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The World Before Us

£10.99

Fifty-thousand years ago, we were not the only species of human in the world. There were at least four others, including the Neanderthals, who occupied Europe, the Near East and parts of Eurasia; the enigmatic Homo floresiensis, or ‘Hobbits’, from the island of Flores in Indonesia; and Homo luzonesis, found in the Philippines, and less than four feet high. And then there are the elusive Denisovans, discovered thanks to cutting-edge science in a cave in Siberia in 2010. At the forefront of this groundbreaking discovery was Oxford Professor Tom Higham. In ‘The World Before Us’ he follows the scientific and technological advancements – in radiocarbon dating and ancient DNA, for example – that allowed these discoveries to be made and enabled us to better predict not just how long ago these other humans lived, but how they lived.

In stock

Description

‘The who, what, where, when and how of human evolution, from one of the world’s experts on the dating of prehistoric fossils’ Steve Brusatte, author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs

‘Fascinating and entertaining. If you read one book on human origins, this should be it’ Ian Morris, author of Why the West Rules – For Now

50,000 years ago, we were not the only species of human in the world. There were at least four others, including the Neanderthals, Homo floresiensis, Homo luzonesis and the Denisovans. At the forefront of the latter’s ground-breaking discovery was Oxford Professor Tom Higham.

In The World Before Us, he explains the scientific and technological advancements – in radiocarbon dating and ancient DNA, for example – that allowed each of these discoveries to be made, enabling us to be more accurate in our predictions about not just how long ago these other humans lived, but how they lived, interacted and live on in our genes today. This is the story of us, told for the first time with its full cast of characters.

‘Exciting’ David Abulafia, author of The Boundless Sea

‘Remarkable’ Rebecca Wragg Sykes, author of Kindred

‘Thrilling’ David Reich, author of Who We Are and How We Got Here

‘Brilliant’ Chris Gosden, author of The History of Magic

‘Gripping and fun’ Paul Collier, author of The Bottom Billion

‘Essential’ Barry Cunliffe, author of The Scythians

‘Profoundly entertaining’ Brian Fagan, author of World Prehistory

Read a sample here

Additional information

Weight 0.235 kg
Dimensions 19.8 × 12.9 × 2 cm
Author

Publisher

Imprint

Cover

Paperback

Pages

320

Language

English

Edition
Dewey

569.9 (edition:23)

Readership

General – Trade / Code: K