Cro-Magnon

How the Ice Age Gave Birth to the First Modern Humans

By: Brian Fagan

Narrated by: James Langton

Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

Best-selling author Brian Fagan brings early humans out of the deep freeze with his trademark mix of erudition, cutting-edge science, and vivid storytelling.

Cro-Magnon reveals human society in its infancy, facing enormous environmental challenges - including a rival species of humans, the Neanderthals. For ten millennia, Cro-Magnons lived side by side with Neanderthals, an encounter that Fagan fills with drama. Using their superior intellects and tools, these ingenious problem solvers survived harsh conditions that eventually extinguished their Neanderthal cousins.

Cro-Magnon captures the indomitable adaptability that has made Homo sapiens an unmatched success as a species. Living on a frozen continent with only the most basic tools, Ice Age humans survived and thrived.

©2010 Brian Fagan (P)2010 Tantor

A comprehensive overview of the Ice Age

Not just about the Cro-Magnon, this book also goes into great detail about what scientists currently know about the Neanderthal people and the current scientific knowledge regarding the climactic changes, geology, flora, and fauna of the Ice Age.

I'm an archaeology geek, didn't know much about this period, and found the topic engrossing. It's popular science writing at its best--clear, interesting, and accessible without being condescending.

The narrator is also excellent, with a very pleasant British accent and flawless pronounciation of the many French and German terms in the book, not to mention the occasional Hebrew or !Kung word.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book!

I thought this was an excellent look at our ancestors and extinct close relatives as well as some of the theories on how man became the dominant species on the planet.

I know in many of the reviews people criticized the speculative narrative that the author has put together on what life was like for these groups of individuals. The narrative added to my personal enjoyment of this book. I think anyone reading this realizes that we can only speculate by filling in the missing pieces with the hard evidence that archaeological finds provide.

I thought the narration of this book was excellent.

The author provided a narrative that kept me interested balanced with providing evidence to support the author story.

One interesting comment; I think the author gives a the benefit of the doubt to our ancestors regarding the now extinct Neanderthals. Any casual study of human nature and its brutality would definitely indicate that there probably was significant conflict between humans and Neanderthals that led to their extinction. I did like the authors less heavy-handed take that it's possible these two groups live side-by-side even if it was cautiously with little interaction.

If you're interested in the topic of evolution or the history of early man. I highly recommend this book!

Enjoyed and wished for more

I thoroughly enjoyed both Part 1 (Neanderthals and the emergence of early modern man) and Part 2 (differences between remnants of known Cro-Magnon sites life and what they hint about the differences in lifestyle, climate and locale).
The speculation as to the daily lives of the people was as interesting as the facts - with carbon-dating, geological surveys, archaeological digs, current (or relatively recent) practices of Arctic, African and Aboriginal dwellers, all contributing.

Ah Ha... So That's How We All Started Out!!!

This book was an excellent look at the lives, history, culture of the Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal and peoples. The discoveries set forth in this book really helped explain a lot of the lineage of how people spread from Africa, through Europe and Asia and eventually populated the world. It also dealt with the seemingly impossible situations of everyday life that they had to overcome and learn by experience. When I hear people today talk about harsh conditions, and the suffering that they're going through now, there's no comparison!

I've been a vegetarian for almost 30 years, and one thing that I learned in reading this book, was that people have eaten meat (probably through scavenging carcasses that were left behind by predators and animals dying via natural death and accidents) from almost the beginning of time when they could first catch an animal, it is the actual agricultural cultivation of plants and vegetables that began about 10,000 years ago.

I would highly recommend this excellent book!

An amazing description of our species' history!

One of my best purchases ever! This book carries you into the past and intertwines all of our ancestors into a mosaic of humanity.

Dense

This was an interesting topic but the book got bogged down at times with information that was too complicated for a someone whose area of expertise is not pre-history, archaeology or anthropology. (particular the former two, I think).

Perhaps others will disagree and find the dense discussion more accessible than I did. However, I don't consider myself a complete neophyte on the subject: I took a graduate level course on ancient technology that covered flintknapping and other technologies. As an art instructor, I am familar with Lascaux and Chauvet and the Venus of Willendorf among others.

There were several times when I wanted the author to just skip the correct terminology and jump to the part where he tells us what it means. There were several other times when I felt a little confused about whether the evidence he'd just outlined supported or refuted the claim he had made at the beginning of the thought. And at least once I wondered why he said that "obviously" wasn't correct. Why was it obvious? Why not remind us? This is a long detailed history, why skip a little "obvious" bit like that?

I listened to this book in my studio while working on several projects. It was a good mellow story, interesting enough to give my mind something to do without being a distraction. I do not recommend listening to this book while driving. The author's voice lulls you into a sleepy state.

So much information. Must listen to more than once

Really enjoyed the book. The level of detail gives you people places and institutes to use for further research. Excellent.

Very Fine Writing

Brian Fagan has compiled a rich web of the most fascinating stories ever written. His compilation of the study of the Cro-Magnon shall live forever.

Very interesting

I enjoyed this very much. Great narration and mix of "imagine...." to set the stage to see a Cro-Magnon. Also really enjoyed the details of the different sciences that go into determining age of fossils and other evidence of our ancestors. There were times that were a little slow or the details a little too details for listening, so had to re-listen to parts. If I were reading, they might have sunk in better in the written versus audio format. Still enjoyed very much and I looked up many the places and artifacts mentioned for better understanding of the imagery.

Story read like romantic fiction

The story listens as if it is a romantic fiction novel. The author gives us plenty of information on early man (and neanderthal) life. If you were to listen to the story at random parts, you would probably think the story was a romantic fiction novel. Whenever a science book reads like fiction that makes the book flow marvelously. The author will often start his elucidation on a subject matter by saying "and how do we know that", and then explains how we think we know what was said. Typical examples representative of the time period are used to make the lives of the Cro-Magnon become vibrant through today's modern eyes.

I'm a sucker for prehistory books. This one makes the subject come alive and the reader adds an extra dimension to the story telling.