This book shoves aside the cliché of the shivering ragged figure in an ice wasteland, and tells the complex and fascinating true story of the Neanderthal
A Note on Names
Introduction
Chapter 1: The First Face
Chapter 2: The River Fells the Tree
Chapter 3: Bodies Growing
Chapter 4: Bodies Living
Chapter 5: Ice and Fire
Chapter 6: The Rocks Remain
Chapter 7: Material World
Chapter 8: Eat and Live
Chapter 9: Chez Neanderthal
Chapter 10: Into the Land
Chapter 11: Beautiful Things
Chapter 12: Minds Inside
Chapter 13: Many Ways to Die
Chapter 14: Time Travellers in the Blood
Chapter 15: Denouements
Chapter 16: Immortal Beloved
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
Index
Rebecca Wragg Sykes has been fascinated by the vanished worlds of
the Pleistocene ice ages since childhood, and followed this
interest through a career researching the most enigmatic characters
of all, the Neanderthals. After a PhD on the last Neanderthals
living in Britain, she worked in France at the world-famous PACEA
laboratory, Université de Bordeaux, on topics ranging from
Neanderthal landscapes and territories in the Massif Central region
of south-east France, to examining how they were the first ancient
humans to produce a synthetic material and tools made of multiple
parts.
Alongside her academic activities, she has also also earned a
reputation for exceptional public engagement. The public can follow
her research through a personal blog and Twitter account, and she
frequently writes for the popular media, including the Scientific
American and Guardian science blogs. Becky is passionate about
sharing the privileged access scientists have to fascinating
discoveries about the Neanderthals. She is also co-founder of the
influential Trowelblazers project, which highlights women
archaeologists, palaeontologists and geologists through innovative
outreach and collaboration.
@LeMoustier
Important reading not just for anyone interested in these ancient
cousins of ours, but also for anyone interested in humanity. -
Yuval Noah Harari, author of Sapiens
*The New York Times*
Beautiful, evocative, authoritative. Kindred is a beautifully
written exploration of our fast-developing understanding of
Neanderthals and their culture and a compelling insight into how
modern science is revealing the secrets of an extinct species who,
for 350 thousand years before Homo Sapiens became dominant,
inhabited a world “as wide and rich as the Roman Empire.”
*Professor Brian Cox, Physicist and TV presenter*
Rebecca Wragg-Sykes's fact-packed but highly readable book puts us
right with a superbly authoritative guided tour of much new
evidence. It's tempting to say, "If you read only one book about
the Neanderthals, read this one" -- except that if the next 20
years provide as many revelations about our ancestors as the past
20 have done, she will need to produce just as weighty a second
volume.
*The Times*
Blending cutting-edge science with lyrical storytelling, Rebecca
Wragg Sykes paints a detailed portrait of our enigmatic
relatives.
*Professor Alice Roberts, anatomist, author and broadcaster*
Written with such pleasing, elegant prose, Kindred is a captivating
ode to the subtle complexities of palaeoanthropology – the thrill
of discovery, the frustrating gaps in the evidence, the tantalising
question marks hovering above our favourite ideas. Dr Rebecca Wragg
Sykes balances admirable scientific caution with her joyous
enthusiasm, and the result is a generous, enthralling history of
how we first came to know our ancient cousins, and how we’re still
getting to know them today.
*Greg Jenner, historian and author*
‘Kindred is a thrillingly full account of what we currently know
about the Neanderthals… Wragg Sykes' project is to write about
Neanderthals as an end in themselves, not as a failed version of
humanity.’
*London Review of Books*
Rebecca Wragg Sykes’s book paints a vivid portrait of our adaptable
ancient relatives ... immersive.
*Nature*
Kindred is a tour de force. A rich and beautiful synthesis of all
that is known about Neanderthal biology and culture, it should be
required reading for anyone interested in the history of
humanity.
*Dr Tori Herridge, palaeontologist and TV presenter*
The knowledge condensed here is certainly impressive … Rebecca
Wragg Sykes has studied their landscapes, territories and tools and
emerges as an expert and enthusiastic character witness for
Neanderthals and their way of life. Neanderthals probably didn’t
have PR, but they do now.
*Guardian*
Wragg Sykes paints a fascinating picture of a field transformed
almost beyond recognition over the past 30 years.
*New Scientist*
Current, compelling, well researched, beautifully written and
poetical, Kindred is like no other book you've read on
Neanderthals.
*Professor Lee. R. Berger, University of Witwatersrand*
Sykes’s compelling book combines hard science, tantalizingly
reasonable postulations, and poetry.
*Shepherd*
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