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.

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

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.