Thank you for your emails and my apologies for being late to begin this blog. Thank you for your questions too and I will try to answer a few of them here and now.

It is really difficult for us to understand what life was like 25,000 years ago and in CRO-MAGNON  25,000 BP I have tried my best at trying to understand our ancient ancestors and what their lives may have been like.  Of course my story is fictional, but I have tried to keep as near to what may be accurate in most instances. Unfortunately, so much about these people is lost and we have really little concrete knowledge about them. Archaeologists have bones, stone tools, carvings and paintings which theories and inferences are made and there are many experts who have very different theories, which they defend.

We have to imagine a world where there were very few humans and the land was teeming with herds of herbivores, various deer species, horses, bison, aurochs, woolly mammoth, ibex, woolly rhinoceros, and many other grazers and browsers. They were the prey animals, although both the mammoths and rhinoceros would have been very difficult prey. The predators would have included lions, saber-cats, bears, wolves, panthers, hyenas, and humans. Neanderthals who had populated Europe for a couple hundred thousand years seem to have all but vanished by 25,000 years ago, with the last of them living in Southern Spain.

In our setting in Southern France in which today millions of people live there may have only been a couple thousand humans living at the time at the most. Understanding their world and the climate and weather helps us to understand their life, at a time when most only lived until they were thirty-five.

Answer for Deb in CA: Yes, I do mention cloth a few times in CRO-MAGNON and there is evidence of it in Czechoslovakia dating to 30,000 years ago. Don't confuse it with a fine cotton shirt of today though. They probably used twisted vegetable fibers on a small hand loom and would have had the softness of burlap.

Answer for Megan in VA: Dogs in CRO-MAGNON?  Yes. I am sure they did have dogs, although many experts argue people did not have dogs until 15,000 years ago. I think that is old and out-dated information, like much information about the period. There are the two graves of a dog which have been found and they were very large dogs. The one is Russia had a mammoth bone place in its mouth. The dog found in Belgium was also found in a grave inside a cave and they both date to 30,000 years ago.

Answer for Owen in FL: Animal migrations? They would have migrated much like modern day animals do in Africa. Usually seeking the best combination of food, water, and grasses. Depending on the seasons, climate, and food availability. They would have ranged far and wide probably heading north for the summer and south for the winter. Yes, the animals could outstrip available food rather quickly in a given area. Like a modern day elephant a mammoth also probably needed 400 lbs of food per day. That is an awful lot of grass and leaves.

I will get to some of the other questions I've received this week and continue building this site and blog so please do stop back soon. If you have a question you may post it here or email me at JackRourk@gmail.com