Up until around 50,000 years ago at least four human species lived together, struggling to survive an unpredictable climate.
Based on the latest scientific discoveries, a new biography tells of the life, death and wonder of our distant ancestors.
We know that our direct ancestors mated with at least two other human species. Traces of these 'close encounters' can be found in our genes.
To discuss this topic in more detail, ANSTO welcomes back the former director of its Physics division and visiting scientist from the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy, Professor Claudio Tuniz.
Tuniz has worked on a number of interesting studies including the discovery of the oldest known ancient Roman fort found in Italy and some of the world’s oldest dentistry.
The insights he will share in this science lecture at our Lucas Heights campus are from a new biography in Italian ‘Homo sapiens. An unauthorized biography’.
This book focuses on the everyday lives of men, women and children, at the onset of the first human societies that emerged during the last ice age, when art and music appeared, together with organised violence, wealth and inequality. All along, light is shed on the deep roots of our ambivalent “human” nature.