Java Man: How Two Geologists Changed Our Understanding of Human Evolution

by Carl C. Swisher III, Garniss H. Curtis, Roger Lewin

"'Garniss, lend me your knife for a second, will you,' I whispered." So begins Java Man, the inside story of how one discovery—a human skull found on the island of Java—by two geologists shook the foundations of science. By uncovering new evidence about the hominid known as Java man, Carl C. Swisher and Garniss H. Curtis were able to date his fossil remains at 1.7 million years, an age that stunned the scientific community because it pushed back the time when humans migrating out of Africa first reached Eurasia by nearly one million years. Cowritten by the popular science writer Roger Lewin, this is a gripping and informative account of the discovery that breathed new life into the human origins debate.

Originally published by Scribner
2000 ISBN: 0-684-80000-4

Genres: Science, Evolution, Nonfiction, Anthropology, History, Palaeontology, Creation Science

256 pages, Paperback

First published November 21, 2000

Reviews

[Kalle Wescott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read /Java Man: How Two Geologists Changed Our Understanding of Human Evolution/, by Carl Swisher, Garniss Curtis, and Roger Lewin:

https://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/10/bo...

We all learned about Java Man in school, but I didn't know the details. This book was fascinating!

[melancholinary · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the popular science books on palaeoanthropology that I consider to be very well written and enjoyable to read. The dynamics surrounding the discovery of "Java Man" (in quotation marks because here Java Man is understood not only the Trinil Man, but also homo erectus from Mojokerto and) are very gripping, particularly the academic politics regarding the sustainability of a research centre and the jockeying for position following the publication of the journal—an aspect I rarely encounter in popular science books. Many theories in palaeoanthropology are discussed in depth here, irrespective of the book’s focus on Java Man. It covers everything from the possibility of prehistoric technology and its various divisions (in this context, I often imagine that if 'culture' existed in its most primitive form one million years ago, then the Movius Line could be conceived as a cosmotechnic prehistoric marker), to geochronology and its methods, to the categorisation of human evolutionary traits and related theories such as the multiregional origin hypothesis, the single species hypothesis, and so on, as well as briefly and critically addressing evolution and racial theories. The debates and the wild theories of the nineteenth century regarding human evolution are also thoroughly engaging, not least the ambition and passion of Eugène Dubois (his obsession with Lemuria and Ernst Haeckel is something I feel I need to explore further). Above all, the process of fossil hunting, the experience of discovering the Mojokerto fossil in Java, and the tension with Teuku Jacob, a controversial Indonesian archaeologist and palaeoanthropologist, are very compelling. It is a real page-turner.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book because I had actually visited one of the Java Man sites, Sangiran in Indonesia. I was interested in finding out more about this famous hominid fossil and its discovery.
The book indeed discusses the discovery of Java Man and the author's part in re-discovering the site where the remains were first found--making it some what of a mystery book. It also discusses the fierce rivalries in the field of human evolution and the way that new technologies are helping clear up some of the long-standing questions about human evolution.