Homo Sapiens, ca. 74,000 to 10,000 BCE

Review of Cro-Magnon: How the Ice Age Gave Birth to the First Modern Humans by Brian M. Fagan

This book is about the crucial transition between a Europe dominated by Neanderthals to one by anatomically modern humans, the Cro-Magnons, who are essentially identical to us in every respect, at least genetically. The 60,000 years or so that are covered occur for the most part in an extended Ice Age, caused by a catastrophic volcanic eruption that nea…