An Morocco, the discovery of bones by a French researcher upsets our vision of prehistory. The thrilling story of a scientific adventure, between the collapse of certainties and technological prowess. A skull with an elongated face and prominent eyebrow ridges: This was the incredible discovery made in 1960 by a worker in a mine in Djebel Irhoud, Morocco. Could it be a Neanderthal man? Carbon 14 makes it possible to date the find to more than 40000 years, but when does it go back precisely? In the 1980s, the French researcher Jean-Jacques Hublin and his colleague, the Moroccan professor Abdelouahed Ben-Ncer, put forward another hypothesis. For them, the skull would not belong to a Neanderthal, but to a Homo sapiens, and would be much older. In 2005, the two paleoanthropologists resumed excavations with an international team. The seventh layer of sediment yields them a dizzying treasure: The remains of five distinct individuals. Dating by thermoluminescence, more reliable than carbon 14, dates their origin back to 300000 years ago. In total contradiction with the generally accepted theory, which placed the appearance of our species in East Africa, 200000 years ago. These vestiges, older than 100000 years, were discovered more than 6000 kilometers from the region supposed to shelter the cradle of Homo sapiens. It is a revolution in the vision of our origins and our evolutionary process that this astonishing documentary tells. A paradigm shift that forces the scientific world to review its foundations as much as school textbooks to revise their chapters. Embellished with the testimonies of the main protagonists, the story salutes a long-term adventure, woven with intuitions, suspense and coronations. For the general public, it is also the discovery of a paleontology entering the high-tech age: Scans, 3D morphometric analyses, virtual reconstructions and other technologies. Between the emergence of a primitive past and the sophistication of futuristic tools, a fascinating paradox.
The Genesis of Humanity - The Complete: Omnibus
Is Adult Product | |
Release Date | 2021-03-14T00:00:01Z |
Language | Français |
Number Of Pages | 684 |
Publication Date | 2021-03-14T00:00:01Z |