Twenty years ago, was lying in a Colorado cave, alone with a Pleistocene-era camel skeleton he was helping excavate as part of his graduate research in desert studies. He realized that he was one of the first people to ever see the camel, which had lived before people inhabited the States. 鈥淚 was spending all this time with these bones and imagining what it looked like before people were there,鈥 he says. North America was one of the last major places on earth to be occupied by humans, sometime between 20,000 and 40,000 years ago, and that idea鈥攐f what the unexplored continent looked like when people first crossed over the land bridge from Asia鈥 has stuck with him for two decades. In his latest book, he goes back into the cave, and then all over the world, to trace humankind鈥檚 initial exploration of the Americas.
Childs is known for meshing anthropology and exploration in books like . The new book, , pulls together the themes of his past work and lets him explore the questions he鈥檚 been marinating on for more than two decades. He traveled from the Yukon Flats of Alaska to Quintana Roo, Mexico, to try to learn from the people who came to the continent first. We talked to him about exploration, ancient history, and why his research sent him to Burning Man.
On Traveling for the Book: My history with writing is about time and archaeology, so I want to see where the blank places are, and how the threads got connected place by place. I went to Saint Lawrence Island, one of the last pieces of the Bering Land Bridge, which was the last landscape people would have seen 20,000 years ago when they were crossing over. That was pretty compelling to me because it was such a meeting point between two different parts of human civilization.
On His Most Unusual Book Destination: I was in Black Rock Desert during Burning Man, which was intentional. I was writing about the first large gatherings of people, at the end of the Pleistocene in [what鈥檚 now] Massachusetts. It has the same layout and the same concept: people coming together to share ideas. We鈥檝e gotten somewhere on scale鈥攖here鈥檚 way more of us鈥攁nd we鈥檝e opened ourselves up to understanding things like scientific processes we didn鈥檛 understand then, but we鈥檝e given up a lot, too. There鈥檚 a lot of knowledge of plants and animals we鈥檝e lost.
On Where He Was Most Surprised By What He Saw: When I鈥檓 in the backwoods of Florida it鈥檚 all new to me. There were times we might have been in people鈥檚 backyards, but it felt wild. In some places you can employ the skills you picked up on western rivers, but it鈥檚 not that easy there. There were snakes hanging out of trees, and alligators, and there were times I was in over my head. The rivers were bewildering. I鈥檇 follow them and they would go into holes in the ground, then I鈥檇 walk farther, and they鈥檇 come out of different holes.
On Research and Reading Material: Half of the book is brain work with other researchers and half is foot work. I rely heavily on other people鈥檚 research, so mostly what I鈥檓 reading is hundreds upon hundreds of scientific journal articles. But the place I start from is fiction because I want to see what they鈥檙e doing in more sharp-edged writing. I always go back to . And lately I鈥檝e been reading poetry, Sharon Olds and Mary Oliver. I can open up a page, get blown away, and set it back down.
On What He Learned: It鈥檚 about species colonization. Every species has to have a certain number of individuals who are willing to go out looking at the edges of things to see if there鈥檚 a niche they can move to, or a new resource they need for long-term survival. I think it鈥檚 true now, too. It鈥檚 no wonder we鈥檙e consuming everything so quickly.
On Why People Explore: A Pleistocene sense of landscape is still within our grasp. You can still go have those experiences, and I think it鈥檚 why we hike and put on packs. We remember what it鈥檚 like to make decisions, and to scan the horizon with every step. When you drop in there and pretend you鈥檙e first, how do you learn about the plants and the place? You learn how to adjust to the landscapes.
On What He Hopes Readers Get from the Book: What I really want people to come away with is context. We get lost in thinking that this is the only moment. We see history only going back 3,000 years, but the country as we know it now has a much deeper story. I think if we understand the arc of where we鈥檙e going as a species we can make more intentional, informed decisions.
Like the sound of Atlas of a Lost World? Here are some other books to add to your list:
听 by Yuval Noah Harari
Really want to know how we got here? Harari鈥檚 human history goes deep on everything from biology to economics to try to understand.
听 by John McPhee
The similarities don鈥檛 stop at the titles. McPhee is the master of pulling together disparate people and places to show the ways the systems we depend on are built. he鈥檚 also the master of getting readers to care about something鈥攇eology!鈥攖hey might have otherwise ignored.
鈥溾 by Ross Andersen, The Atlantic, April 2017
Andersen鈥檚 weird, wonderful article about a recreated Ice Age biodome in Russia asks some of the same, bittersweet questions about what we鈥檝e failed to learn from the past.