ScienceFirst volume of ‘Early Man was a Woman’ comes out in English
Science interviews Austrian comic artist Ulli Lust about women’s underappreciated role in prehistory, the challenge of drawing archaeological evidence accurately, and why Stone Age imagery centers cave men rather than cave women.
TLDR
Science reports that the first of three volumes of Ulli Lust’s Early Man was a Woman has come out in English. Lust spent years reading about ice age archaeology before creating the comic, which explores women’s underappreciated role in prehistory. First published in German in 2025, the volume won the prize for best German-language nonfiction book in 2026—the first comic to win the award. Science’s interview examines how Lust turned the archaeological record into a comic and why popular images of the Stone Age focus on men.
