Description: This series introduces, through the field of biological anthropology, how hominins have evolved and survived since they first appeared on Earth long ago — approached in both a neuroscientific and archaeological way. The previous series, Human Investigation Report, followed the Aure exploration team as they lived alongside humans and observed them, showing why humans think, perceive, and behave the way we do. Through this, readers got a taste of the essence of brain science. This newly planned series, Human Exploration Report, aims to introduce readers to the field of 'biological anthropology' — or more precisely, 'archaeo-neuro-bioanthropology.' In other words, rather than focusing only on humans today, this series explores what kind of brains hominins had hundreds, tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of years ago, and how they evolved and survived on Earth, using both neuroscientific and archaeological approaches. It introduces readers to a discipline that uses biological principles to imagine humanity's distant past. The name of this field sounds difficult, complicated, and intimidating, but through it, we're actually uncovering fascinating answers about how humans lived tens of thousands of years ago. If Human Investigation Report was 'a brain science project for children,' then Human Exploration Report is a project that introduces, for the very first time, 'the brain science of Homo sapiens.' History is truly a scientific subject — we hope even children who love history will enjoy this series! While Human Investigation Report was a book that children who love brain science and science in general could immerse themselves in, Human Exploration Report adds history into the mix, making it a book that history-loving children can enjoy as well. History is often seen as part of the humanities, far removed from science, but in fact, history is one of the most scientific disciplines of all. To understand how our ancient ancestors lived, we must imagine and reconstruct their lives in our minds using small fragments of historical evidence and clues — and for that reconstruction to be plausible, a scientific approach is essential. That's why biological anthropology may be the purest form of science of all. This series was created with the hope that readers can experience a taste of that scientific essence. The ancient humans described and depicted in this book are not absolute truth. Just as we infer 'this is likely how ancient humans lived' based on surviving bone fragments, skull shapes, and the ruins and artifacts they left behind, this book is structured much like a modern forensic team tracking down a suspect using only the clues left at a crime scene. In that spirit, we hope all of you can become anthropology detectives, using your imagination to picture our ancient ancestors. To understand how humanity built today's vast civilization, and what sets us apart from other great apes, we need to explore biological anthropology. Why introduce children to a field like biological anthropology, which sounds difficult even by name, in addition to brain science? When we study what recent scientific discoveries reveal about the differences between humans and other great apes, we uncover astonishing facts about humanity. Very young great apes — orangutans, chimpanzees, gorillas — show little difference from two- or three-year-old human children. Scientists have found that they are remarkably intelligent and capable of many of the same cognitive behaviors as we are. So how did we come to build such an enormous intellectual civilization and enjoy life in a complex modern society, while they remain in a primitive state? And why did other hominins like Homo neanderthalensis, Homo erectus, and Homo habilis fail to survive and eventually go extinct? To find clues to these questions, we need to examine how the brains of early Homo sapiens differed from those of great apes, as well as from other now-extinct hominins. And when we look closely, it turns out that brain size wasn't the deciding factor — nor was having a larger skull or greater brain volume.