NEANDERTHALS

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Books

For Teachers

Becoming Human: Evolution and Human Uniqueness by Ian Tattersall. (Harcourt, 1998)
This book examines the evolution of human intelligence by looking at our living relatives and the evidence left by our extinct ones.

Extinct Humans by Ian Tattersall and Jeffrey H. Schwartz. (Westview Press, 2000)
A thorough investigation into the history of the human species, with fossil evidence and theories as to why one type of hominid became modern humans.

From Lucy to Language by Blake Edgar and Donald C. Johanson. (Simon and Schuster, 1996)
This large-format book about human evolution describes Lucy, a female hominid who lived 3.2 million years ago.

The Human Career: Human Biological and Cultural Origins by Richard G. Klein. (University of Chicago Press, 1999)
Chronicles the evolution of people from the earliest primates through the emergence of fully modern humans within the past 200,000 years.

Missing Links: The Hunt for Earliest Man by John Reader. (Little, Brown, 1981)
This book offers an illustrated history of paleoanthropology.

The Neanderthals: Changing the Image of Mankind by Erik Trinkaus and Pat Shipman. (Knopf, 1992)
A history of the discovery, analysis, and contentious nature of Neanderthal fossils.

World Prehistory: A Brief Introduction. 5th ed. by Brian M. Fagan. (Prentice Hall, 2001)
Written by a leading archeologist, this comprehensive overview includes information on human origins and the development of the earliest civilizations.

For Students

Fiction

Your Mother Was a Neanderthal by Jon Scieszka. (Puffin, 1993)
Sam, Joe, and Fred travel back to the Stone Age where they meet cave people; face a saber-toothed cat; and check out some cave paintings as they search for The Book and a way to time warp home.

11,000 Years Lost by Peni R. Griffin. (Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2004)
When 11-year-old Esther is magically transported back to the Ice Age, she is adopted by a tribe of mammoth hunters. Can she return to the future?

Adventures in the Ice Age by Linda Bailey. (Kids Can Press, 2004)
The Good Times Travel Agency series. The Binkerton kids are transported to the Ice Age where they have nothing but a guidebook to direct them.

Boy of the Painted Cave by Justin Denzel. (Philomel, 1988)
Tao only wants to be left alone to draw, but he is forced from his clan. How can he survive in the savage world 18,000 years ago? Return to the Painted Cave is the sequel.

In the Shadow of the Mammoth by Patricia Nikolina Clark. (Blue Marlin, 2003)
Instead of being excited, Zol is afraid he will disgrace himself and his father's memory on his first mammoth hunt.

Peter Dickinson's The Kin, Po's Story by Peter Dickinson. (Grosset & Dunlop, 1998)
Young Po wants to prove his bravery to The Kin, a group of people living in prehistoric times, by leading them to new land. Other books in the series tell Noli's Story, Suth's Story, and Mana's Story.

Timespinners by Luli Gray. (Houghton Mifflin, 2003)
Twins Allie and Fig spin back in time and see Neanderthals and mammoths. Each chapter of the story is followed by an entry in Fig's journal (complete with drawings) that describes what life may have been like back then.

A Woolly Mammoth Journey by Debbie S. Miller. (Little Brown, 2001)
This is the story of a band of woolly mammoths, led by a matriarch named Wise One, as they experience birth, death, dangers, and travel.

Nonfiction

The Bone Detectives by Donna M. Jackson. (Little Brown, 1997)
Describes the forensic techniques used to investigate not only crimes but history as well, including the Lucy fossil and a 5300 year-old "iceman" found in the Alps.

The Human Story: Our Evolution from Prehistoric Ancestors to Today by Christopher Sloan. (National Geographic Children's, 2004)
A look at human development, including the methods scientists use and the theories of paleoanthropology.

Ice Age Cave Bear by Barbara Hehner. (Scholastic, 2004)
Dramatic illustrations show the conditions on earth at the time of the last Ice Age and the evolution of bears.

The Mystery of the Mammoth Bones and How It Was Solved by James Cross Giblin. (HarperCollins, 1999)
When giant bones were found on a farm in 1901, Charles Wilson Peale realized they came from a creature that would eventually be known as a mastodon. Frozen Mammoth by Dougal Dixon (Gareth Stevens Publishing, 2004) tells a similar story for younger readers.

National Geographic Prehistoric Mammals by Alan Turner. (National Geographic, 2004)
Beautiful illustrations by Mauricio Antón show the amazing variety of animals — from deinotheres to giant sloths to man — that lived in prehistoric times.

Native American Rock Art, Messages from the Past by Yvette La Pierre. (Thomasson-Grant, 1994)
Explore the Native American petroglyphs and pictographs left on stones and in caves all across what is now the United States and Canada.

Prehistory by Roberto Carvalho de Magalhães. (Peter Bedrick, 2000)
How early man lived, including burial rituals, homes, early architecture, and arts and crafts.

Secrets from the Rocks: Dinosaur Hunting with Roy Chapman Andrews by Albert Marrin. (Dutton, 2002)
A biography of Andrews that focuses on the adventure and science of his explorations and dinosaur discoveries in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia. Brian Floca's Dinosaurs at the Ends of the Earth (DK Ink, 2000) is a fictionalized picture-book version.

Stone Age Farmers Beside the Sea: Scotland's Prehistoric Village of Skara Brae by Caroline Arnold. (Clarion Books, 1997)
An introduction to the ancient village of Skara Brae on Scotland's Orkney Islands, inhabited from 3100 to 2500 B.C.E.

Walking with Cavemen by John Lynch and Louise Barrett. (DK Publishing, 2003)
This companion volume to the BBC television special of the same name tells of the evolution of man from the first apes that walked on two feet to modern man.

Who Came First? New Clues to Prehistoric Americans by Patricia Lauber. (National Geographic, 2004)
A well-researched book that challenges the popular theory that the first Americans came across a land bridge from Asia.

Web Sites

Cro Magnon Evidence
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/prehistoric_life/
Explore these facts, gathered by the BBC, about prehistoric life.

The Human Origins Program at the Smithsonian Institution
http://www.mnh.si.edu/anthro/humanorigins/
This comprehensive site includes photographs of skulls believed to be from Cro Magnons and Neanderthals, and information about five million years of human evolution.

Neanderthal
http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/N/neanderthal/
This companion site to the documentary Neanderthal tells the story of a small clan of Neanderthals living in France 35,000 years ago, including the tools they used, the way they lived, and the language they used.

Neandertals: A Cyber Perspective
http://sapphire.indstate.edu/~ramanank/
Explore topics such as "The Fate of Neandertals," "Hunting and Diet," "Linguistic Capability," and more.

Neanderthals on Trial
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/neanderthals/
This companion site to the PBS television program explores the Neanderthals' place in evolution.

Scientific American — The Latest Neanderthal
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=00011272-3CDE-1C75-9B81809EC588EF21
Reports on some of the changing views about Neanderthals.