Java Man: How Two Geologists Changed Our Understanding of Human Evolution - Softcover

Swisher III, Carl C.; Curtis, Garniss H.; Lewin, Roger

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226787346 ISBN 13: 9780226787343

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2001

Synopsis

"'Garniss, lend me your knife for a second, will you,' I whispered." So begins Java Man, the inside story of how one discovery—a human skull found on the island of Java—by two geologists shook the foundations of science. By uncovering new evidence about the hominid known as Java man, Carl C. Swisher and Garniss H. Curtis were able to date his fossil remains at 1.7 million years, an age that stunned the scientific community because it pushed back the time when humans migrating out of Africa first reached Eurasia by nearly one million years. Cowritten by the popular science writer Roger Lewin, this is a gripping and informative account of the discovery that breathed new life into the human origins debate.

Originally published by Scribner
2000 ISBN: 0-684-80000-4

About this title

About the Author

Carl C. Swisher III is an associate professor in the Department of Geological Sciences at Rutgers University.

Garniss H. Curtis, a pioneer of modern techniques for dating ancient rocks, is Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Berkeley Geochronology Center.
Roger Lewin is the author of seventeen books, including Bones of Contention and Complexity: Life at the Edge of Chaos, both available from the University of Chicago Press.

From the Back Cover

"'Garniss, lend me your knife for a second, will you,' I whispered." So begins Java Man, the inside story of how one discovery—a human skull found on the island of Java—by two geologists shook the foundations of science. By uncovering new evidence about the hominid known as Java man, Carl C. Swisher and Garniss H. Curtis were able to date his fossil remains at 1.7 million years, an age that stunned the scientific community because it pushed back the time when humans migrating out of Africa first reached Eurasia by nearly one million years. Cowritten by the popular science writer Roger Lewin, this is a gripping and informative account of the discovery that breathed new life into the human origins debate.

From the Inside Flap

"'Garniss, lend me your knife for a second, will you,' I whispered." So begins Java Man, the inside story of how one discovery—a human skull found on the island of Java—by two geologists shook the foundations of science. By uncovering new evidence about the hominid known as Java man, Carl C. Swisher and Garniss H. Curtis were able to date his fossil remains at 1.7 million years, an age that stunned the scientific community because it pushed back the time when humans migrating out of Africa first reached Eurasia by nearly one million years. Cowritten by the popular science writer Roger Lewin, this is a gripping and informative account of the discovery that breathed new life into the human origins debate.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0226787346
• ISBN 13: 9780226787343
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256