Uelsberg, G. Ed. 2006. Roots. Wurzeln der Menschheit. – Mainz am Rhein, Phillipp von Zabern Book review by A. van Heteren

Abstract

Although the title of this book suggests that it deals with all of the history of mankind, in fact it deals mainly with the history of Neanderthals. This makes sense, because the book was published in conjunction with the Roots exposition in Bonn, which was dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the first Neanderthal find.

The book is written in German, but almost every chapter has a short summary in English. The only exceptions are the chapter by Ruth Omphalius about the ZDF- Documentary and the chapter by Thorsten Uthmeier about the living location of the Neanderthals. Unfortunately the captions of the figures are only given in German and not in both languages, which could be a problem for people who do not understand German at all. In general the book is written rather popularly, which makes it easy to read, but sometimes confusing as well when scientific names are being avoided. Read more...