Every Bone Tells a Story

Every Bone Tells a Story: Hominin Discoveries, Deductions, and Debates is a work of scientific anthropology by Jill Rubalcaba and Peter Robertshaw. First published in 2010 and aimed at young adults, the book looks at four archaeological discoveries and how scientific advances have influenced our understanding of the past. The book was nominated for awards, including the 2011 YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction. Rubalcaba is the author of numerous nonfiction books and she lives in Connecticut. Her books are aimed at young adult readers. Robertshaw is Professor of Anthropology at California State University. He’s co-authored a handful of nonfiction books.

Every Bone Tells a Story is divided into four sections. Each section discusses a significant hominin unearthed in recent years. Hominins, as defined in the book, include modern-day human beings, our living ancestors, and our extinct ancestors. The four hominins studied in Every Bone Tells a Story are the Turkana Boy, the Lapedo Child, the Kennewick Man, and the Iceman.

Before discussing the hominins, Every Bone Tells a Story provides a brief introduction to modern archaeology. Rubalcaba explains that today’s archaeologists are scientists who want to learn everything they can about the past. Now, archaeology is not so much about making new discoveries as it is about understanding what the discoveries that we’ve made reveal about our history.



Rubalcaba highlights the importance of the so-called “three Ds” of archaeology—discovery, deductions, and debates. Once we make a discovery, scientists deduce what they can from it. They make logical conclusions based on the data available. Scientists then hold intellectual debates and hypothesize over deeper meanings. As science advances, so does our understanding of the past. Scientists continually revisit earlier conclusions and debate whether they still hold true. For Rubalcaba, the debate is perhaps the most exciting part.

Every Bone Tells a Story begins where all hominins began, which is Africa. Archaeologists discovered Turkana Boy, the earliest complete human skeleton available, in East Africa. The next most significant discovery is the Lapedo Child found in Portugal. The Lapedo Child makes scientists question how humans moved from Africa to Portugal, and what prompted us to move.

The Kennewick Man poses new problems when students first discover him. It’s unclear how humans got from Portugal all the way across to Washington State in the USA. Scientists are still debating the likely trajectory to this day. With each new scientific advancement, Rubalcaba explains, we get closer to answering this question.



Iceman, according to Rubalcaba, is the most important discovery. Scientists found him in the Italian Alps fully intact. He still had all his soft tissue and his belongings. From the Iceman, scientists developed a way to trace ancestry through genealogy. Scientists gained a better understanding of how humans populated Europe and how genetic groups moved around the world.

Each section in Every Bone Tells a Story begins with a picture of the relevant hominin. Rubalcaba then describes how scientists and archaeologists found the remains, and what the discoveries meant for the scientific community at the time. For example, the fossil hunters known as the Hominin Gang lost all hope in finding anything useful just before they uncovered Turkana Boy. Every Bone Tells a Story is a lesson in struggling through adversity.

The book emphasizes how specialized archaeology is now as a scientific discipline. There are more archaeologists working now than ever before. Whenever we believe we’ve learned all we can about an object or a fossil, a scientist finds compelling new evidence to kickstart the debates all over again. Rubalcaba considers developments such as x-ray and genetic technology, and how these advancements often disprove previous conclusions. For example, extracting delicate matter such as bee pollen from bone and wood fragments helps show us what the world was like when the hominin died, how they lived, and where they moved.



Critics note that Every Bone Tells a Story compliments the way teenagers learn scientific subjects nowadays. Rubalcaba links archaeology to the sciences that teenagers are more familiar with, such as geography, biology, and earth sciences. For example, we see that humans have prominent noses to retain moisture, and that our ancestors were often healthier than us. By making these links, Every Bone Tells a Story helps students understand how to view archaeological findings in a wider context. The book shows them how various scientific disciplines work together.

Every Bone Tells a Story encourages readers to ask more questions about their environment, their ancestry, and their history. As Rubalcaba aims the book at young adults, the writing is straightforward and designed to provoke further discussion. Readers see that the human story is evolving all the time, and new discoveries are always just over the horizon.

Rubalcaba and Robertshaw hope the book encourages more young people to pursue sciences such as anthropology and archaeology. Significantly, Every Bone Tells a Story encourages readers to reach their own conclusions about what new archaeological findings mean. Unless technology proves otherwise, there is often no right answer. All opinions and theories are welcome.