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Built on Bones
Built on Bones: 15,000 Years of Urban Life and Death | Brenna Hassett
6 posts | 2 read | 33 to read
Imagine you are a hunter-gatherer some 15,000 years ago. You've got a choice ? carry on foraging, or plant a few seeds and move to one of those new-fangled settlements down the valley. What you won't know is that urban life is short and riddled with dozens of new diseases; your children will be shorter and sicklier than you are, they'll be plagued with gum disease, and stand a decent chance of a violent death at the point of a spear. Why would anyone choose this? This is one of the many intriguing questions tackled by Brenna Hassett in Built on Bones. Using research on skeletal remains from around the world, this book explores the history of humanity's experiment with the metropolis, and looks at why our ancestors chose city life, and why they have largely stuck to it. It explains the diseases, the deaths and the many other misadventures that we have unwittingly unleashed upon ourselves throughout the metropolitan past, and as the world becomes increasingly urbanised, what we can look forward to in the future. Telling the tale of shifts in human growth and health that have occurred as we transitioned from a mobile to a largely settled species. Built on Bones offers an accessible insight into a critical but relatively unheralded aspect of the human story: our recent evolution.
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review
shanaqui
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Pickpick

Lots of interesting stuff on the things skeletons can tell us about the development of urban living. And I shouldn't be surprised, but a good bit on diseases, including my friend tuberculosis. Mostly not new to me, but interesting!

PenguinInFlight Is your Tuberculosis from ThinkGeek? I spend way too much money there, LOL, but I LOVE them. ☺️💜 7y
shanaqui @PenguinInFlight I think he was directly from the GiantMicrobes people. I really want the petri dish version with the small TBs, so darn cute. 7y
16 likes2 comments
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shanaqui
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Welp. I've injured my foot, it's approximately the size of a melon, I get to lie in my bunk bed at my parents' house surrounded by my childhood teddies and read until I can walk again, right? Which means I can have multiple books on the go at once, right?

LiteraryinPA Oh no! I‘m sorry your foot is hurt, but it sounds like you‘re making the best of it with books. ☺️ 7y
LiteraryinPA Is that The Prince and the Dressmaker? I‘ve been wanting to read that one based on someone‘s Litsy recommendation. 7y
Chelleo Sorry to hear about your foot. Hope the reading helps!! 7y
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shanaqui @LiteraryinLititz Thank you! Books are the best medicine, right? And yes, it is! 7y
shanaqui @Chelleo Thanks! I don't know quite how it suddenly got so bad, but I plan on applying intensive reading as a solution. 😆 7y
rabbitprincess Hope your foot heals soon. In the meantime, enjoy the books! 7y
12 likes6 comments
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Utopiyll
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It's been quite some time since I've picked up a book, and of course it is going to be in the middle of the night when I have work in the morning!
Built on Bones is a non-fiction book about how we evolved to the living conditions we have now, from cave men to nomads to huts to cities and to now urban lifestyle. It's going to be super interesting, and my kitty can't wait either! 👌
#nonfiction #cat #educational

KirstieE Welcome back 😊 7y
Utopiyll @KirstieE Yay thankyou, back from my reading slump! 🤗 7y
9 likes2 comments
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zsuzsanna_reads
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This is a book about bioarcheology: looking at bones, teeth, DNA etc. from excavations.

I found I learned a lot about this topic. The book was at times a bit rambling, but so am I 🙂

I enjoyed the academic humour and learning about the lighter side of working on an archaeological dig. Given that the author works with human skeletons for a living, no matter how old, she probably needs the gallows humour.

RanaElizabeth This is so in my wheelhouse! Stacked! 7y
shawnmooney I'd never have thought I'd be into something like this but you've sold me on it! 😍 7y
33 likes3 stack adds2 comments
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zsuzsanna_reads
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I am really enjoying this audiobook and learning a lot about modern archeology! As an academic, I enjoy the humour too.

40 likes1 stack add
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Liberty
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Evening reading. "And we're all gonna be just dirt in the ground..." ??☠️

Wife Sounds interesting.🤔 8y
Nuwanda Sounds intriguing. Thanks for getting that Tom Waits song stuck in my head, haha! 8y
134 likes22 stack adds2 comments