Correcting many false assumptions about ancient man, this short book tries to elevate ancient men and women to a more appropriate status. They were not brutes, proto-humans, or naked apes. They survived a turbulent earth, ice ages, rapid thaws, and the resultant deluges that carved canyons and carried away mammoths and men. Only to have their bones treated as relics, and have museums insult their humanity with dioramas that were hardly more than vulgar theatre. There were our forefathers and deserve better.