In October 1887 Eugene Dubois' journey to the Dutch East Indies revolutionised conventional thinking about the origins of mankind. In pursuit of the "missing link" that would prove man was a descendant of the apes, Dubois' discovery of a fossilised skullcap and femur led him to the conclusion of the existence of what became commonly known as "Java Man".
Using advanced dating techniques, Carl Swisher and Garniss Curtis returned to the fossil finds in Indonesia and made an amazing discovery: not only was Homo Erectus present far earlier than previously thought, the species also existed far more recently, as little as 30,000 years ago.
As this book explains, the conclusions of this research are extraordinary: rather than a steady "sapienisation", the evidence suggests that several species coexisted on earth, including Neanderthal man. And for whatever reason - economic competition, violent confrontation - it was Homo Sapiens that drove the other species to extinction.
