Homo Sapiens Rediscovered (29 January, Conway Hall Ethical Society)

This event will be held with an in-person audience at Conway Hall and online via livestream. Everyone wishing to join this event must register for a ticket in advance.

Who are we? How do scientists define Homo sapiens? And how does our species differ from the extinct hominins that came before us? Paul Pettitt reveals the extraordinary story of how our ancestors adapted to unforgiving and relentlessly changing climates, leading to remarkable innovations in art, technology, and society that we are only now beginning to comprehend.

Drawing on twenty-five years of experience in the field, Paul Pettitt immerses us in the caves and rock shelters that provide evidence of our African origins, dispersals to the far reaches of Eurasia, Australasia and ultimately the Americas. Popular accounts of the evolution of Homo sapiens emphasise biomolecular research, notably genetics, but Paul's book, Homo Sapiens Rediscovered, also draws from the wealth of information from specific excavations and artefacts, including the author's own investigations into the origins of art and how it evolved over its first 25,000 years. Paul focuses in particular on behaviour, using archaeological evidence to bring an intimate perspective on lives as they were lived in the almost unimaginably distant past.

This illuminating book explores how the latest scientific advances, especially in genetics, are revolutionising our understanding of human evolution. It will be available on the day.

Paul Pettitt is Professor of Palaeolithic Archaeology at Durham University, specialising in the European Middle and Upper Palaeolithic. His research interests focus particularly on the origins of art and the development of treatment of the dead, and he has conducted fieldwork across Europe and further afield.

Artists / Speakers: Paul Pettitt

Category: Attractions | Talks and Lectures

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