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