Professor Lord Renfrew FBA, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research

Wednesday 26 October 2005

DNA studies show that the baby born into the world today would be difficult to distinguish from the child of our ancestor of 40,000 years ago. Yet the way of life has changed radically from the stone age hunter-gatherer to the modern citizen. What then are the processes which have led to the construction of the world in which we live, and to the achievements of humankind which define, in a sense, what it is to be human? The answer can only come from the material remains of the human experience over tens of millennia: that is the challenge of archaeology.

Becoming Human: The Archaeological Challenge

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