Press Release: Elle Clifford and Paul Bahn Aim to Dispel the Myths about How Our Early Ancestors Lived in Their New Book

 

Everyday Life in the Ice Age is the first attempt to present a truly complete, balanced and realistic picture of life during the last Ice Age, with its many problems and challenges, while dispelling many of the myths and inaccuracies about our early ancestors.

 

One of the most common questions asked by visitors to Europe’s decorated caves is ‘What was life like for these people?’ No previous book has ever managed to answer this question, and most studies of the period are aimed entirely at academics, tending to focus on tool-types rather than what the tools were used for. Women and children are almost invisible in these studies.

 

The book examines all aspects of the lives of biologically modern humans in Europe from about 40,000 to 12,000 years ago, the period known as the Last Ice Age, a time of radical change in climate and environment. It explores how people were able to cope with and adapt to the often rapid alterations in their circumstances.

 

Elle Clifford’s background in Social Psychology brings important insights into aspects of the past which are never normally discussed – domestic and family life, pregnancy and child-rearing, and care of the sick and elderly.

 

The book is aimed not only at students and specialists, but also and especially the interested public, for whom the most interesting questions are: How were they like us? and what behaviours do we share?

 

Some key observations from the study: