Broken and healed femur bone
A broken and healed femur.

The famous anthropologist Margaret Mead was asked what she considered to be the first sign of humanity. While the questioner expected an answer like cave paintings, religious icons, etc. Mead explained that the first sign was a thousands of years old fractured and healed femur, the long bone in the leg. In the animal kingdom, if you break your leg, you die. A broken femur that has healed is evidence that another person has carried the person to safety and has tended to them through recovery. A healed femur indicates that someone has helped a fellow human, rather than abandoning them to save their own life, that is when we developed humanity.

find out more about this parable here.

This project provides FREE coloring pages around the theme of what makes us human – caring for and helping others! 50+ images produced by 25 artists, for kids and adults. Click the images to be taken a page to download high resolution versions of the images and to learn more about the history.

Hands holding a range of bronse age toys - figures and animals
Masks
A delftware tile that depicts a romantic scene where a young man hands a flower to the girl he loves.
A scene of a father and child collectiong beavers from a trap
A mohter teaching her child
Bapedi Culture & Medicinal plants
Physicians conduction surgery on a person
A Rune stone created by Harald Bluetooth in memory of his parents, King Gorm and Queen Thyra.
A neanderthal caring for another neanderthal hurt by a goat
The inside courtyard of an almshouse
Comic of story. Student asks, 'Margaret Mead, what is the earliest sign of civilization'. Mead responds, 'the first sign of civilization is a healed femur. In the animal kingdom if you break a leg, you die. A broken and healed femur means that someone has carried the person to safety and cared for them. It means that someone has helped a fellow human, rather than abandoning them.'
Several monks attending to a sick person
Image of a Marten Head
A scene of teacher teaching two pupils
Prince Lu playing a guqin, a seven-string musical instrument
Image of women kneeling next to a pond and temple
Three people taking different types of medication. Inside the medication are images of scientists.
Image of shaman, plants with healing properties and masks
A person braiding another person's hair
Table with scrolls and herms on it
The centaur chiron.
A women preparing healing herbs at Biskupin
An archaeologist holding up an Ojibwe bad and thinking about someone using it
A village scene with people untertaking differenct activities like making baskets, giving food and more
Six Chibi characters from different time periods and with different disabilities
Agesilaus II - A Disabled Spartan
Mutiple different plants used for healing by Romans
An archaeologist holding up the toy horse and thinking about someone using it
Three people holding up different 'Red Cross' flags
A Minoan fresco with sealife such as fish and dolphins
Hands holding flowers
Eir
A child with a scraped knee.
People hunting a mammoth - one has fallen and hurt their leg
Mary Seacole
A women caring for a man inside their home
A women walking along a trail carrier a jug
Four people sitting and playing musical instruments.
A grandfather talking to his grandchild on shetland
De Hogeweyk – Nursing home
Two women outside the Rotunda hosipital in the 1800s
Scotland's Potato Famine
Cartoon og the history of Hospital Real de Todos-os-Santos
Images of broken bones and test that says - helping someone else through difficulty is where civilization starts
A viking women in labour
A chelsea pensioner getting his leg inspected by a doctor

Currently, the images are mainly European themed, because the project was originally funded by the European Cultural Foundation, but we hope to cover the world in the future.