{"product_id":"they-were-here-before-us-stories-from-the-first-million-years-9781786788313","title":"They Were Here Before Us: Stories from the First Million Years","description":"\u003cb\u003eAn epic and highly readable investigation into our very earliest ancestors, focusing on the land corridor thorough which humans passed from Africa to Europe and the evidence left behind of their lives and deaths, struggles and beliefs.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThis is not a book about archaeological sites. We shall come across flint tools, bones, skulls, surprising structures, and layers of earth that we can date to different periods--but they are not the heart of the matter. This book is about us, human beings, and about our place in the world. About what we have done, where we came from, which other humans used to be here, why they are no longer with us, and how and why our lives have changed. It's also about where we went wrong. What did early humans do because they had no choice and what is the price we are paying for this now? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eTaking as the focus ten sites in Israel, the land corridor through which the human species passed on its journey from Africa to Europe, the story ranges far and wide from France, Spain, Turkey and Georgia to Morocco and South Africa, North America, Columbia and Peru. The authors follow the footsteps of our ancestors, describing the tools they used, the animals they hunted and the monuments they built. Fascinating revelations include: \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe earliest evidence of human use of fire;\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe meaning of cave art and the transformative effect of touching rock;\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe woman for whom 90 tortoises were sacrificed;\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWhat happened in the Levant following the disappearance of elephants;\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe monumental tower built at the lowest place on earth;\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWhy we should envy modern hunter-gatherers - and much more ...\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis provocative and panoramic book shows readers what they can learn from their ancestors, and how the unwavering ability of prehistoric people to survive and thrive can continue into the present.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eEyal Halfon\u003c\/b\u003e is a screenwriter and movie director. He holds a master's degree in Archaeology from Tel Aviv University, and his thesis was on the material and mental ramifications of the disappearance of animals on human beings, past and present. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eRan Barkai\u003c\/b\u003e is a professor of prehistoric archaeology and former chair of the Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures at Tel Aviv University. For the past twenty years, he has co-directed the excavations and research at Middle Pleistocen Qesem Cave.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Watkins Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50619942371602,"sku":"9781786788313","price":16.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_183b4f45-0324-41c0-82da-d9bcc37dd8cb.jpg?v=1732557779","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/they-were-here-before-us-stories-from-the-first-million-years-9781786788313","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}