They Were Here Before Us: Stories from Our First Million Years

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· Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Jennifer M. Dixon
Audiobook
6 hr 34 min
Unabridged
Eligible
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About this audiobook

This 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? Taking 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. This provocative and panoramic book shows listeners what they can learn from their ancestors, and how the unwavering ability of prehistoric people to survive and thrive can continue into the present.

About the author

Eyal Halfon 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.

Ran Barkai 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 codirected the excavations and research at Middle Pleistocen Qesem Cave.

As a retired board-certified music therapist, licensed counselor, and veteran of the Michigan Opera and several community theaters, Jennifer Dixon has explored the power of words and music to motivate, inspire, provoke, soothe, and heal. She brings this unique perspective to her work as an audiobook narrator.

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