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Cro-Magnon: How the Ice Age Gave Birth to the First Modern Humans Hardcover – March 2, 2010

by Brian Fagan (Author)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 465 ratings
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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.
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Previous page
  1. Print length
    320 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Bloomsbury Press
  4. Publication date
    March 2, 2010
  5. Dimensions
    6.85 x 1.18 x 9.57 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    159691582X
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1596915824
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review


“[A] fascinating account…Fagan’s narratives of cave-painting and hunting – among other anecdotes – really bring this history-laden book to life.”—Green Life blog, Sierra Magazine


 

"Archaeology contributing editor Brian Fagan provides readers with intimate accounts of what he imagines Ice Age life was like for both the vanishing Neanderthals and the invading Homo sapiens who developed the basis of modern culture. He lauds the ‘endless ingenuity and adaptability’ of ordinary men and women living in bitterly cold Paleolithic Europe. ‘My DNA tells me that, genetically, I’m one of them,’ Fagan concludes, ‘and I’m proud of it.’”—Archaeology (Editors’ Pick)

 

“Fagan provides readers with a fascinating discussion of the lifestyle of Neanderthals and early modern humans… In bringing these ancient human societies to life, Fagan combines an engaging narrative style with a well-written and easily understood scholarly discussion…an excellent resource.”—National Speleological Society newsletter

 

“Highly entertaining and instructive…[Fagan] does an admirable job in bringing vividly to life the Europe of between eighty and ten thousand years ago… Fagan's book has been overtaken by the onward progress of his science—this happens to lots of such books—and there are aspects of his case that invite debate. But it is an admirable book nevertheless; the re-imagining of the past is entertainingly done, and a great deal of science, especially climate science, is accessibly introduced on the way.” – Barnes & Noble Review

About the Author


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.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bloomsbury Press; First Edition (March 2, 2010)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 159691582X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1596915824
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.1 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.85 x 1.18 x 9.57 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 465 ratings

About the author

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Brian M. Fagan

Brian M. Fagan

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Brian Fagan was born in England and studied archaeology at Pembroke College, Cambridge. He was Keeper of Prehistory at the Livingstone Museum, Zambia, from 1959-1965. During six years in Zambia and one in East Africa, he was deeply involved in fieldwork on multidisciplinary African history and in monuments conservation. He came to the United States in 1966 and was Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, from 1967 to 2004, when he became Emeritus.

Since coming to Santa Barbara, Brian has specialized in communicating archaeology to general audiences through lecturing, writing, and other media. He is regarded as one of the world’s leading archaeological and historical writers and is widely respected popular lecturer about the past. His many books include three volumes for the National Geographic Society, including the bestselling Adventure of Archaeology. Other works include The Rape of the Nile, a classic history of archaeologists and tourists along the Nile, and four books on ancient climate change and human societies, Floods, Famines, and Emperors (on El Niños), The Little Ice Age, and The Long Summer, an account of warming and humanity since the Great Ice Age. His most recent climatic work describes the Medieval Warm Period: The Great Warming: Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations. His latest climate change book, with Nadia Durrani, is His other books include Chaco Canyon: Archaeologists Explore the Lives of an Ancient Society and Fish on Friday: Feasting, Fasting, and the Discovery of the New World and Cro-Magnon: How the Ice Age gave birth to the First Modern Humans. His recently published Elixir: A History of Water and Humankind extends his climatic research to the most vital of all resources for humanity.

Brian has been sailing since he was eight years old and learnt his cruising in the English Channel and North Sea. He has sailed thousands of miles in European waters, across the Atlantic, and in the Pacific. He is author of the Cruising Guide to Central and Southern California, which has been a widely used set of sailing directions since 1979. An ardent bicyclist, he lives in Santa Barbara with his life Lesley and daughter Ana.

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
465 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

OldRoses
5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Read
Reviewed in the United States on April 8, 2010
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Brian Fagan is one of my favorite authors. I was first introduced to his books in college. They were the text books in the prehistory courses I took for my major in archeology. More recently, he has been writing about the effects of climate change on human history. He has a talent for writing about complex subjects like climate change so that they are comprehensible for the lay reader without "dumbing down" the material.

With his most recent book, he has returned to the subject of prehistory with a comprehensive overview of the first anatomically modern humans, who he refers to as "Cro- Magnon" after the rock shelter where the first remains were discovered. Cro-Magnons are best known as the people who created the magnificent cave paintings in Europe.

When Cro-Magnons migrated into Europe from the Near East, it was already inhabited by the Neanderthals, relatives but not direct ancestors. Dr. Fagan refers to the Neanderthals as the "Quiet People" because they lacked fluent speech. They also lacked symbolism, religion, art and innovation. Their way of life was unchanged for hundreds of thousands of years. Unable to compete with their more advanced cousins, the Cro-Magnons, the Neanderthals gradually died out.

The Ice Age was not uniformly cold. There were periods of warmth when vegetation and animal populations changed. The Cro-Magnons were experts at adapting to the changing conditions, hunting large game when it was cold and smaller game when it was warm. The tools they left behind reflect the constant innovations that made them so successful. Their art, musical instruments and burials reveal their rich spiritual life.

The Cro-Magnons spread out all over Europe, hunting, foraging, constantly adapting to changing conditions for tens of thousands of years until the next wave of migration swept into Europe: farmers from the Near East. Did the Cro-Magnons die out like the Neanderthals before them? DNA tells us no. 85% of Europeans are direct descendants of Cro-Magnons.

"Cro-Magnon" offers the latest theories developed from hundreds of years of archeology devoted to European prehistory. The information is presented in a very readable form. No prior knowledge is needed by the reader. All specialized terms are explained. Brian Fagan has done it again, taken a vast and complicated subject and produced a book that is both educational and engaging.
100 people found this helpful
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M Fox
4.0 out of 5 stars Terrific. Love the subject matter.
Reviewed in the United States on March 13, 2023
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Though Fagan is not my very favorite writer, I like the subject matter very much and he brings a lot to the table. I am reading 4 of his books at the same time: Fishing, The Little Ice Age and The Long Summer as well as this book. They have complimented each other. Highly recommended. 4 stars because of repetitive favorite phrases. Highly recommended if you like this subject matter.
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Steve D.
5.0 out of 5 stars Fagan shows how the great variation in Cro-Magnon culture made the first humans more ...
Reviewed in the United States on August 20, 2017
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Anyone interested in human origins will find this book by Brian Fagan a must-read. Fagan combines clear outlines of the latest research on the first true humans in Europe with descriptive passages that create a novelistic impression of their challenging lives as hunter-gatherers. The combination makes for reading that is both informative and entertaining. He uses the term "Cro-Magnon" in his title because it is the more readily identifiable term to non-scientists for the species that lived at the same time as the Neanderthals, and eventually outlasted them. Despite the Neanderthals' remarkable staying power for almost 50,000 years during the climatic oscillations of the Ice Ages, it was the more adaptable and innovative Cro-Magnons or true humans as they are most often called today, who prevailed. Fagan is one of the foremost authors of books that examine the effects of climate changes on early humans and civilizations, a focus that has particular relevance today. The effect that even minor variations in climate could have on the early humans' ability to survive in some areas of Europe is examined in detail. As critical game species the hunting cultures relied on died out or migrated elsewhere, once-thriving areas became places where people increasingly lived on the edge. At the same time, Fagan shows how the great variation in Cro-Magnon culture made the first humans more creative, leading them to develop and share better hunting tools and methods that made their survival possible. This book is a welcome compendium of that key turning point in human history.
6 people found this helpful
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book addict
3.0 out of 5 stars Great topic, repetitive discussion. B- overall.
Reviewed in the United States on July 31, 2013
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This book has a wonderful topic and interesting illustrations.The author makes up good stories about what might have happened, and I think that a smart child or teen ager would be captivated by the author's story telling. As it is though, and as I am an adult, I just can't finish the book; it is way too repetitive and speculative. For instance, he author likes to repeat himself endlessly about "tool kits" out of stone flakes. This is very interesting - the first time. Then I begin to skip ahead. And constantly describing the Neanderthals as "quiet" people is quite a leap of imagination. They might have been boisterous for all we know. Also, the drawings are mislabeled and confusing. And what is a "schist"? Maybe I read over that, but it's not in the index. Today I just decided to not finish the book after all.

This could have been a really great book. I'll give it a B-.
11 people found this helpful
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Duane R-H
4.0 out of 5 stars Well written, but not aging well
Reviewed in the United States on September 6, 2021
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DNA has changed the paleontology game. This book came out early in that process, so misses here and there. The most glaring item is its contention that Neanderthals did not interbreed with modern humans. Now all the consumer DNA tests give you your Neanderthal DNA percentage. Letting that aspect of the field go leaves a good read with lots of insight.
5 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Dillan K
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on July 28, 2018
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Excellent book! It was clearly written, and thoroughly enjoyable.
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Mr Jason B Bryant
5.0 out of 5 stars A great look into our past.
Reviewed in Australia on January 18, 2020
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Brilliant book. Very informative.
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Wagner, Martin
5.0 out of 5 stars Die Steinzeitkulkturen Europas werden verständlich
Reviewed in Germany on June 5, 2011
Verified Purchase
Cro Magno beschreibt wie sich die verschiedenen Eiszeitkulturen Europas im Zuge eines sich ständig wandelnden Klimas herausbildeten.

Hat Fagan bereits in früheren Büchern den Einfluss des Klimas auf die Zivilisation beschrieben (The Little Ice Age , The Great Warming, Fish on Friday), so tut er dies hier mit gewohnter erzählerischer Stärke ohne den Leser mit zu vielen Beispielen zu erschlagen.

Beginnend mit dem Neanderthaler und Enden mit der Magdalenien Kultur versucht Fagan dem Leser das Leben in der Steinzeit vorstellbar zu machen. Dies gelingt ihm hervorragend.

Um sich besser in das Thema einzufinden, ist das Buch mit Informationsblöcken bereichert, in denen dem Leser Methoden der Archäologie genauer erklärt werden. Der Haupttext steht dabei unabhängig und kann ohne die Blöcke gelesen und verstanden werden.
So ist das Buch eine Bereicherung für den Leser, der sich bereits einen Zugang erlesen hat, als auch für einen Neueinsteiger.
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ise
5.0 out of 5 stars 悩み解消
Reviewed in Japan on May 5, 2010
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CDは一枚です。128ビットのMP3ステレオ録音で、録音時間はおよそ10時間らしいです。
まだ最後まで聞いていません。
章は1章から12章まですべてあります。
MP3が再生できるCDプレーヤーかパソコンで再生できます。
 Apple iPod 対応のMP3ですが、私はiPodを持っていませんので仕方なく SOUND FORGE で
MP4に変換して携帯で聞いています。
ナレーターはイギリス人らしく発音は綺麗です。
ジョン・ウェインみたいな声だったらどうしようと心配していましたが、杞憂でした。
この手の本は専門用語ばかりでなく、フランス語、ドイツ語、その他、判らん国の単語が沢山出てきますので
音が判ると助かります。
そればかりか私のような後学の門外漢で、英語で授業など受けたことのない者にとっては本当に貴重なCDです。
アーキアラジーという詰まらない単語でさえ、音で聞くと「あ、俺の発音で良かったんだ！」と、ものすごく安心します。　今この文を読んでいて笑った貴方、私にとっては本当に切実な悩みだったのですから。

p.s. 私のこのレビューがハードカバーの本にも載っているようですが（2010/5/5現在）、CDのみの書き込みで本は関係有りません。
　　　
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Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in Canada on April 3, 2017
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A fascinating read with some great insight into the daily life of early modern people.
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