The Neandertals: changing the image of mankind

Abstract

In 1856, the disovery of the remains of Neandertal Man in a Swiss mountain valley forced scientists to face what Thomas Huxley called The question of questions. What precisely was man's ancestry? Coming just as Darwin published Origin of Species, Neandertal Man instantly became the focus of controversy and has remained so, in various ways, ever since. This book tells the whole story, from the religious crisis of the 1860s and its debate over ape-ancestors to recent arguments about the nature of prehistoric man (was he a peacable flower child or a brutish hunter?) and attempts to recover DNA samples from blood traces found on a Neandertal stone axe. Along the way we meet dozens of fascinating characters-archaeologists, charlatans, philosophers and scientists of every stripe.

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