During the Last Ice Age, Europe was home to groups of hunter-gatherers that were virtually indistinguishable from humans alive today. Commonly known as Cro-Magnons, they seem to have overlapped in time with Neandertals, even exchanging genetic material with them. Who were these people and what do we know about them? Palaeoanthropologist Trenton Holliday has studied the ice age Europeans for the last 30 years and in this, his first book for a popular audience, he gives you a detailed picture of their lives as it played out over some 30,000 years.

Cro-Magnon: The Story of the Last Ice Age People of Europe, written by Trenton Holliday, published by Columbia University Press in July 2023 (paperback, 280 pages)

The last popular book that I know of specifically looking at Cro-Magnons was the eponymous book by Brian Fagan published in 2010. Given that Fagan writes about many different archaeological topics, 14 years have passed, and Holliday is a specialist, this book provides the reader with an informative and in places very detailed update. Several chapters provide you with background information on important topics in archaeology and palaeoanthropology that apply to human evolution more generally. For instance, how did humans make stone tools and how did these evolve, where and when did Homo sapiens first appear and thence disperse, or how do the predominant four models of the evolution of modern humans differ? Important second players in this story are the Neandertals (here spelt without an “h”) who have been the subject of numerous popular books (most recently Wragg Sykes’s Kindred and Slimak’s yet-to-be-reviewed The Naked Neanderthal). Holliday provides a potted history of their discovery, the genetic evidence of interbreeding with our ancestors, and the archaeological evidence that the two overlapped and interacted in time in Europe. This leaves only the last four chapters to deal “exclusively” with Cro-Magnons, discussing their bioanthropology (including skeletal morphology and ancient DNA), hunting gear and diet, art, and their response to the planet’s fluctuating climate.

The organisation of the book overall is good. Holliday uses subheadings to divide each chapter into manageable and clearly signposted sections while several chapters contain maps to all the sites mentioned in the text. Two early chapters use separate boxes for technical minutiae about different European lithic industries (i.e. stone tools) and craniofacial differences between Neandertals and Cro-Magnons, giving you the option to skip this material. Even so, he goes into quite intense technical detail in places. For example, in chapter 5 he repeats an earlier principal component analysis to compare the body proportions of Neandertals and Cro-Magnons, supplemented here with additional data. This shows the latter to have more heat-adapted bodies with comparatively longer limbs and narrower trunks. Similarly, in chapter 7 he repeats an analysis of comparative brain sizes amongst hominins using encephalization quotients, here supplemented with additional data. Needless to say, it is not very common to present new or refreshed analyses of data in popular works. In chapter 8 he admits to getting into the weeds on the stratigraphy of different lithic industries in various European caves. The reason is that certain classes of stone tools, here Châtelperronian and Aurignacian, are ascribed to respectively Neandertals and Cro-Magnons. In some caves, these tools are found in alternating layers, suggesting alternating habitation by, and possibly interactions between, Neandertals and Cro-Magnons. Heated debates have flared up about whether these tool sets are indeed unique to each of these hominins, and whether the observed stratigraphy is original or the result of e.g. later erosion, burrowing animals, or even backfill of undocumented excavations jumbling everything up. In short, this is a factual book and though he includes a few fictional vignettes to add flavour, his writing is not nearly as evocative as that of for instance Rebecca Wragg Sykes, Elsa Panciroli, or Thomas Halliday.

“Holliday eschews simple narratives in favour of the rich diversity and complexity that come with an imperfect archaeological record and different proxies, neither of which yield straightforward answers.”

There are two things that Holliday does do well and consistently. First, he provides enlightening overviews of the history of the field. This logically includes the discovery of the first Cro-Magnon and Neandertal remains, but also the historical baggage of race science in anthropology and how there never was any agreement on how many races there were or how they were circumscribed (which are obviously the least problematic aspects of this sordid history). Very interesting is the overview of how different models of modern human evolution developed throughout the twentieth century and by 1984 crystallized into four palaeontological models. These all agree that modern humans came out of Africa, but disagree on how much archaic humans outside of Africa contributed to today’s humans. The models range from “none” (African hominins completely outcompeted and displaced others) to “quite a lot” (extensive gene flow between different hominin populations was the norm). Ancient DNA analyses have revealed that the answer lies somewhere in the middle. The second aspect Holliday highlights is that almost every finding and opinion is contested, which adds further layers of detail. After saying it a few times, he jokingly reminds you: “Have I mentioned that scientists are a skeptical lot?” (p. 78). Which hominin made the Châtelperronian lithics? Are the wooden spears from Schöningen, Germany, really projectile weapons? Are salmon remains in caves evidence of a dietary switch to fish or were they left by other carnivores? How old is the cave art in Chauvet Cave, France? And so forth.

The only thread I feel he left hanging is that you might reach the end of the book and ask “What happened to the Cro-Magnons?” The warming of the Holocene seems to have been the biggest climatological challenge they had yet faced. As he points out at the start, the term Cro-Magnon has fallen out of favour in scientific circles as we cannot tell these people apart from modern humans in any meaningful biological sense. So, did we just stop calling them Cro-Magnons as they became us, making it a historical term that has fallen out of favour? If so, he does not clarify or analyse when we stopped using it. I imagine this will have been a gradual trend, rather than an agreed-upon decision to stop using “Cro-Magnon” from this day forward. Confusingly, the Wikipedia entry on Cro-Magnon refers to work by the research group of Svante Pääbo and David Reich that suggests they were a genetically distinct group. Holliday here also references that paper and on page 235 speaks of Epipaleolithic people as their descendants. I am tempted to throw my lot in with the ancient DNA crowd who argue for a long history of genetic churn and turnover, but Holliday leaves the eventual fate of the Cro-Magnons unresolved and unexamined.

Having said that, Cro-Magnon is a rewarding read. Holliday eschews simple narratives in favour of the rich diversity and complexity that come with an imperfect archaeological record and different proxies, neither of which yield straightforward answers. He gives a very realistic, full-bodied picture of the discipline: this is popular anthropology for grown-ups.

Disclosure: The publisher provided a review copy of this book. The opinion expressed here is my own, however.

Cro-Magnon

Other recommended books mentioned in this review:

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In Being a Human, Charles Foster attempts to inhabit three past eras to find out first-hand how humans came to be who they are. He lives like an Upper Palaeolithic hunter–gatherer, an early farmer in the Neolithic, and he briefly visits the Enlightenment—or so we are promised. When I received this book, I was, admittedly, slightly unsure. Any attempt to live like past humans, especially hunter–gatherers, is fraught with difficulties as so many things have irrevocably changed: the flora and fauna, the landscape, the knowledge most of us have gained (you cannot really unsee germ theory) but also lost (who here can kill and prepare an animal or make a fire without modern tools?), or the fact that we lived in large communal groups. When the flap text also mentions shamanic journeys I was fearing the worst: am I about to witness yet another affluent man’s mid-life crisis?

Being a Human: Adventures in 40,000 Years of Consciousness, written by Charles Foster, published in Europe by Profile Books and in the USA by Metropolitan Books in August 2021 (hardback, 272 pages)

In short, the answer is no. Or at least, not immediately. Foster, an erstwhile veterinary student who is now a barrister teaching medical law and ethics, previously wrote Being a Beast in which he tries to inhabit the world of several animals. Here he takes this exercise in method-acting to the human world. The book is divided into three parts and purposefully spends most pages on life in the Upper Palaeolithic, fewer on the Neolithic, and only a short section on the Enlightenment, commensurate with how long humans inhabited these periods. He also makes it clear from the outset that this is less re-enactment and more thought experiment, an attempt to enter the mental and spiritual world of these people. Fair enough on both points, and I was happy to read the book in that spirit.

I found the first part very enjoyable, revolving as it did around four long wild-camping trips with his 13-year-old son in each season. Here, he shows a healthy amount of humility and self-deprecation. He admits that “we are just messing around” and how the vicinity of the nearby village shop “means that we’re bogus” (p. 29), how “the grumble of [a nearby] road makes a nonsense of our experiment” (p. 45). Or how, when his son gets into the spirit of things, he is put out: “This is my project, not his. I’m the sensitive one, the one with the psychic pretensions” (p. 96).

“[The first] part is a gonzo road trip into the birth of consciousness, symbolism, and language [and] features some amazing writing”

It also features some amazing writing, in places poetic and rich with metaphors such as when listening out for the sound of water dissolving rock: “The scouring has its own sound […] the hum of eroding rock resonating with the eroding cells of my own body, and it brings a sort of macabre comfort. It’s quite something to share solidarity with a limestone cliff, even when the solidarity is in the fact that we’re both dissolving” (p. 139). In others, it is base and pungent: “The last thing I ate was a hedgehog. That was nine days ago. From the taste of them, hedgehogs must start decomposing even when they’re alive and in their prime. This one’s still down there somewhere, and my burps smell like a maggot farm. I regret its death under the wheels of a cattle truck far more than its parents or children can possibly do” (p. 71). This part is a gonzo road trip into the birth of consciousness, symbolism, and language, accompanied by carefully annotated diversions into archaeology and anthropology.

But then.

The shorter part covering the Neolithic is quite a contrast. Instead of the full immersion attempted above, Foster is more an observer, occasionally mentioning short periods helping out at various farms. It is a shame, as he had the opportunity: two Welsh friends are doing an honest attempt to recreate life in this period. Why did he not sign up with his son for several apprenticeships throughout the seasons? Gone, too, are the humility and self-deprecation; my impression is that Foster comes to this period with strong preconceptions. He largely rehashes the “agriculture was our fall from grace” narrative that others such as Harari and Diamond have expounded. He gives a serviceable summary of some points raised in Against the Grain; e.g. how farming was slow to catch on, and how it seems to have spread by farmers pushing out hunter–gatherers, rather than the latter adopting farming practices, a finding supported by ancient DNA studies. I agree with many things he says, but also feel he is a tad too confident in his assertions, glossing over both subtleties and uncertainties. He catches himself in a few places (“I’m generalising too wildly. I’m judging the whole by the worst. I have tendencies that way” (p. 219), or “I’m doing it again—libelling a whole massive epoch” (p. 222)) but then goes ahead and does it anyway.

“Foster comes to [the Neolithic] with strong preconceptions […] I agree with many things he says, but also feel he is a tad too confident in his assertions, glossing over both subtleties and uncertainties.”

When we get to the Enlightenment section the book derailed completely for me. Instead of an attempt to inhabit this period we get a 35-page screed against the dogma of materialism. How did we get here? The setting is a dinner with several Oxford scholars, with the inviting professor rather patronisingly making fun of his project and asking him: “why all this theological mumbo-jumbo?” (p. 305). Foster’s response: “The experiences you choose to call supernatural are completely natural ones” (p. 306). Pipes up one of the guests: what are we talking about here? The list Foster gives includes, but is not limited to, clairvoyance, out-of-body experiences, precognition, telepathy, etc. In his eyes, Enlightenment thinking exorcised mind and soul from the non-human world, leading to dualism and then materialism, with everything else unworthy of study. Rather than, in true Enlightenment spirit, questioning everything, he feels “the fingers of the thought police on my collar, and the chill of stifled dissent” (p. 314). “For the Enlightenment Taliban, science isn’t a method: it’s a religion” (p. 315). When he then trots out Rupert Sheldrake and quantum mechanics I, momentarily, lost my shit.

The reason I am disappointed with how the book devolves is not that I disagree with his ideas (though I do), but with how poorly written it is. To be clear, I agree that scientific developments have been used to exploit the natural world. When he mentions the universal use of the phrase “natural resources”, I was reminded of Eileen Crist’s excellent book Abundant Earth. However, as before, he catches himself—”I hate the shrill fundamentalism in me that’s elicited by the Professor’s shrill fundamentalism” (p. 310)—and then proceeds regardless. Foster is honest and does not hold back, I will give him this much, but there is little nuance here. Five generalisations and logical fallacies stood out in particular for me.

“the Enlightenment section [is where] the book derailed completely for me. Instead of an attempt to inhabit this period we get a 35-page screed against the dogma of materialism.”

First, I agree that some of the ridicule he experiences is unwarranted and that some academics are closed-minded, but for Foster this corrupts the whole scientific enterprise, which is a gross exaggeration. Do I think there is more between heaven and earth? We cannot rule it out, but the evidence in favour so far is not convincing. Leading to point two; trying to throw Enlightenment values back at science is a favourite tactic of peddlers of the paranormal. Fact is, in the last three centuries scientists have questioned, and answered, many things. My impression is that some people do not like the answers. Leading to point three; many supernatural ideas, such as telepathy mentioned here, have simply not stood up to scrutiny, and we cannot replicate its extraordinary claims. Foster falls back on special pleading: “outside the laboratory […] in the realm of well-attested story, the effects are often much more dramatic” (p. 325) and “the laboratory experiment necessarily excludes the conditions that are the usual context and justification for direct Mind-to-Mind interaction of the dramatic kind” (p. 326). I find it hard to believe that I have to mention that the plural of anecdote is not data, and that humans are notoriously prone to wishful thinking, seeing patterns in noise, confirmation bias, etc.

Fourth, I do not really understand quantum mechanics, but as physicist Sean Carroll points out, neither do physicists. Foster admits to no such thing and instead confirms my suspicion that quantum mechanics must be one of the most abused notions in science, taken out of context at every turn. I am not sure that we can scale up from quantum entanglement to telepathy (Foster admits this much but points to the ideas of physicist Erich Joos to prop it up. I would like to hear the thoughts of Joos and others on this). And fifth, because it gets better, Foster claims that the reason there has been no systematic investigation of these phenomena (which contradicts what he wrote earlier) “is, simply, fear that the existing paradigm, on the basis of which all modern scientific careers in the biological and related sciences have been built, might be destroyed” (p. 325). And there we have it, we tie a neat little bow around it all with claims of a grand conspiracy of silence.

Overall, then, I found this book a decidedly mixed bag. I really enjoyed how it started, but was very disappointed by how it veered off course from its promised attempt to inhabit these three historical periods and ended in an incoherent diatribe.

Disclosure: The publisher provided a review copy of this book. The opinion expressed here is my own, however.

Being a Human

Other recommended books mentioned in this review:

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