It's quite a while since I bought this book so when I eventually got around to reading it, I was not sure what it was really about. In fact, it is largely about the dating and interpretation of old human remains. And what I found fascinating was that the results and interpretations take on very powerful political messages. There is a strong emphasis on the situation in Australia where some old aboriginal remains were found at "The great walls of China". I've always wanted to visit the area ..especially when driving along the Hay road....dead flat in all directions ...and a sign pointing vaguely north to the "Great Walls of China". I did live in Griffith for a number of years and took the odd trip west to Hay, Hell, and Booligal...but never quite got to the Walls. I digress. Some ancient human remains were found here on what used to be a lake foreshore and they have been the source of controversy ever since. Local aborigines laid claim to the remains whilst the scientists were intent on dating and (later) DNA analysing them. They appear to be somewhere between 40,000-50,000 years old and the age and "Gracility" of the owner raises questions about migratory pathways and the origins of the aborigines. I guess one should also question whether the current aboriginal people are the direct descendants of these early inhabitants or were they later arrivals......after all ....a lot can happen in 50,000 years.
What the book makes clear is that archeology/anthropology is a bit of a mine-field of competing ideas and the various researchers are keen to push their own theories and equally keen to disparage other theories. It's also clear that the tools and techniques (especially contamination of DNA samples) are not as sophisticated or accurate as one might hope for. ....they have left a lot of room for doubt and competing theories to survive.
One of the big political issues is: did the arrival of the aborigines lead to the extermination of megafauna and to changing the landscape though burning. I found it fascinating that some interpreters were quite happy to disregard the science and the measurements and give much more weight to the oral tradition. (Though we know, from relatively modern history, say about the origins of christianity, how confusing and contradictory oral traditions can become. And even written narratives can be censored ...as with the selection of a certain canon of books for the new testament).
Anyway, the archeologists tend to play fairly rough and, (to my mind) draw fairly fanciful conclusions based on limited evidence. But there does seem to be a good case that the aborigines were probably responsible for wiping out the megafauna and for transforming the landscape through fire-stick "farming". That is not to make any moral judgements about these conclusions ...but inevitably...the issues become political and scientists who were trying to draw up DNA charts for indigenous people around the world got the least cooperation from Australia. ...a pity.
Bottom line, I found the book quite illuminating. I learned a lot. Give it four stars. ( )