The Language Puzzle: Piecing Together the Six-Million-Year Story of How Words Evolved

A top scholar reveals the most complete picture to date of how early human speech led to the languages we use today

The emergence of language began with the apelike calls of our earliest ancestors. Today, the world is home to thousands of complex languages. Yet exactly how, when, and why this evolution occurred has been one of the most enduring—and contentiously debated—questions in science.

In The Language Puzzle, renowned archaeologist Steven Mithen puts forward a groundbreaking new acc...