HOMO BRITANNICUS: The Incredible Story of Human Life in Britain [Hardcover]

For a good many schoolchildren [too many, IMV], the history of Britain begins with Julius Caesar crossing the Channel. Confronted by resistance by the "blue people", he forcefully pushed the Island Kingdom into the historical arena. This outlook is regrettably shortsighted, as Chris Stringer makes vividly clear in this stunning account of pre-historic Britain. Although the first early human finds didn't occur there, the concept of "Stone Age" was vigorously debated in Britain as the artefacts and fossils emerged in view, particularly in the 19th and early 20th Centuries. Moreover, it was British scholars like John Hutton and Charles Lyell who took the lead in extending the age of the Earth. That extension led to speculation and investigation of who and what had come before, demolishing the view of yet another Englishman, James Ussher who had postulated an Earth "created" in October of 4004 BCE. In short, stratigraphy began replacing Scripture.

Stringer explains how Britain was subjected to several "invasions" long before the Roman political martyr was glorified, then assassinated. These invasions weren't for booty or slaves, but for dinner. Changes in climate resulted in changes in sea level, with Britain forming a peninsula of Europe many times over the millennia. Another result of climate led to large parts of that peninsula being sheathed in ice, rendering it uninhabitable ' to human or other invaders. They made it, finally, with the first human artefacts being dated at 700 000 years ago. They weren't dining on mutton, however. It was deer, rabbits, and astonishingly, hippopotamus. The image Stringer offers of hippos crossing the Mediterranean and swimming along the Atlantic littoral to reach what is now Suffolk, isn't one easily dismissed from memory. They thrived in "Britain", along with wolves, lions and other tropical animals. And they were hunted by the humans who had followed them from Africa - albeit by a different route. Until the cold returned. Then it was reindeer, woolly mammoth and fur-bearing rhinos. As the ice advanced, such species, along with their hunters, vanished from the landscape.

These cycles of habitability over the British Peninsula have occurred several times just in the period of human occupation. The worst ice age there was 450 000 years ago, and it was severe enough to keep the peninsula free of humans for 50 thousand years after its retreat. After a temperate period allowing new settlement, humans were again pushed into Europe only twenty thousand years later. Other shifts led to inexplicable vacating by humans for a lengthy period, even though life abounded in Europe. Neanderthal arrived about 60 thousand years ago. A large-brained species, they worked out how to keep warm by burning bones in their hearths. The accumulation of fossil evidence, subject to close analysis and dating techniques, is providing an entirely new story of early human habitation in Northwest Europe. Mobility was a major factor - it's almost presumptuous to title this book "Homo Britannicus".

As a founder of the Ancient Human Occupation of Britain [AHOB] research project, Chris Stringer is at once one of the driving forces and spokesmen of studies of the distant human past. For a time, it seemed this span reached back half a million years, but a recent underwater find at Pakefield pushed the earliest date back another 200 millennia. Stringer handles such challenges with ease. He's able to convey to the reader immense time leaps, yet apparently not leaving any gaps in the narrative. The information about palaeoclimates, changes in the British - European shoreline are well explained and supported by excellent maps depicting the era under discussion. How long have we known that the Thames was once a tributary of the Rhine? There are photographs - some portentous - about the conditions in Britain over time. One of the photos shows the edge of a village which will soon drop into the sea as a new climatic event - this one human enhanced - brings the sea ever further inland. The message is clear - climate has cleared humans from Britain or encouraged their settlement more than once. What does today's climate change portend for the British Isles - and for the rest of us? [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

'A delightful addition to his previous 'Complete World of Human Evolution', Homo Britannicus, written by Chris Stringer, offers a fascinating account of the history of human occupation in Britain from the first evidence of hominid activity circa 700,000-500,000 years ago to the arrival of modern humans about 12,000 years ago. In addition to being of erudite specialist interest to his peers and students in palaeontology and archaeology, this clearly written book -- which offers useful additional background in text and illustrations, humour and a share of the author's own experiences -- is a real pleasure to read for the lay person with little knowledge of these disciplines. After a thorough study of the role of climatic changes in the history of human adaptation to, or extinction from, new environments, Chris Stringer ends his book with a crucial appeal for our common responsability in preserving our future, threatened by global warming today, not tomorrow. Essential for learning about the past, this is palaeontology at its best use for the present and future. Anyone interested in the complete story of the British Isles should read this book without delay'.

If you happen to have caught any of the slew of 'fossil stories' in the news over the last few years, you will almost certainly have heard or read a few words from Chris Stringer, Human Origins researcher at London's Natural History Museum and the author of this stimulating and well-written book. Widely viewed as the ultimate authority on the subject, Stringer brings to mind someone of the calibre of Richard Dawkins, possessing as he does that rare combination of an encyclopaedic knowledge and an enviable talent for communicating it.

In Homo Britannicus, Stringer explores the very early human occupation of Britain, from the first evidence of hominid activity some 700,000 years ago to the arrival of modern humans about 12,000 years ago. This vast stretch of time reveals a startlingly different Britain - one whose climate lurched from ice age to subtropical, and whose inhabitants would go from hunting reindeer and mammoth to living alongside hippos and elephants. For those of us more accustomed to red squirrels and "spits and spots of rain", the mental picture of such a volatile and unrecognizable Britain is one of this books great pleasures.

Stringer begins by examining the topic of fossils generally, chronicling the shift from Biblical explanations to scientific ones. For those who still buy into the religious-based myth that mankind (indeed the earth itself) is a mere 6,000 years old, Stringer details the numerous dating methods and spells out just how we know what we know. He devotes much of the book to revealing the key fossil sites, and pieces together the evidence from these different locations to create a picture of the first hominids to inhabit Britain.

Elegantly written, the text is not overly-technical, and it's noticeable that Chris displays an open mind throughout, taking an honest and measured approach to conflicting evidence and uncertainty - the sign of a true scientist. Good quality colour photographs of the artefacts also help this book come alive, as do the various black and white maps that pinpoint key fossil sites. If you have the slightest interest in Britain's distant origins, I would highly recommend it.