¿Quiénes somos? ¿De dónde venimos? Los científicos que han tratado de contestar a estas preguntas presentan en esta obra los resultados de su tarea de investigación. La obra relata los avances logrados en el largo camino de hallazgos y de experimentación, de constataciones o de refutaciones que han recorrido los investigadores que comparten aquí sus conocimientos sobre los hábitos y modo de vida, herramientas, alimentación, comunicación y arte de nuestros antepasados más remotos, desde el australopithecus afarensis, el homínido más antiguo encontrado jamás, hasta a los primeros europeos y el hombre de Neandertal. Entre sus numerosas ilustraciones se encuentran las reconstrucciones de los rasgos faciales de diferentes especies de homínido, obtenidas a partir de las técnicas más modernas y un extenso reportaje sobre las cuevas de Altamira, que sin duda alguna es una de las obras de arte más relevante del patrimonio cultural del hombre.

Pat Shipman sets forth the taphonomic methods of analyzing how animal remains are acted upon and altered, both by biological and by geographic phenomena, in their passage from the biosphere of bones and carcass into the lithosphere of fossils. She explains the role of disease, predation, accidents, postmortem destruction, and transport in the life history of a fossil, and provides an introduction to the relevant geological concepts and to faunal analysis.

In European prehistory population agglomerations of more than 10,000 inhabitants per site are a seldom phenomenon. A big surprise to the archaeological community was the discovery of Trypillia mega-sites of more than 250 hectares and with remains of more than 2000 houses by a multidisciplinary approach of Soviet and Ukrainian archaeology, including aerial photography, geophysical prospection and excavations nearly 50 years ago. The extraordinary development took place at the border of the North Pontic Forest Steppe and Steppe zone ca. 4100–3400 BCE. Since then many questions arose which are of main relevance: Why, how and under which environmental conditions did Trypillia mega-sites develop? How long did they last? Were social and/or ecological reasons responsible for this social experiment? Are Trypillia and the similar sized settlement of Uruk two different concepts of social behaviour? Paradigm change in fieldwork and excavation strategies enabled research teams during the last decade to analyse the mega-sites in their spatial and social complexity. High precision geophysics, target excavations and a new design of systematic field strategies deliver empirical data representative for the large sites. Archaeological research contributed immensely to aspects of anthropogenic induced steppe development and subsistence concepts that did not reach the carrying capacities. Probabilistic models based on 14C-dates made the contemporaneity of the mega-site house structures most probable. In consequence, Trypillia mega-sites are an independent European phenomenon that contrasts both concepts of urbanism and social stratification that is seen with similar demographic figures in Mesopotamia. The new Trypillia research can be read as the methodological progress in European archaeology.

Lavishly illustrated with beautiful photographs and original plans, traces the story of this colourful, significant and complex place through its physical development and provides, for the first time in English, a compelling and unique exploration of a.