L'Humanité préhistorique

This volume opens a sweeping portrait of humanity’s earliest steps, tracing how the simple act of freeing the hand reshaped our ancestors’ bodies and minds. It follows the transformation from a creature bound to the ground to one that stands upright, letting the hands become instruments of exploration, craft, and eventually language. By linking physical changes—shortened jaws, expanded brains—to the impulse to grasp and create, the book argues that our capacity for thought emerged hand‑in‑hand with tool use.

The work is organized into three parts that weave together technology, daily life, and the rise of intellect. Richly illustrated with thousands of figures and maps, it surveys prehistoric industries from the Paleolithic to the Iron Age, then moves to homes, hunting, clothing, art, belief systems, and the early exchanges between peoples. Readers gain a clear, evidence‑based view of how early societies built the foundations of culture while still rooted in the natural world.