Through rigorous and novel mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative) covering nearly 500 museum visitors, this innovative study shows that audiences of human origins exhibitions interpret evolution exhibitions through a profoundly complex convergence of personal, political, intellectual, emotional and cultural interpretive strategies. This book also reveals that natural history museum visitors often respond to museum exhibitions similarly because they use common cultural tools picked up from globalized popular media circulating outside of the museum. One tool of particular interest is the notion that human evolution has proceeded linearly from a bestial African prehistory to a civilized European present. Despite critical growths in anthropological science and museum displays, the outdated Victorian progress motif lingers persistently in popular media and the popular imagination. Rethinking Evolution in the Museum sheds light on our relationship with natural history museums and will be crucial to those people interested in understanding the connection between the visitor, the museum and media culture outside of the museum context.
A meticulously clear account of how early ape-men of the African savanna developed into fully human beings. Leakey has always been interested in far more than the mere physical features presented by fossils, and here he is particularly concerned with non-tangible human attributes, such as art, language and consciousness itself. Leakey's personal involvement in many of the key discoveries of hominid fossils, and his friendships and rivalries with his fellow fossil hunters, add more than a dash of spice to his narrative. "An outstanding account of our current understanding of human evolution" Sunday Times "An elegant summary of what is currently known about human evolution" Observer