Meet the Ancestors: Unearthing the Evidence That Brings Us Face to Face with the Past

"Meet the Ancestors" is a truly fascinating book about what scientists have learned from several archaeological digs in the British Isles. The book focuses on nine sites, which range from the late Neolithic through the Middle Ages. Each of the sites contains human remains, and the book explains what those remains can tell us about how our ancestors lived in ancient times.What makes the book especially engaging is that it tries to show how these people would have looked when they were alive. Each chapter features either a portrait (often generated with the aid of computers) or a sculpture that puts flesh on dry bones. In one particularly striking case, the author tells the story of Bleadon Man, an Iron Age farmer who died nearly 2,000 years ago. Using DNA from his bones, scientists were able to identify five people who were living in the same English farming village 2,000 years later and who had DNA that was very similar to the ancient farmer--probably, but not certainly, these five are the farmer's distant relatives. Then the scientists prepared a sculpture showing how the ancient farmer probably looked when he was alive. The sculpture was compared to one of the modern villagers with similar DNA--and, as Richards puts it, "from their faces they could have been brothers." The picture that shows the descendant holding up the sculpture of his ancient forebear is worth the price of admission.If you enjoy this book, you should also try Ian Wilson's "Past Lives: Unlocking the Secrets of Our Ancestors," which explores several of the same cases and a few besides.