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The human body is the battleground where our most fundamental ideas about the way the world is come into sharp focus.

When we think and talk about the body, we are suddenly very aware of that pattern of thinking which frames concepts in opposition, divides the world up between dark and light, material and immaterial, technology and humanity, invisible and visible, mind and body, body and soul.

In this new ten part series, academic and broadcaster Professor Alice Roberts traces how human knowledge of anatomy has grown and changed over time, and how this changing understanding has in turn affected our understanding of who we are.

Episode 2: The skull cup and the shape-shifters - The body in pre-history

What did our pre-historic ancestors think of the human body? Did they see it as the same as the animals they hunted – a collection of bones, muscle, sinews and blood vessels. Or was it somehow separate? Professor Alice Roberts contemplates tantalising glimpses of human bodies from our deep past – a human skull used as a drinking vessel, a statue of a half-man half-lion being, tiny figurines of Ice Age women.

Presenter: Professor Alice Roberts
Actor: Jonathan Kydd

A Made in Manchester production for Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 4