Homo Sapiens Rediscovered

Who are we? How do scientists define Homo sapiens? And how does our species differ from the extinct hominins that came before us? Paul Pettitt reveals the extraordinary story of how our ancestors adapted to unforgiving and relentlessly changing climates, leading to remarkable innovations in art, technology, and society that we are only now beginning to comprehend.

Drawing on twenty-five years of experience in the field, Paul immerses us in the caves and rock shelters that provide evidence of our African origins, dispersals to the far reaches of Eurasia, Australasia and ultimately the Americas. Popular accounts of the evolution of Homo sapiens emphasize biomolecular research, notably genetics, but Paul’s book, Homo Sapiens Rediscovered, also draws from the wealth of information from specific excavations and artefacts, including the author’s own investigations into the origins of art and how it evolved over its first 25,000 years. Paul focuses in particular on behaviour, using archaeological evidence to bring an intimate perspective on lives as they were lived in the almost unimaginably distant past.