Book description
Cro-Magnons were the first fully modern Europeans-not only the
creators of the stunning cave paintings at Lascaux and elsewhere, but
the most adaptable and technologically inventive people that had yet
lived on earth. The prolonged encounter between the Cro-Magnons and
the archaic Neanderthals and between 45,000 and 30,000 years ago was
one of the defining moments of history. The Neanderthals survived for
some 15,000 years in the face of the newcomers, but were finally
pushed aside by the Cro-Magnons' vastly superior intellectual
abilities and cutting-edge technologies, which allowed them to thrive
in the intensely challenging climate of the Ice Age.
What do we know about this remarkable takeover? Who were the first
modern Europeans and what were they like? How did they manage to
thrive in such an extreme environment? And what legacy did they leave
behind them after the cold millennia? The age of the Cro-Magnons
lasted some 30,000 years-longer than all of recorded history.
Cro-Magnon is the story of a little known, yet seminal, chapter
of human experience.
Fascinating Brian Fagan was born in England and spent several years
doing fieldwork in Africa. He is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at
the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of
New
York Times
bestseller
The Great Warming
and many other books, including
Fish on Friday: Feasting, Fasting,
and the Discovery of the New World,
and several books on climate history, including
The Little Ice Age
and
The Long Summer
.
