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Where do we come from?

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When did our story really begin?

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Who were the first Homo sapiens?

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Not just humans who looked like us,

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but people who thought and behaved as
we do.

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People we would recognise as truly one
of us.

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We, Homo sapiens, first appeared over
300,000 years ago.

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We were not the first species of
human.

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We're not the biggest, we're not the
strongest,

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we're just the latest in a long line
of other humans.

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Yet, a few hundred thousand years
later, we are the only ones

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left, and the most dominant form of
life on this planet.

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How on earth did this happen?

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I'm Ella Al-Shamahi, a
paleoanthropologist.

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People spend their whole lives trying
to find

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a fossil as significant as this.

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You might think you know the story of
human evolution, but now

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we are discovering it's stranger and
more dramatic than we ever imagined.

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This was something that wiped out 13
people in the same family.

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Thanks to ground-breaking new science,
we are

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rewriting the story of our origins.

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From our tentative first steps...

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..to the migrations that carried us
across continents.

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And our encounters with other human
species we met along the way.

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It's small, it's really tiny.

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I can see why you would call it the
Hobbit.

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From the first marks we made on cave
walls...

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..to the rise of cities...

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..these are the unlikely events that
forged us.

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Moments of chance, but also ingenuity,

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of beauty and destruction.

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This is us, this is our story, and
it's what happened

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in the 99% of our history before the
invention of writing, when our

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story wasn't written in books, but was
written in our bones and DNA.

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This is the story of how we became...

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..human.

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This story begins in Africa, in a time
long ago...

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..in a world before we existed at all.

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In many ways, this world would feel
familiar...

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..teeming with animals we'd recognise.

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But there was one crucial difference.

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This world was inhabited by not one,

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but by many other types of human.

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We're used to living in a world filled
with other species.

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Over eight million share our planet
with us.

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But there is only one of us, only one
human species, Homo sapiens.

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And so, it's really easy to forget
that it wasn't always like this.

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The world before us was alive with
other human activity.

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Around six million years before Homo
sapiens appeared...

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..some primates left the trees.

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They started walking upright and over
time, began using stone tools.

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These toolmakers became the earliest
form of human.

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Over millions of years, these humans
continued to evolve...

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..forming a diverse family tree of
different human species.

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Who were these other humans and how
are we connected to them?

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Well, they're all part of our extended
family,

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so our parents, grandparents,
great-aunts, cousins.

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Some were our ancestors, others just
relatives.

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But all of them were part of our
lineage, our family tree,

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that spanned millennia.

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Around the time Homo sapiens
emerged...

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..there were at least six different
human species.

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And using the latest scientific data,

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we can reconstruct what they might
have looked like.

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There were so many species of human.

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You had Homo erectus, an ancestor of
ours, and an incredibly

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successful species, because they lived
for about two million years.

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Now, Homo erectus was actually the
first in our genus to leave Africa.

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And we also think that they were the
first to use fire.

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There's also Homo neanderthalensis,

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who you probably know as the
Neanderthals.

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Neanderthals lived in Europe, all the
way into Central Asia.

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They were cold-adapted.

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And they were expert hunters.

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There was also Homo floresiensis,

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who some people affectionately call
the Hobbit...

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..because they were only about a metre
tall,

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so that's about three and a half feet.

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Tiny, and yet adapted for living on an
island.

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It seems like a fantastical world, and
I can't help it,

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it reminds me of Lord Of The Rings.

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Only, instead of a world with elves
and dwarves,

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you had a magical place with other
humans.

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The human family tree had many
branches.

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But which branch did Homo sapiens
first emerge from?

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We don't know for sure,

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but we're getting closer than ever to
finding out.

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For the longest time, we thought we
knew the origins of our species.

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We thought we began 200,000 years ago
in East Africa.

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But new revelations from out here in
Morocco,

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from a part of Africa that people
weren't really considering,

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are forcing us to rethink our very
first steps on this planet.

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In a remote cave in North West Africa,

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a chance discovery uncovered some
mysterious human remains.

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Someone unexpected was living here...

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..thousands of years earlier than we
imagined.

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This is Jebel Irhoud 1, and it was a
complete mystery,

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because some of its features are very
much like us,

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very Homo sapiens, and others are much
older, much more primitive.

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So, if you look at this individual's
face,

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its face looks a lot like ours.

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The Homo sapiens face is incredibly
gracile.

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We have incredibly delicate features.

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They, kind of, tuck in under our brain
case.

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If you imagine a prehistoric human,

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you kind of always imagine a much,
kind of more prognathic,

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we say, much more kind of jutting
forwards face.

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This individual's face is much more
tucked under, it's much shorter.

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But there are some features that
aren't us.

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Notice this brow ridge up here, this
supraorbital structure.

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Now, look at me.

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You don't get modern humans walking
around today with these

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massive things on top of their eyes.

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I mean, it would actually be quite
terrifying today if we saw that.

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Now, the brain case is not us.

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You see how round my brain case is?

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It's globular, whereas this is almost
stretched out.

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It's almost like somebody's got my
brain case but kind of

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stretched the back of it out.

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It's almost like straight-on, the face
is Homo sapiens,

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but from the other angles, it's not
us.

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These finds posed a mystery.

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They were anomalies that didn't fit
neatly into the human family tree.

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They looked partly like Homo
sapiens...

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..and partly like an earlier human.

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So, the question was, was this a
different species,

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or could it be an early version of us?

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Several decades after the initial
discoveries came a breakthrough.

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Archaeologists uncovered another 16
fossils...

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..all with the same blend of features.

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With each new find, the evidence grew.

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These were not some other species, but
Homo sapiens,

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with hints of an earlier ancestor.

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But it wasn't until archaeologists
were able to more accurately

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date the remains that the final piece
of the puzzle fell into place.

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The archaeologists, using new and
improved dating techniques,

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were able to give us dates for these
fossils, and they tell us

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that these individuals lived about
300,000 years ago.

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And that is mind-boggling,

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because we thought our species was
only about 200,000 years old.

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What these fossils tell us is that our
species, Homo sapiens,

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is 100,000 years older than we
thought.

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We are a third older than we realised.

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This fossil went from being enigmatic

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and basically a mystery,

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to being one of the most important
fossils in our whole field.

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Thousands of miles from East Africa
where we thought we began,

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and far older than expected...

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..these are the earliest Homo sapiens
ever found.

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And they have forced us to rethink
other finds across Africa...

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..which are painting an entirely new
picture of our origins,

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suggesting that Jebel Irhoud...

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..was just one of many emerging
populations,

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all in the process of taking shape.

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It's...

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It's a bit like having a peek behind
the curtain of evolution.

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This is a stage in the journey to
becoming us.

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I wonder what it would feel like to
come face-to-face with

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one of the people from Jebel Irhoud?

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If we were to look into their eyes...

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..into those quite delicate features,

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would we see ourselves within them?

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The answer is, they were not modern
humans like us.

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Not yet.

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They were an earlier stage in our
evolutionary journey,

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bridging the gap between us and our
ancient human ancestors.

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Our emergence was actually slow, and
honestly, at the beginning,

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we were just not that special.

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Now, early iterations of Homo sapiens,
like Jebel Irhoud,

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were popping up all over Africa.

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We once believed in a single origin, a
sole cradle of humanity

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in East Africa, but our story is far
richer and more interesting.

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The latest evidence suggests we
emerged gradually,

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across thousands of miles, and over
hundreds of thousands of years...

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..appearing bit by bit...

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..like a series of sparks...

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..igniting across the African
continent.

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THUNDERCLAP

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And yet, Homo sapiens could have
easily vanished without trace.

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Because just as we were finding our
place in the world...

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..something threatened to wipe us out
altogether.

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It's in East Africa's Great Rift
Valley that we can trace

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the next chapter of our story.

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This dynamic landscape holds some of
the clearest

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evidence of the forces that set our
species on a radically new path.

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When they say the Great Rift Valley of
East Africa is a dramatic

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place, they're not kidding.

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I mean, look at it.

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I can literally hear it bubbling
behind me, and it's

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the result of a geological process
that sees three tectonic plates

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tearing away from each other, which
results in a dynamic landscape.

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And even though this part doesn't look
that hospitable,

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it has been a home to people for a
very long time.

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This is one of the most fossil-rich
regions in Africa.

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Its unusual geology has not only
preserved human remains,

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but also offers a glimpse into the
forces that drove our evolution.

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So, within the lakebeds here, if you
dig deep, you can

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actually extract sediment cores.

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Now, one here in Ethiopia was about
280 metres deep,

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so that represents over 600,000 years.

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And within that sediment, it's a bit
like a time machine,

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because bits of ancient environment
are trapped.

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By analysing these sediment layers,

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scientists have uncovered a window

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into the world some of the earliest

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Homo sapiens were living in.

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The information from those sediment
cores has been

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collated into this graph, and when you
zoom out, it actually

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paints a really interesting picture,
because for the first 300,000

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years, you see a period of relative
climate stability.

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But then, at around 275,000 years ago,
something shifts,

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and we see a period of fluctuations,
volatility, between humid

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and arid periods, in a way that just
wasn't happening before.

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Now, East and West Africa are linked
in a kind of climate seesaw.

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So, when one is humid, the other is
arid, and vice versa.

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Over thousands of years, wild climate
swings engulfed Africa...

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..plunging fledgling populations of
Homo sapiens...

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..into a world of extremes.

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Ecosystems were destroyed.

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Rivers and lakes swelled...

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..cutting people off from one another.

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Elsewhere, grasslands turned to
desert.

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Survival was a battle against
relentless change.

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I do think that when we look at these
zoomed-out graphs,

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we sometimes make a vital error.

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We forget to zoom back in.

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After all, human evolution is about
humans.

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There are people like you and me
experiencing the peaks

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and troughs of those graphs.

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People who were suddenly facing
droughts, or flash floods,

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or perhaps the disappearance of a food
source.

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Entire communities...

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..found themselves isolated.

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Some populations dwindled.

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The ones who couldn't adapt died out.

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This struggle for survival could have
wiped

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Home sapiens out altogether.

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But it didn't.

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It had the opposite effect.

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It drove us forward.

241
00:25:29,340 --> 00:25:33,500
Under pressure, isolated populations
learnt new skills.

242
00:25:43,780 --> 00:25:47,940
Those who could adapt and innovate had
a better chance of survival.

243
00:25:54,260 --> 00:25:58,700
Then, as the climate changed, groups
came back together.

244
00:25:58,700 --> 00:26:02,780
They shared skills and crucially, they
interbred...

245
00:26:07,900 --> 00:26:10,820
..passing beneficial traits on to
their children.

246
00:26:13,780 --> 00:26:17,180
It was a process that began to change
us permanently.

247
00:26:25,940 --> 00:26:29,780
The people who survived emerged
stronger than ever.

248
00:26:58,580 --> 00:27:01,660
Today, most of us live in towns and
cities...

249
00:27:03,820 --> 00:27:08,060
..and so, the reality of being
affected by the climate

250
00:27:08,060 --> 00:27:11,580
as a result of being a nomadic person
kind of escapes us.

251
00:27:11,580 --> 00:27:13,380
But you've actually got a really good
example here,

252
00:27:13,380 --> 00:27:14,620
with the Afar people.

253
00:27:17,900 --> 00:27:20,380
They are nomadic, and so they get
pushed

254
00:27:20,380 --> 00:27:22,900
and pulled around the landscape.

255
00:27:22,900 --> 00:27:25,540
And it would've been very similar with
our ancestors,

256
00:27:25,540 --> 00:27:28,260
but actually in a more extreme
fashion.

257
00:27:31,260 --> 00:27:34,140
These different groups, as they were
moving around,

258
00:27:34,140 --> 00:27:36,660
would've at times met, and when they
did,

259
00:27:36,660 --> 00:27:41,300
they would've, of course, shared
skills and knowledge and DNA.

260
00:27:44,620 --> 00:27:47,860
It was this mixing of groups that
ultimately brought us

261
00:27:47,860 --> 00:27:51,580
closer to becoming the Homo sapiens we
are today.

262
00:27:58,940 --> 00:28:02,900
Our origins as a species are so much
more complicated and dynamic,

263
00:28:02,900 --> 00:28:08,260
involving not just East Africa, but
the whole of the African continent.

264
00:28:09,820 --> 00:28:14,220
Africa was a continent rich in
diversity, and climate acted

265
00:28:14,220 --> 00:28:19,700
as a sort of catalyst, blending these
various groups together.

266
00:28:20,780 --> 00:28:24,300
And so, we were formed as a result of
a mosaic of these

267
00:28:24,300 --> 00:28:27,220
different populations across Africa.

268
00:28:29,780 --> 00:28:34,140
It was our diversity, our resilience
in the face of climate change...

269
00:28:35,500 --> 00:28:38,060
..it shaped us, our minds and our
bodies,

270
00:28:38,060 --> 00:28:42,140
and transformed us into a new and
evolved human.

271
00:28:50,620 --> 00:28:53,540
We all carry an echo of what happened
in Africa

272
00:28:53,540 --> 00:28:55,580
at this pivotal moment...

273
00:29:01,780 --> 00:29:05,340
..because what happened then changed
us forever.

274
00:29:16,780 --> 00:29:20,180
What began as diverse, scattered
populations...

275
00:29:25,860 --> 00:29:28,180
..in the face of adversity came
together...

276
00:29:34,020 --> 00:29:39,300
..propelling us to become one
stronger, smarter species.

277
00:30:00,860 --> 00:30:04,060
This is a museum that houses some of
the most important

278
00:30:04,060 --> 00:30:05,860
fossils in the human story.

279
00:30:09,900 --> 00:30:14,900
And one of those fossils is Herto 1,
easily one of the most

280
00:30:14,900 --> 00:30:18,580
significant Homo sapiens fossils that
has ever been found.

281
00:30:18,580 --> 00:30:23,220
And that's because this individual is
one of the very first

282
00:30:23,220 --> 00:30:28,020
in our lineage that we can describe as
an anatomically modern human.

283
00:30:28,020 --> 00:30:29,660
Its physical characteristics

284
00:30:29,660 --> 00:30:34,980
and traits are overwhelmingly similar
to those of yours and mine.

285
00:30:34,980 --> 00:30:39,140
And if you look at this individual
compared to Jebel Irhoud,

286
00:30:39,140 --> 00:30:41,940
look how rounded it is.

287
00:30:41,940 --> 00:30:47,780
Some people have put forward this
intriguing idea that perhaps

288
00:30:47,780 --> 00:30:54,060
the shape of the skull reflects a
change in brain organisation.

289
00:30:55,580 --> 00:31:00,180
This process of globularisation has
been linked to language skills

290
00:31:00,180 --> 00:31:02,620
and coordination.

291
00:31:02,620 --> 00:31:06,820
And it is really exciting to consider
that this

292
00:31:06,820 --> 00:31:13,700
change in shape reflects a really
significant shift in the way

293
00:31:13,700 --> 00:31:16,260
that Homo sapiens were starting to
think.

294
00:31:22,660 --> 00:31:25,900
These larger, reorganised brains had
slowly

295
00:31:25,900 --> 00:31:31,020
but surely opened a gap between Homo
sapiens and our ancestors.

296
00:31:33,060 --> 00:31:34,940
But it wasn't only the size

297
00:31:34,940 --> 00:31:37,700
and shape of our brains that set us
apart.

298
00:31:40,420 --> 00:31:43,740
One of the lines of evidence for this
are actually the teeth.

299
00:31:43,740 --> 00:31:46,100
Now, scientists have discovered that
if you look very

300
00:31:46,100 --> 00:31:49,420
closely at the teeth, what you find
are very fine lines called

301
00:31:49,420 --> 00:31:53,700
perikymata, that represent about a
week in the life of an individual.

302
00:31:53,700 --> 00:31:57,860
So, that means you can count how long
an individual has been

303
00:31:57,860 --> 00:32:00,940
alive, a bit like tree rings.

304
00:32:00,940 --> 00:32:04,300
And so, if you look at a Homo erectus
individual

305
00:32:04,300 --> 00:32:09,860
and compare it to, say, a Homo sapiens
living today,

306
00:32:09,860 --> 00:32:15,460
our species takes an incredibly long
time to get to sexual maturity.

307
00:32:17,260 --> 00:32:20,020
From the lines in their teeth, we know
that Homo sapiens

308
00:32:20,020 --> 00:32:25,300
children were growing up much more
slowly than earlier humans.

309
00:32:31,100 --> 00:32:36,900
The thinking behind it is that we
needed a really long time to

310
00:32:36,900 --> 00:32:39,740
learn how to use these brains of ours.

311
00:32:43,820 --> 00:32:47,060
And the longer that you exist in
childhood,

312
00:32:47,060 --> 00:32:48,620
the longer you have to learn.

313
00:32:53,140 --> 00:32:56,820
And so, this thing that is a real
headache to so many parents

314
00:32:56,820 --> 00:33:01,260
out there today, that our children
take so long to become fully

315
00:33:01,260 --> 00:33:07,180
formed, that might actually be a huge
key to our success.

316
00:33:13,940 --> 00:33:17,420
Reorganised minds and longer
childhoods,

317
00:33:17,420 --> 00:33:20,260
our brains and bodies had evolved.

318
00:33:25,780 --> 00:33:30,300
At last, we were Homo sapiens who
physically looked like us.

319
00:33:35,620 --> 00:33:39,500
What you might call, Sapiens 2.0.

320
00:33:48,820 --> 00:33:52,380
It was some of these anatomically
modern Homo sapiens that

321
00:33:52,380 --> 00:33:55,620
began to step out into the wider
world.

322
00:33:57,500 --> 00:34:01,660
But beyond Africa was already home to
other humans.

323
00:34:05,340 --> 00:34:08,900
Neanderthals had spread across Central
Asia and Europe.

324
00:34:12,340 --> 00:34:16,820
Other parts of Asia were populated by
multiple species,

325
00:34:16,820 --> 00:34:18,780
including Homo erectus.

326
00:34:26,380 --> 00:34:28,580
And there is evidence in the Middle
East

327
00:34:28,580 --> 00:34:31,020
of an early group of Homo sapiens...

328
00:34:36,540 --> 00:34:41,740
..who followed in the footsteps of
these other human species.

329
00:34:48,340 --> 00:34:52,460
I do love thinking about those huge
moments in our history,

330
00:34:52,460 --> 00:34:55,700
like when Homo sapiens first left
Africa.

331
00:34:55,700 --> 00:34:59,060
It was a massive achievement, even
though

332
00:34:59,060 --> 00:35:03,260
they would've had no idea of the
significance of it.

333
00:35:03,260 --> 00:35:07,380
And it's amazing to think that it
happened so early on in our story.

334
00:35:07,380 --> 00:35:11,900
But it's in the Levant that I think
things get really interesting.

335
00:35:15,700 --> 00:35:20,180
Evidence has been uncovered of a
community of Homo sapiens

336
00:35:20,180 --> 00:35:23,660
living in caves, in what is now
Israel.

337
00:35:28,780 --> 00:35:30,420
And it's in this place they would

338
00:35:30,420 --> 00:35:33,780
have encountered something unexpected.

339
00:35:36,420 --> 00:35:40,740
There is one mountain called Mount
Carmel where one cave,

340
00:35:40,740 --> 00:35:45,180
called Skhul, has been found with Homo
sapiens.

341
00:35:45,180 --> 00:35:50,460
And another cave on the same mountain,
called Tabun Cave,

342
00:35:50,460 --> 00:35:53,260
has been found with Neanderthal
individuals.

343
00:35:54,820 --> 00:35:57,900
And these two peoples were living at
the same time.

344
00:35:58,980 --> 00:36:02,100
It is kind of wonderful to think
about.

345
00:36:08,260 --> 00:36:11,700
And of course, the Neanderthals were
not an African species,

346
00:36:11,700 --> 00:36:14,100
they were used to living outside of
Africa,

347
00:36:14,100 --> 00:36:17,260
whereas for us, this was still very,
very new.

348
00:36:24,140 --> 00:36:27,340
Two species sharing the same mountain.

349
00:36:28,740 --> 00:36:30,780
We don't know if they interacted.

350
00:36:36,780 --> 00:36:39,780
But we do know that while Neanderthals
remained

351
00:36:39,780 --> 00:36:45,980
in the region, all traces of this
group of Homo sapiens vanished.

352
00:36:49,580 --> 00:36:52,420
Their bloodline died out completely.

353
00:36:57,940 --> 00:37:03,060
What is most fascinating about these
Homo sapiens isn't who

354
00:37:03,060 --> 00:37:05,620
they met, it isn't even what they
achieved.

355
00:37:05,620 --> 00:37:10,660
It's that all of these early
dispersals failed.

356
00:37:10,660 --> 00:37:15,900
We know from genetic evidence that
those Homo sapiens are not

357
00:37:15,900 --> 00:37:20,740
the ones who would go on to ultimately
populate the planet.

358
00:37:28,260 --> 00:37:32,540
This failed migration was a stark
reminder of our fragility.

359
00:37:41,620 --> 00:37:46,860
These people looked like us, but there
was something missing.

360
00:37:54,220 --> 00:37:58,260
Because what really defines our
species isn't how we look.

361
00:38:00,020 --> 00:38:02,340
It's not even the size of our brains.

362
00:38:04,220 --> 00:38:06,580
It's something else altogether.

363
00:38:15,860 --> 00:38:17,980
While these early migrants vanished...

364
00:38:22,940 --> 00:38:25,180
..populations in Africa thrived...

365
00:38:27,780 --> 00:38:31,700
..displaying that special essence that
makes us who we are.

366
00:38:54,140 --> 00:38:58,660
A way of thinking and behaving that
would set Homo sapiens apart.

367
00:39:07,620 --> 00:39:11,020
And some of the earliest traces of it
can be found in this

368
00:39:11,020 --> 00:39:13,380
remote cave in Botswana.

369
00:39:23,780 --> 00:39:27,220
- This is a very large natural
outcrop.

370
00:39:29,060 --> 00:39:31,340
And as you can see, it goes on and on.

371
00:39:31,340 --> 00:39:33,260
It's seven metres long.

372
00:39:34,660 --> 00:39:38,660
The front has a natural slit for a
mouth,

373
00:39:38,660 --> 00:39:41,460
and a natural depression for an eye.

374
00:39:41,460 --> 00:39:45,540
And even if you want to go that far, a
nostril up at the front.

375
00:39:45,540 --> 00:39:49,660
- Right.
- With the head rearing up, it does,

376
00:39:49,660 --> 00:39:52,220
in modern eyes, look like a snake.

377
00:39:58,860 --> 00:40:02,140
The overall form has been altered

378
00:40:02,140 --> 00:40:04,420
to make it look even more snake-like.

379
00:40:07,700 --> 00:40:12,460
There are over 300 indentations that
have been ground into the

380
00:40:12,460 --> 00:40:16,820
surface over what is obviously an
extended period of time.

381
00:40:18,100 --> 00:40:21,180
When the initial excavations were
conducted,

382
00:40:21,180 --> 00:40:24,980
they absolutely revealed a number of
questions.

383
00:40:27,940 --> 00:40:31,620
One of the things found was an
extremely large

384
00:40:31,620 --> 00:40:35,260
number of tools that appeared to be
manufactured

385
00:40:35,260 --> 00:40:38,300
and then just left there in pristine
condition.

386
00:40:38,300 --> 00:40:40,940
- These look gorgeous. I mean, they
absolutely look stunning.

387
00:40:40,940 --> 00:40:44,940
- Once they were manufactured, then
you did one of three things with it.

388
00:40:44,940 --> 00:40:49,900
You either manufactured it perfectly
and just left it.

389
00:40:49,900 --> 00:40:53,340
- Mh-hm.
- Or more interestingly, you burnt it.

390
00:40:58,100 --> 00:41:01,820
But not burnt to just, like, throwing
it in a bonfire.

391
00:41:06,140 --> 00:41:07,620
It's controlled burning.

392
00:41:11,260 --> 00:41:15,300
And the third and most bizarre thing
that they did with them

393
00:41:15,300 --> 00:41:21,340
is they made it, manufactured it
perfectly,

394
00:41:21,340 --> 00:41:25,660
and when they were finished, turned it
over, smashed it in the middle.

395
00:41:25,660 --> 00:41:27,820
- These are offerings, aren't they?
- Yeah.

396
00:41:27,820 --> 00:41:31,460
The only thing that makes sense, the
on... The best fit

397
00:41:31,460 --> 00:41:34,300
is that they're sacrifices, they're
offerings.

398
00:41:34,300 --> 00:41:36,060
They're not doing it for fun.

399
00:41:36,060 --> 00:41:42,060
They feel that coming up and doing
this act would satisfy some

400
00:41:42,060 --> 00:41:46,300
kind of a need, some kind of, um, a
wish, some kind of a desire.

401
00:41:51,540 --> 00:41:54,700
Although it's absolutely magnificent
during the daytime...

402
00:41:56,100 --> 00:41:58,700
..it comes to life at night.

403
00:42:07,340 --> 00:42:10,740
- We can't speak to these people, but
this...

404
00:42:11,940 --> 00:42:14,260
..this whole place, it gets us

405
00:42:14,260 --> 00:42:18,380
so much closer to what they were
thinking, what was going on inside.

406
00:42:18,380 --> 00:42:22,980
- Yeah. We had always had the
impression that this type of

407
00:42:22,980 --> 00:42:29,020
abstract thinking would've been beyond
the ancestors at that time,

408
00:42:29,020 --> 00:42:32,820
and now we definitely have evidence
that that was absolutely wrong,

409
00:42:32,820 --> 00:42:38,020
that they obviously had the ability to
hold abstract thought.

410
00:42:38,020 --> 00:42:41,940
You make an offering and hope for
something back.

411
00:42:41,940 --> 00:42:44,700
- Asking for probably some of the
things that we would ask for -

412
00:42:44,700 --> 00:42:50,140
food, health, children, etc, etc - and
you just think,

413
00:42:50,140 --> 00:42:54,340
"Oh, my gosh, that's some of the...
That's some of the earliest

414
00:42:54,340 --> 00:42:59,140
"behaviour that we know so well."

415
00:43:06,700 --> 00:43:10,100
Some believe the people who performed
these rituals must

416
00:43:10,100 --> 00:43:12,900
have been holding abstract ideas in
their heads...

417
00:43:14,380 --> 00:43:16,740
..imagining things they couldn't see.

418
00:43:18,180 --> 00:43:22,420
A clue their minds were sparking and
forming connections in a new way.

419
00:43:29,300 --> 00:43:33,940
When I see this, this is what moves
me,

420
00:43:33,940 --> 00:43:37,820
because this is who we are, in a way

421
00:43:37,820 --> 00:43:42,220
that feels more us than bones.

422
00:43:47,900 --> 00:43:51,260
See, it is so familiar to us.

423
00:43:51,260 --> 00:43:54,060
We know this behaviour. This is
ritual.

424
00:43:54,060 --> 00:43:56,940
Whether it is religion and
spirituality, or things

425
00:43:56,940 --> 00:44:01,740
like the handshake, or birthdays,
graduation ceremonies, Burning Man,

426
00:44:01,740 --> 00:44:07,620
Glastonbury, New Year's Eve, we are,
as a species, obsessed with ritual.

427
00:44:07,620 --> 00:44:13,020
It is profoundly and fundamentally
Homo sapiens behaviour.

428
00:44:13,020 --> 00:44:15,420
It's us. We know it.

429
00:44:22,140 --> 00:44:27,860
It was as if they were able to see
beyond the tangible.

430
00:44:27,860 --> 00:44:31,660
They were thinking beyond what was
just in front of them.

431
00:44:32,980 --> 00:44:37,820
They were venturing into the unknown
and into the unseen.

432
00:44:50,020 --> 00:44:54,220
Behaviour like this marked a new
chapter in our species' story.

433
00:44:57,780 --> 00:45:03,940
Our minds were awakening, opening up
to a world of possibility.

434
00:45:10,060 --> 00:45:12,100
This wasn't confined to ritual.

435
00:45:13,260 --> 00:45:16,020
It touched every part of our lives.

436
00:45:33,860 --> 00:45:37,060
Around 70,000 years ago,

437
00:45:37,060 --> 00:45:40,700
new weapons began appearing across
Southern Africa.

438
00:45:47,940 --> 00:45:51,540
Homo sapiens were using abstract
thought to innovate.

439
00:45:56,700 --> 00:46:01,060
Inventing complex projectile weapons,
like the bow and arrow.

440
00:46:06,780 --> 00:46:11,700
We were seeing the world not just as
it was, but as it could be.

441
00:46:13,460 --> 00:46:17,060
It takes a lot to see the potential in
a piece of wood.

442
00:46:17,060 --> 00:46:21,220
Projectile weapons were revolutionary
technology for us

443
00:46:21,220 --> 00:46:24,580
humans, because up until now, we'd
been using close-range

444
00:46:24,580 --> 00:46:29,020
hunting strategies, which were less
effective, less lethal,

445
00:46:29,020 --> 00:46:32,140
and yet more dangerous for the person
holding the weapon.

446
00:46:37,460 --> 00:46:42,860
For over two million years, early
humans mostly relied on axes

447
00:46:42,860 --> 00:46:44,180
and spears.

448
00:46:49,100 --> 00:46:53,700
But Homo sapiens imagined unseen
forces like the power

449
00:46:53,700 --> 00:46:56,420
held in wood and string.

450
00:47:03,860 --> 00:47:06,460
Creating something entirely new.

451
00:47:10,980 --> 00:47:14,060
If you look at this bow and arrow, you
can

452
00:47:14,060 --> 00:47:15,860
see how much knowledge is required.

453
00:47:15,860 --> 00:47:19,860
You need to know where to get the wood
for the bow, you need to

454
00:47:19,860 --> 00:47:24,140
know about the glue, you need to know
how taut the string should be.

455
00:47:24,140 --> 00:47:26,900
So many elements that require, not
just knowledge,

456
00:47:26,900 --> 00:47:29,260
but the ability to pass that knowledge
on.

457
00:47:29,260 --> 00:47:33,220
Something like this is not the result
of one person's genius.

458
00:47:33,220 --> 00:47:38,260
It's the result of many, many people,
over many generations,

459
00:47:38,260 --> 00:47:41,980
inventing, reinventing, perfecting,
tinkering.

460
00:47:48,780 --> 00:47:50,380
We weren't just inventing.

461
00:47:52,060 --> 00:47:54,980
We were adapting and expanding our
knowledge.

462
00:48:02,420 --> 00:48:04,900
Human culture was becoming more
complex,

463
00:48:04,900 --> 00:48:07,740
that technology was exploding.

464
00:48:07,740 --> 00:48:10,500
Now, many of us think that this is a
result of something called

465
00:48:10,500 --> 00:48:15,060
cumulative culture, the idea that you
accumulate culture, so every

466
00:48:15,060 --> 00:48:19,620
generation builds upon the previous
generation's science and technology.

467
00:48:25,980 --> 00:48:29,100
With cumulative culture, Homo sapiens
were becoming

468
00:48:29,100 --> 00:48:32,540
collectively smarter with every
generation.

469
00:48:35,740 --> 00:48:41,340
And as our numbers increased, this was
more powerful than any weapon.

470
00:48:43,100 --> 00:48:47,660
A giant leap towards becoming the
species we are today.

471
00:49:01,580 --> 00:49:04,540
When was our species truly born?

472
00:49:07,260 --> 00:49:09,220
Was it when we first appeared?

473
00:49:12,660 --> 00:49:15,740
Or when we started to look like modern
humans?

474
00:49:22,460 --> 00:49:24,380
Or was it when our minds lit up?

475
00:49:27,300 --> 00:49:31,420
Creating, inventing, and building on
our knowledge.

476
00:49:36,540 --> 00:49:39,620
Each was a crucial step in our
evolution.

477
00:49:46,380 --> 00:49:50,380
But none would be possible without one
special ingredient.

478
00:50:00,060 --> 00:50:03,660
The glue that binds all of our
achievements together.

479
00:50:05,940 --> 00:50:08,820
It leaves no direct fossil evidence,

480
00:50:08,820 --> 00:50:14,260
but we can find traces of it in some
unexpected places.

481
00:50:16,620 --> 00:50:22,340
In archaeology, sometimes the smallest
finds actually tell

482
00:50:22,340 --> 00:50:25,460
the grandest of stories.

483
00:50:25,460 --> 00:50:30,300
These are tiny marine shells,

484
00:50:30,300 --> 00:50:33,780
and shells like this have been found
in caves in South Africa,

485
00:50:33,780 --> 00:50:38,260
and they are just too small to have
been collected for meat.

486
00:50:38,260 --> 00:50:44,180
If you look really closely, what you
see is that they have holes in them.

487
00:50:44,180 --> 00:50:47,020
Now, some of these were collected
because they already had holes,

488
00:50:47,020 --> 00:50:51,580
but others were perforated by Homo
sapiens.

489
00:51:11,500 --> 00:51:17,460
And really close examination of the
shells in these caves show that they

490
00:51:17,460 --> 00:51:21,900
had wear marks on them consistent with
having been worn on the body.

491
00:51:31,540 --> 00:51:36,900
So, that, along with these holes in
them, well, it's really easy to

492
00:51:36,900 --> 00:51:41,860
paint a picture of them having been
strung...

493
00:51:43,780 --> 00:51:45,300
..and turned into jewellery.

494
00:51:56,940 --> 00:52:00,100
These weren't just beads, they were
emblems.

495
00:52:01,540 --> 00:52:03,820
Symbols of value and meaning...

496
00:52:05,220 --> 00:52:08,380
..shared and understood by everyone.

497
00:52:21,180 --> 00:52:23,220
They've been found with pigment on
them,

498
00:52:23,220 --> 00:52:27,740
and it's always the same-coloured
pigment, it's red ochre.

499
00:52:27,740 --> 00:52:33,500
Even though ochre comes in yellow,
black and red, it's always red.

500
00:52:36,780 --> 00:52:41,420
Perhaps you were trading them for
food, for goods,

501
00:52:41,420 --> 00:52:45,020
perhaps you'd give them as some kind
of a gift at a wedding,

502
00:52:45,020 --> 00:52:47,940
perhaps they were just a sign of
friendliness.

503
00:52:47,940 --> 00:52:50,620
And you can also imagine that people
would be wearing them

504
00:52:50,620 --> 00:52:54,940
to make themselves look good, it would
perhaps be a sign of prestige.

505
00:53:05,100 --> 00:53:08,420
The making and sharing of these beads
was one more

506
00:53:08,420 --> 00:53:12,780
sign our species had made another
revolutionary leap.

507
00:53:14,420 --> 00:53:17,620
The ability to pass on knowledge and
technology,

508
00:53:17,620 --> 00:53:20,100
sharing rituals and traditions.

509
00:53:23,460 --> 00:53:27,340
All these things suggest Homo sapiens
were passing

510
00:53:27,340 --> 00:53:31,540
sophisticated ideas from one mind to
another.

511
00:53:33,340 --> 00:53:38,060
Our species had unlocked the power of
complex language.

512
00:53:41,820 --> 00:53:46,420
The most remarkable thing about these
shells is that they

513
00:53:46,420 --> 00:53:50,660
have been found not just in South
Africa, but all over Africa,

514
00:53:50,660 --> 00:53:55,580
from the south, all the way to the
north, in Morocco and Algeria.

515
00:53:55,580 --> 00:53:59,220
Not just along the coasts, but all the
way inland.

516
00:54:01,980 --> 00:54:07,260
And that, for me, is so exciting,

517
00:54:07,260 --> 00:54:09,340
because when you look at this,

518
00:54:09,340 --> 00:54:12,460
you might think, "Oh, my God, isn't
that amazing?

519
00:54:12,460 --> 00:54:15,260
"Humans have a kind of cultural
expression

520
00:54:15,260 --> 00:54:17,220
"that they never had before."

521
00:54:23,780 --> 00:54:27,380
While earlier humans probably had
basic language...

522
00:54:31,260 --> 00:54:34,540
..it's thought Homo sapiens were
speaking to each other

523
00:54:34,540 --> 00:54:36,420
in a more complex way.

524
00:54:40,140 --> 00:54:42,180
Weaving a shared culture.

525
00:54:45,140 --> 00:54:50,140
And forging an invisible bond that
united our species

526
00:54:50,140 --> 00:54:52,780
across the entire continent.

527
00:54:58,500 --> 00:55:05,020
All over Africa, we understood the
cultural symbolism

528
00:55:05,020 --> 00:55:06,540
of these beads.

529
00:55:06,540 --> 00:55:11,580
Somebody was telling you, "This shell
is important, not that shell.

530
00:55:11,580 --> 00:55:14,860
"Red is important, not the other
colours."

531
00:55:14,860 --> 00:55:18,780
We had an understanding that wasn't
just you, me,

532
00:55:18,780 --> 00:55:22,460
and our three families, you, me, and
the village next-door.

533
00:55:22,460 --> 00:55:25,620
We had a kind of symbolism and
understanding

534
00:55:25,620 --> 00:55:30,340
and interconnectedness that was
continent-wide.

535
00:55:31,460 --> 00:55:35,180
This has never happened before.

536
00:55:35,180 --> 00:55:39,380
For me, this is the birth of our
species.

537
00:55:46,940 --> 00:55:50,260
Our species' birth wasn't a single
moment.

538
00:55:50,260 --> 00:55:52,700
It unfolded over millennia.

539
00:55:55,540 --> 00:56:00,340
Complex language and our powerful
shared culture finally set us

540
00:56:00,340 --> 00:56:03,140
apart from humans before us.

541
00:56:06,820 --> 00:56:11,420
We had become one connected,
cooperative species.

542
00:56:14,620 --> 00:56:17,140
We had become Homo sapiens...

543
00:56:18,620 --> 00:56:20,820
..the ancestors of us all.

544
00:56:30,220 --> 00:56:33,460
Sometimes in life, things come
together,

545
00:56:33,460 --> 00:56:36,500
and this was a coming together for our
species.

546
00:56:38,580 --> 00:56:41,500
It was a perfect storm.

547
00:56:41,500 --> 00:56:45,860
You had a change in brain, you had
language, increased numbers,

548
00:56:45,860 --> 00:56:49,500
increased connectivity, cumulative
culture, better technology

549
00:56:49,500 --> 00:56:52,020
and weaponry, and the right climate.

550
00:56:53,060 --> 00:56:58,100
But through all of this, there is a
hidden thread.

551
00:56:58,100 --> 00:57:04,060
Our secret weapon is that we are a
social, cooperative species.

552
00:57:04,060 --> 00:57:07,940
Friendliness, it turns out, is our
superpower.

553
00:57:07,940 --> 00:57:12,340
We are more than the sum of our parts.

554
00:57:12,340 --> 00:57:15,740
Whether it's ritual, technology,
language,

555
00:57:15,740 --> 00:57:20,020
all of it comes down to cooperation,
in my opinion.

556
00:57:20,020 --> 00:57:25,900
And that's how you go from a species
that started off feebly,

557
00:57:25,900 --> 00:57:29,980
unremarkably, to one that would

558
00:57:29,980 --> 00:57:33,020
become so extraordinary,

559
00:57:33,020 --> 00:57:35,620
one ready to explore this planet.

560
00:58:00,860 --> 00:58:05,740
..we follow our ancestors as they
spread beyond Africa,

561
00:58:05,740 --> 00:58:09,820
taking on extreme environments no
others could master...

562
00:58:11,660 --> 00:58:14,780
..travelling beyond the realm of
another extraordinary

563
00:58:14,780 --> 00:58:18,740
species of human - the Hobbit.

564
00:58:19,980 --> 00:58:24,100
And eventually, even reaching the
distant land of Australia.

565
00:59:23,180 --> 00:59:26,280
Over 300,000 years ago,

566
00:59:26,280 --> 00:59:30,800
Africa was the cradle of humanity -

567
00:59:30,800 --> 00:59:34,120
the place where humans evolved,

568
00:59:34,120 --> 00:59:37,080
including the first of a new
species...

569
00:59:38,080 --> 00:59:39,680
..Homo sapiens...

570
00:59:40,880 --> 00:59:42,320
..our species.

571
00:59:43,400 --> 00:59:47,120
From humble beginnings, our growing
culture

572
00:59:47,120 --> 00:59:52,040
and connections helped us spread
across that great continent.

573
00:59:53,280 --> 00:59:56,160
And then we ventured outwards,

574
00:59:56,160 --> 01:00:00,440
away from our home, and into the wider
world.

575
01:00:26,440 --> 01:00:30,960
Our ancestors did something which is
actually remarkable.

576
01:00:30,960 --> 01:00:34,760
From a beach not unlike this one,

577
01:00:34,760 --> 01:00:37,480
possibly quite close by,

578
01:00:37,480 --> 01:00:40,840
they ventured out into an open ocean,

579
01:00:40,840 --> 01:00:44,440
with only an empty horizon in front of
them.

580
01:00:46,000 --> 01:00:49,040
And after many days and nights on the
water,

581
01:00:49,040 --> 01:00:53,000
they eventually came upon this new
landmass that they would settle.

582
01:00:53,000 --> 01:00:56,240
We call that landmass Australia.

583
01:00:56,240 --> 01:01:00,440
It was a pivotal moment in the history
of our species.

584
01:01:02,600 --> 01:01:06,640
But in so many ways, it's not actually
the destination

585
01:01:06,640 --> 01:01:08,080
that's important.

586
01:01:08,080 --> 01:01:10,200
It is everything it took -

587
01:01:10,200 --> 01:01:12,880
all the challenges they had to
overcome

588
01:01:12,880 --> 01:01:17,280
to make it so far away from where they
began, in Africa.

589
01:01:21,000 --> 01:01:23,800
We were not the first humans to leave
Africa.

590
01:01:26,120 --> 01:01:28,120
Long before we evolved,

591
01:01:28,120 --> 01:01:29,960
the ancestors of our cousins,

592
01:01:29,960 --> 01:01:31,960
the Neanderthals, set out.

593
01:01:33,280 --> 01:01:37,440
And Homo erectus, one of the most
ancient humans,

594
01:01:37,440 --> 01:01:40,240
had made it deep into Asia.

595
01:01:45,520 --> 01:01:49,800
But none had ever made the voyage to
Australia.

596
01:01:52,200 --> 01:01:56,720
Every other species of human reached a
point, and then they just stopped.

597
01:01:56,720 --> 01:02:00,960
They faced a barrier that they either
could not or would not pass.

598
01:02:00,960 --> 01:02:03,600
But not us.

599
01:02:03,600 --> 01:02:06,640
This is the story of how, time and
again,

600
01:02:06,640 --> 01:02:09,240
we took on perilous journeys -

601
01:02:09,240 --> 01:02:12,440
how the last species of human to
evolve

602
01:02:12,440 --> 01:02:15,920
took on environments like no others
had,

603
01:02:15,920 --> 01:02:20,800
to become the only global species of
human.

604
01:02:20,800 --> 01:02:24,840
That title is ours and ours alone.

605
01:02:38,720 --> 01:02:43,160
This story begins over 120,000 years
ago.

606
01:02:44,440 --> 01:02:48,240
As our species spreads beyond the
borders of Africa...

607
01:02:49,240 --> 01:02:53,520
..they're blocked by expanses of
oceans on most sides.

608
01:02:54,600 --> 01:02:59,160
One of the few places they can go is
east -

609
01:02:59,160 --> 01:03:02,320
to the vast landmass that today is
made up of

610
01:03:02,320 --> 01:03:04,200
Arabia and the Levant...

611
01:03:10,400 --> 01:03:14,840
..at this time one of the few gateways
out of Africa

612
01:03:14,840 --> 01:03:16,680
to the rest of the world.

613
01:04:06,080 --> 01:04:10,120
Of all the species of human that have
ever existed,

614
01:04:10,120 --> 01:04:13,080
I think we, Homo sapiens,

615
01:04:13,080 --> 01:04:15,200
are the explorer species.

616
01:04:15,200 --> 01:04:18,360
We can't help it - we have to wander.

617
01:04:23,200 --> 01:04:25,720
It is in our wont to travel.

618
01:04:27,200 --> 01:04:30,280
And this place was the landmass next
door.

619
01:04:30,280 --> 01:04:33,000
You could see it from Africa.

620
01:04:33,000 --> 01:04:37,960
And look at it! It is absolutely
breathtaking.

621
01:04:40,560 --> 01:04:42,440
But it's not exactly welcoming.

622
01:04:42,440 --> 01:04:45,880
Nothing about this place says home.

623
01:04:48,320 --> 01:04:50,120
And so, the question is,

624
01:04:50,120 --> 01:04:53,400
why did Homo sapiens come here?

625
01:04:57,920 --> 01:05:00,200
We know they did,

626
01:05:00,200 --> 01:05:04,360
thanks to finds from Israel and Saudi
Arabia,

627
01:05:04,360 --> 01:05:06,000
to the Gulf States.

628
01:05:09,640 --> 01:05:13,920
And even beyond - to the fringes of
Europe and Asia.

629
01:05:18,560 --> 01:05:20,520
Which is hard to explain,

630
01:05:20,520 --> 01:05:25,640
when today these lands look just as
much of a barrier as any ocean.

631
01:05:30,520 --> 01:05:35,040
I always say archaeology is a bit like
a jigsaw puzzle,

632
01:05:35,040 --> 01:05:38,600
and you're just constantly looking for
pieces of that puzzle

633
01:05:38,600 --> 01:05:40,640
to help you get the full picture.

634
01:05:40,640 --> 01:05:43,680
And this is one of those pieces.

635
01:05:43,680 --> 01:05:45,880
This particular piece is

636
01:05:45,880 --> 01:05:48,040
a copy of a tooth.

637
01:05:48,040 --> 01:05:50,280
Now, it's a single tooth, which gives
you an idea

638
01:05:50,280 --> 01:05:52,520
of how large this animal must have
been,

639
01:05:52,520 --> 01:05:54,680
because it's bigger than a brick.
It's...

640
01:05:54,680 --> 01:05:56,840
I mean, it's practically the size of
my head.

641
01:05:56,840 --> 01:05:59,520
It is the tooth of an extinct
elephant,

642
01:05:59,520 --> 01:06:02,040
and it was found in Jordan.

643
01:06:02,040 --> 01:06:04,760
And we also have hippo fossils

644
01:06:04,760 --> 01:06:06,920
from the Saudi desert.

645
01:06:06,920 --> 01:06:10,560
Now, hippos and elephants

646
01:06:10,560 --> 01:06:13,440
do not belong in this landscape.

647
01:06:13,440 --> 01:06:14,840
Look around!

648
01:06:14,840 --> 01:06:16,680
Where's the water?

649
01:06:16,680 --> 01:06:20,480
Hippos actually need standing bodies
of water,

650
01:06:20,480 --> 01:06:22,880
and they need greenery.

651
01:06:22,880 --> 01:06:26,480
And that's the thing about some
fossils.

652
01:06:26,480 --> 01:06:31,280
They tell us about what a landscape
used to look like.

653
01:06:31,280 --> 01:06:34,440
Because these do not belong here.

654
01:06:44,800 --> 01:06:48,320
These finds point to a very different
Arabia.

655
01:06:51,640 --> 01:06:54,360
One that, if you know where to look,

656
01:06:54,360 --> 01:06:56,720
you can see hints of to this day.

657
01:07:02,440 --> 01:07:05,880
If you look over there, it almost
looks like a mirage -

658
01:07:05,880 --> 01:07:08,680
that white and silver on the
landscape.

659
01:07:08,680 --> 01:07:12,280
So that used to be a lake,

660
01:07:12,280 --> 01:07:15,800
and the white and silver is actually
salt and gypsum

661
01:07:15,800 --> 01:07:18,520
that was left behind when the water
evaporated.

662
01:07:20,400 --> 01:07:24,200
And scientists are really interested
in not just ageing them,

663
01:07:24,200 --> 01:07:27,480
but also working out these ancient
water systems -

664
01:07:27,480 --> 01:07:29,520
these extinct water systems.

665
01:07:29,520 --> 01:07:33,240
And so one of the ways they do this is
by just getting on the ground

666
01:07:33,240 --> 01:07:38,200
and walking these beautiful but
incredibly intense landscapes,

667
01:07:38,200 --> 01:07:41,720
looking at maps, looking at satellite
images.

668
01:07:41,720 --> 01:07:45,080
And this is the result of some of that
work.

669
01:07:46,120 --> 01:07:48,000
Now, if you look here,

670
01:07:48,000 --> 01:07:51,320
this is a map of the region

671
01:07:51,320 --> 01:07:52,560
just slightly north of here.

672
01:07:52,560 --> 01:07:54,440
So this is Saudi, which is to our
east,

673
01:07:54,440 --> 01:07:56,880
and that there is the Sinai of Egypt.

674
01:07:56,880 --> 01:08:01,320
You can see it's basically shades of
beige and grey.

675
01:08:02,320 --> 01:08:04,080
Now, look!

676
01:08:04,080 --> 01:08:09,320
So this is about 125,000 years ago.

677
01:08:09,320 --> 01:08:12,360
Water litters this landscape.

678
01:08:12,360 --> 01:08:16,360
I mean, you can see the veins just
running through.

679
01:08:16,360 --> 01:08:18,840
There is no way that this land

680
01:08:18,840 --> 01:08:20,880
would not have been green.

681
01:08:20,880 --> 01:08:25,360
There are paleo lakes and paleo rivers
absolutely everywhere.

682
01:08:29,640 --> 01:08:34,000
And this is this region as we have
never known it.

683
01:08:36,640 --> 01:08:40,480
Now, remember, this was a world
without borders,

684
01:08:40,480 --> 01:08:43,880
and this was a land of plenty,

685
01:08:43,880 --> 01:08:46,040
within easy reach.

686
01:08:46,040 --> 01:08:49,080
And so why wouldn't Homo sapiens have
come here?

687
01:08:59,760 --> 01:09:01,320
But what they didn't know,

688
01:09:01,320 --> 01:09:03,440
what they couldn't have known,

689
01:09:03,440 --> 01:09:06,640
is that this region would be a trap.

690
01:09:14,720 --> 01:09:17,520
The green days of Arabia were
numbered.

691
01:09:18,560 --> 01:09:21,120
The desert was on the march.

692
01:09:28,640 --> 01:09:31,920
Subtle variations in the orbit of the
Earth

693
01:09:31,920 --> 01:09:34,000
caused the climate to change.

694
01:09:38,440 --> 01:09:43,880
Within as little as a few hundred
years, the rains vanished,

695
01:09:43,880 --> 01:09:46,640
starving this entire region of
water...

696
01:09:48,520 --> 01:09:52,600
..leaving humans at the mercy of the
desert.

697
01:09:57,080 --> 01:09:59,680
If you set out to create an
environment that was completely

698
01:09:59,680 --> 01:10:01,960
and utterly hostile to our biology,

699
01:10:01,960 --> 01:10:03,880
you'd come up with this.

700
01:10:03,880 --> 01:10:05,960
The heat is such a presence

701
01:10:05,960 --> 01:10:08,080
that I can feel it on my back.

702
01:10:08,080 --> 01:10:10,720
The sun, even at this time of the
morning,

703
01:10:10,720 --> 01:10:13,800
feels like it's borderline torture.

704
01:10:15,320 --> 01:10:17,760
And there is no water.

705
01:10:17,760 --> 01:10:22,040
As far as the eye can see, there's
nothing.

706
01:10:22,040 --> 01:10:24,760
And back then, it would've been so
much worse.

707
01:10:24,760 --> 01:10:26,160
It wasn't arid.

708
01:10:26,160 --> 01:10:28,600
It's what we call hyper arid.

709
01:10:28,600 --> 01:10:32,960
It's thought that there was no
rainfall for years on end.

710
01:10:32,960 --> 01:10:36,360
And so we go from seeing multiple
sites

711
01:10:36,360 --> 01:10:40,400
where humans lived in this region, to
nothing.

712
01:10:45,960 --> 01:10:49,320
We seem to vanish for thousands of
years.

713
01:10:50,520 --> 01:10:54,680
And this could so easily have been the
end of our journey...

714
01:10:58,280 --> 01:11:01,080
..defeated by the harsh desert.

715
01:11:10,080 --> 01:11:12,800
We think that some Homo sapiens

716
01:11:12,800 --> 01:11:15,560
clung on in pockets that we call
refugia.

717
01:11:15,560 --> 01:11:19,360
Those are refuges where the climate is
milder.

718
01:11:19,360 --> 01:11:21,240
But from all we can tell,

719
01:11:21,240 --> 01:11:23,920
they would've been few and far
between,

720
01:11:23,920 --> 01:11:26,760
and they effectively faded away.

721
01:11:27,840 --> 01:11:29,760
And so, for all intents and purposes,

722
01:11:29,760 --> 01:11:33,520
Homo sapiens outside of Africa had
failed.

723
01:11:36,040 --> 01:11:38,040
And what's interesting is

724
01:11:38,040 --> 01:11:40,600
other species of human had cracked

725
01:11:40,600 --> 01:11:44,760
the code of living outside of Africa,
but not us.

726
01:11:44,760 --> 01:11:47,480
And so how did this happen?

727
01:11:47,480 --> 01:11:50,200
People like me, so many of you,

728
01:11:50,200 --> 01:11:54,320
how did we become the only species of
human

729
01:11:54,320 --> 01:11:57,240
who exists across the globe?

730
01:12:03,800 --> 01:12:06,360
These brutal conditions

731
01:12:06,360 --> 01:12:08,680
persisted for years on end.

732
01:12:16,680 --> 01:12:22,440
Until finally, there was another
subtle change in climate...

733
01:12:25,560 --> 01:12:28,680
..allowing conditions to become less
extreme...

734
01:12:36,040 --> 01:12:39,880
..and giving Homo sapiens another
chance.

735
01:12:45,680 --> 01:12:48,120
Occasional seasonal rains returned...

736
01:12:53,240 --> 01:12:58,160
..just enough to bring precious water
back to the desert.

737
01:13:11,560 --> 01:13:13,520
Now, the conditions here did get
better.

738
01:13:13,520 --> 01:13:16,600
So, yes, you had desert and sand
dunes...

739
01:13:18,520 --> 01:13:21,240
..but you also had lakes and rivers.

740
01:13:23,080 --> 01:13:29,080
And that resulted in us being able to
exist in this place,

741
01:13:29,080 --> 01:13:31,160
but not just exist here.

742
01:13:31,160 --> 01:13:35,640
From an oasis here to a river and
spring system there,

743
01:13:35,640 --> 01:13:39,960
we were able to actually leave the
Arabian Peninsula

744
01:13:39,960 --> 01:13:42,280
and face the rest of the world.

745
01:13:49,920 --> 01:13:54,680
As they did, these new waves likely
absorbed any small pockets

746
01:13:54,680 --> 01:13:57,880
of Homo sapiens that had held on.

747
01:14:00,880 --> 01:14:03,880
And now scientists studying the
genetic code

748
01:14:03,880 --> 01:14:08,280
of people alive today believe this
moment

749
01:14:08,280 --> 01:14:11,760
was a pivotal point in our history.

750
01:14:17,440 --> 01:14:21,920
Our DNA has the power to tell stories
about us,

751
01:14:21,920 --> 01:14:25,000
but some of them aren't just stories,
they're sagas,

752
01:14:25,000 --> 01:14:27,200
and they're extraordinary.

753
01:14:27,200 --> 01:14:31,040
And one of them is that every single
one of us

754
01:14:31,040 --> 01:14:33,600
whose origins are from outside of
Africa

755
01:14:33,600 --> 01:14:37,160
comes from a tiny population of Homo
sapiens.

756
01:14:39,920 --> 01:14:45,680
We started in Africa, from multiple
populations across the continent,

757
01:14:45,680 --> 01:14:49,880
but then only a small group of us left
-

758
01:14:49,880 --> 01:14:54,080
perhaps as few as 10,000 individuals.

759
01:14:56,440 --> 01:15:00,920
And so all of us from outside of
Africa

760
01:15:00,920 --> 01:15:04,400
come from this minuscule population,

761
01:15:04,400 --> 01:15:06,600
who went on to populate

762
01:15:06,600 --> 01:15:10,160
not one, not two continents, but five.

763
01:15:19,680 --> 01:15:22,000
But our journey through the desert...

764
01:15:24,680 --> 01:15:28,360
..was only one of a multitude of
challenges

765
01:15:28,360 --> 01:15:30,680
Homo sapiens would face

766
01:15:30,680 --> 01:15:33,480
as we spread across the globe.

767
01:15:35,840 --> 01:15:39,160
And because we were so few in number,

768
01:15:39,160 --> 01:15:42,840
our very survival outside of Africa

769
01:15:42,840 --> 01:15:45,200
was far from certain.

770
01:15:59,320 --> 01:16:02,600
As this tiny population grew and
spread...

771
01:16:05,920 --> 01:16:09,840
..they would crash into another
extreme environment.

772
01:16:13,960 --> 01:16:19,440
One that had defeated all other
species of human -

773
01:16:19,440 --> 01:16:21,880
a vast green wall.

774
01:16:28,480 --> 01:16:30,280
Once beyond the desert,

775
01:16:30,280 --> 01:16:34,720
our species found themselves in the
giant landmass of Europe and Asia.

776
01:16:35,920 --> 01:16:39,920
To their north, lay high, cold
mountains.

777
01:16:39,920 --> 01:16:43,480
So many spread eastwards and south,

778
01:16:43,480 --> 01:16:47,240
down through what is now the Indian
subcontinent,

779
01:16:47,240 --> 01:16:49,680
reaching modern-day Sri Lanka,

780
01:16:49,680 --> 01:16:52,160
at that time joined to the mainland

781
01:16:52,160 --> 01:16:53,960
by lower sea levels...

782
01:17:00,880 --> 01:17:05,640
..and dominated by expansive dense
rainforests.

783
01:17:15,280 --> 01:17:20,200
And while this may look so much more
welcoming than the desert,

784
01:17:20,200 --> 01:17:23,440
nothing could be further from the
truth.

785
01:17:30,560 --> 01:17:34,120
These leeches are absolutely
everywhere.

786
01:17:34,120 --> 01:17:38,040
And when I say everywhere, I mean, one
has just got me.

787
01:17:38,040 --> 01:17:41,640
And there are creepy crawlies
absolutely everywhere,

788
01:17:41,640 --> 01:17:43,640
including in our trousers.

789
01:17:43,640 --> 01:17:45,720
And they are actually quite
irritating.

790
01:17:47,600 --> 01:17:50,120
This place is also full of mosquitoes.

791
01:17:50,120 --> 01:17:54,120
We saw a viper, and a cobra.

792
01:17:54,120 --> 01:17:56,280
And that's the thing about this place.

793
01:17:56,280 --> 01:17:58,520
It is difficult to exist in.

794
01:17:58,520 --> 01:18:00,960
It's hot, it's humid, it's oppressive,

795
01:18:00,960 --> 01:18:03,640
and you have to constantly have your
wits about you.

796
01:18:11,840 --> 01:18:16,080
This is one of the most extreme
environments on the planet.

797
01:18:19,280 --> 01:18:22,280
So much of what grows here is
poisonous to eat...

798
01:18:24,920 --> 01:18:28,240
..and there are few large animals to
provide meat.

799
01:18:29,520 --> 01:18:33,040
Conditions so difficult

800
01:18:33,040 --> 01:18:34,880
that, as far as we can tell,

801
01:18:34,880 --> 01:18:37,120
no other species of human

802
01:18:37,120 --> 01:18:41,600
ever made it past the fringes of these
rainforests.

803
01:19:12,560 --> 01:19:15,320
Being here is a bit like stepping back
in time,

804
01:19:15,320 --> 01:19:17,120
because about 50,000 years ago,

805
01:19:17,120 --> 01:19:19,680
this place would have basically looked
the same.

806
01:19:19,680 --> 01:19:23,400
This huge cave mouth would've been
here.

807
01:19:23,400 --> 01:19:27,920
Only back then, the rainforest
would've been unbroken,

808
01:19:27,920 --> 01:19:30,360
and it would've gone on for kilometres

809
01:19:30,360 --> 01:19:32,760
in every single direction.

810
01:19:32,760 --> 01:19:36,000
And yet, somehow, in this cave

811
01:19:36,000 --> 01:19:38,840
and two other caves not far away,

812
01:19:38,840 --> 01:19:43,640
we have found evidence of our
ancestors living here,

813
01:19:43,640 --> 01:19:45,440
all the way back then,

814
01:19:45,440 --> 01:19:49,240
in the heart of what would've been a
massive rainforest.

815
01:19:54,200 --> 01:20:01,800
So how were Homo sapiens able to
plunge into a place no others had?

816
01:20:01,800 --> 01:20:05,160
How did they find food - particularly
meat?

817
01:20:07,200 --> 01:20:11,840
They did have the advantage of
bow-and-arrow technology,

818
01:20:11,840 --> 01:20:14,760
which had arisen thousands of years
earlier.

819
01:20:16,680 --> 01:20:19,040
But heavy, stone-tipped arrows

820
01:20:19,040 --> 01:20:23,360
were less suited to firing into the
high canopy of the rainforest.

821
01:20:27,800 --> 01:20:33,160
Their solution was uncovered thanks to
over 30 years of excavations

822
01:20:33,160 --> 01:20:37,440
deep into the floor of this - and the
two other two caves.

823
01:20:39,720 --> 01:20:42,480
Digs that reach all the way back

824
01:20:42,480 --> 01:20:45,520
to 48,000 years ago,

825
01:20:45,520 --> 01:20:48,320
when the pioneers of our species

826
01:20:48,320 --> 01:20:52,880
first attempted to overcome the
challenges of this rainforest.

827
01:20:56,400 --> 01:20:59,800
Starting with one of the most
difficult -

828
01:20:59,800 --> 01:21:02,680
how to find enough meat to sustain
them.

829
01:21:16,600 --> 01:21:20,280
Yeah. So, this here, that's where
somebody is cutting?

830
01:21:20,280 --> 01:21:21,600
- Yeah, yeah.

831
01:21:24,480 --> 01:21:25,840
- Yeah.

832
01:21:28,880 --> 01:21:31,480
Yeah. It's funny, because I think
butchery marks,

833
01:21:31,480 --> 01:21:34,120
often need to look at it through a
magnifying glass, but not always.

834
01:21:34,120 --> 01:21:36,120
And actually, this one is quite clear.

835
01:21:36,120 --> 01:21:39,440
And this is not the kind of thing that
you would see

836
01:21:39,440 --> 01:21:40,720
if an animal killed it.

837
01:21:40,720 --> 01:21:42,960
This is an indication that this is
killed by a human.

838
01:21:46,200 --> 01:21:50,040
And so the question is how they killed
them.

839
01:23:01,760 --> 01:23:03,480
Right.

840
01:23:05,280 --> 01:23:07,440
So, that chip mark there...

841
01:23:07,440 --> 01:23:10,840
..shows us that it was actually used.
- Yes.

842
01:23:10,840 --> 01:23:12,760
- I mean, it's amazing, because this
is obviously...

843
01:23:12,760 --> 01:23:14,440
I've got in my hands right now

844
01:23:14,440 --> 01:23:16,720
something that was used 48,000 years
ago.

845
01:23:16,720 --> 01:23:19,760
- Of course, of course.
- And it was absolutely revolutionary.

846
01:23:22,560 --> 01:23:26,760
These bone points are only the tips of
the full arrowheads.

847
01:23:28,880 --> 01:23:31,880
Many are chipped from actually hitting
prey...

848
01:23:33,440 --> 01:23:37,560
..and each one would have been
attached to the end of a long wooden
arrow.

849
01:23:43,120 --> 01:23:46,120
These hunters didn't invent a
brand-new technology...

850
01:23:50,320 --> 01:23:52,440
..they adapted an old one.

851
01:23:54,320 --> 01:23:56,760
These are some of the earliest
examples of bow

852
01:23:56,760 --> 01:23:59,240
and arrows found outside of Africa...

853
01:24:04,040 --> 01:24:06,240
..enabling Homo sapiens to hunt

854
01:24:06,240 --> 01:24:10,920
with exceptional skill and efficiency
within the forest.

855
01:24:31,120 --> 01:24:33,480
But we know that the humans living
here

856
01:24:33,480 --> 01:24:36,040
were doing more than just surviving.

857
01:24:49,560 --> 01:24:54,080
Oshan and the team also found beads
fashioned from shells.

858
01:24:59,000 --> 01:25:02,320
Perhaps brought in through trade from
groups living on the coast.

859
01:25:04,120 --> 01:25:06,040
A constant struggle to survive...

860
01:25:07,760 --> 01:25:10,520
..doesn't leave much time for making
works of art..

861
01:25:16,000 --> 01:25:21,080
..suggesting a long-established and
successful community existed here.

862
01:25:30,840 --> 01:25:35,320
And for that, to turn this place into
a true home

863
01:25:35,320 --> 01:25:39,080
would take something fundamental to
our species.

864
01:25:46,800 --> 01:25:49,280
This is...

865
01:25:49,280 --> 01:25:50,320
..a replica...

866
01:25:52,440 --> 01:25:55,480
..of a tool that was found in the
caves

867
01:25:55,480 --> 01:25:57,960
in this area, dated from about 40,000
years ago.

868
01:25:59,560 --> 01:26:04,840
It is a monkey tooth, specifically a
canine, but that's been modified.

869
01:26:04,840 --> 01:26:07,720
If you look here, it's been cut into,

870
01:26:07,720 --> 01:26:09,880
to create a much sharper point.

871
01:26:10,880 --> 01:26:12,360
And the reason for that...

872
01:26:13,880 --> 01:26:17,640
..is that it's a tool used for
puncturing.

873
01:26:19,480 --> 01:26:21,200
Oh.

874
01:26:21,200 --> 01:26:22,600
It's not easy.

875
01:26:25,480 --> 01:26:30,080
All right, look, I've finally managed
to make a hole.

876
01:26:31,480 --> 01:26:36,000
And once you make a hole, you can then
use plant fibre,

877
01:26:36,000 --> 01:26:41,160
animal sinew, as a string, start
stringing animal skins,

878
01:26:41,160 --> 01:26:43,360
animal hide together, and create
clothes.

879
01:26:44,560 --> 01:26:47,280
But actually, in so many ways,

880
01:26:47,280 --> 01:26:50,280
that's not the most interesting thing
about this tool.

881
01:26:51,440 --> 01:26:55,040
Because for me, the most interesting
thing is what this tells us

882
01:26:55,040 --> 01:26:58,000
about the minds of the people who have
made it.

883
01:26:58,000 --> 01:27:00,680
Because you have to be taught how to
use it.

884
01:27:00,680 --> 01:27:03,280
You have to be taught how to make it.

885
01:27:04,680 --> 01:27:07,120
So it actually tells us something much
deeper.

886
01:27:13,680 --> 01:27:17,800
Throughout the years humans made this
cave their home,

887
01:27:17,800 --> 01:27:19,320
countless elder generations

888
01:27:19,320 --> 01:27:22,080
would have taught children these
techniques.

889
01:27:25,280 --> 01:27:27,400
Something we still do to this day.

890
01:27:28,840 --> 01:27:33,480
A communal passing on of knowledge
that is key to our ability

891
01:27:33,480 --> 01:27:36,520
to master so many different
environments.

892
01:27:45,440 --> 01:27:48,320
That engagement, constant engagement,

893
01:27:48,320 --> 01:27:51,480
turns every generation of children

894
01:27:51,480 --> 01:27:54,320
into a step in the evolution of
knowledge.

895
01:27:54,320 --> 01:27:59,000
And for us Homo sapiens, that's
probably what adaptation is,

896
01:27:59,000 --> 01:28:01,400
the evolution of knowledge,

897
01:28:01,400 --> 01:28:05,560
because it's what turns a simple
projectile like a bow and arrow

898
01:28:05,560 --> 01:28:11,920
into a weapon fine-tuned, honed, and
specialised for the rainforest.

899
01:28:11,920 --> 01:28:17,880
And that constant innovation unlocks
resources that were

900
01:28:17,880 --> 01:28:21,720
completely out of reach to other
species of human.

901
01:28:22,880 --> 01:28:24,720
Resources like the rainforest.

902
01:28:37,600 --> 01:28:40,320
And it's this ongoing evolution of
tools

903
01:28:40,320 --> 01:28:47,120
and techniques that has allowed our
species, time and again,

904
01:28:47,120 --> 01:28:52,360
to live and thrive even in extreme
environments.

905
01:28:57,480 --> 01:29:00,000
That is the strength of our species,

906
01:29:00,000 --> 01:29:02,880
that we were opening up so many new
environments,

907
01:29:02,880 --> 01:29:08,200
places that previously other species
saw as impenetrable,

908
01:29:08,200 --> 01:29:12,760
as too difficult, we saw as having
long-term potential,

909
01:29:12,760 --> 01:29:15,360
and we were able to expand in number,

910
01:29:15,360 --> 01:29:18,080
we were able to then adapt to it.

911
01:29:18,080 --> 01:29:22,360
And as we grew, some people would
decide to move on

912
01:29:22,360 --> 01:29:25,040
to yet another environment.

913
01:29:25,040 --> 01:29:29,520
We were becoming a species with truly
global potential.

914
01:29:37,320 --> 01:29:41,600
It was that ability to take on so many
different, challenging

915
01:29:41,600 --> 01:29:45,880
environments that carried us through
so much of the world...

916
01:29:48,080 --> 01:29:50,120
..by now, to the fringes of Europe...

917
01:29:52,160 --> 01:29:54,800
..into the cold expanses of northern
Asia...

918
01:29:58,560 --> 01:30:03,080
..and, within only a few thousand
years of leaving Africa,

919
01:30:03,080 --> 01:30:04,560
deep into Southeast Asia.

920
01:30:07,000 --> 01:30:12,160
Lower sea levels had created a single
region known as Sunda...

921
01:30:14,760 --> 01:30:18,560
..where today there are sweeping
stretches of tropical waters.

922
01:30:20,600 --> 01:30:23,040
Our wandering feet brought us to its
outer edge.

923
01:30:28,200 --> 01:30:34,160
Beyond lay an ocean, dotted with
isolated islands.

924
01:30:46,040 --> 01:30:48,920
There are these places that you turn
up to and you think,

925
01:30:48,920 --> 01:30:51,360
"I'm on the edge of the world."

926
01:30:51,360 --> 01:30:54,560
They are incredibly remote and
isolated,

927
01:30:54,560 --> 01:30:56,960
and this is one of those places.

928
01:30:56,960 --> 01:30:59,200
And it's been like this since the very
beginning,

929
01:30:59,200 --> 01:31:00,520
since its formation,

930
01:31:00,520 --> 01:31:03,560
because it's been surrounded by this
very deep sea,

931
01:31:03,560 --> 01:31:07,880
which makes what was found here even
more intriguing,

932
01:31:07,880 --> 01:31:12,080
because a mind-boggling, completely
unexpected human history

933
01:31:12,080 --> 01:31:15,400
plays out here over hundreds of
thousands of years.

934
01:31:21,120 --> 01:31:23,120
Even all those years ago,

935
01:31:23,120 --> 01:31:25,960
the ocean could not stop the spread of
our species.

936
01:31:30,840 --> 01:31:34,640
We reached these remote islands,
thanks to a technology that,

937
01:31:34,640 --> 01:31:39,280
as far as we can tell, we are the only
humans to master.

938
01:31:42,760 --> 01:31:44,960
This is a tuna fish bone.

939
01:31:44,960 --> 01:31:47,120
This particular one happens to be
quite fresh.

940
01:31:47,120 --> 01:31:48,880
It's a few days old.

941
01:31:48,880 --> 01:31:53,240
But we have actually found tuna fish
bones on an archaeological site

942
01:31:53,240 --> 01:31:58,480
on these islands that dates back to
over 40,000 years.

943
01:31:58,480 --> 01:32:05,880
But tuna swim in open waters, and that
means that our ancestors,

944
01:32:05,880 --> 01:32:09,920
over 40,000 years ago, they were
fashioning some kind of vessel,

945
01:32:09,920 --> 01:32:12,720
and going out into the open waters,

946
01:32:12,720 --> 01:32:16,200
and coming back again, and again, and
again.

947
01:32:18,320 --> 01:32:20,960
We can't be sure what form these
vessels took,

948
01:32:20,960 --> 01:32:23,280
since no evidence survives,

949
01:32:23,280 --> 01:32:27,920
but they were probably simple rafts
made from available wood.

950
01:32:31,400 --> 01:32:33,920
And they did more than just help us
fish.

951
01:32:37,720 --> 01:32:40,080
There is a very interesting
archaeological site

952
01:32:40,080 --> 01:32:43,320
on one of the neighbouring islands
that has this one layer

953
01:32:43,320 --> 01:32:47,160
that is just filled with artefacts
belonging to Homo sapiens.

954
01:32:47,160 --> 01:32:50,000
But the layer just before it,

955
01:32:50,000 --> 01:32:54,880
immediately preceding it, is empty and
barren of those same artefacts.

956
01:32:54,880 --> 01:32:58,160
So it almost suggests that our
ancestors just kind of turned up

957
01:32:58,160 --> 01:33:03,160
overnight and spread rapidly through
these islands in large numbers,

958
01:33:03,160 --> 01:33:06,440
just because of the sheer volume of
artefacts within that layer.

959
01:33:07,960 --> 01:33:10,440
And none of that would really be
possible

960
01:33:10,440 --> 01:33:13,720
unless you were skilled enough to
build robust craft,

961
01:33:13,720 --> 01:33:17,360
you were skilled enough to navigate
treacherous waters.

962
01:33:21,920 --> 01:33:27,840
But in a truly surprising twist, we
were not the first to reach Flores.

963
01:33:29,600 --> 01:33:32,480
Somehow, someone made it here before
us.

964
01:33:37,960 --> 01:33:41,560
Sometimes in this job, you get to
fulfil a lifelong dream,

965
01:33:41,560 --> 01:33:44,040
and one of them is about to happen.

966
01:33:44,040 --> 01:33:47,160
See, there's this cave in
palaeoanthropology that isn't

967
01:33:47,160 --> 01:33:50,560
just fascinating, it's basically
explosive.

968
01:33:50,560 --> 01:33:52,160
It started in 1950,

969
01:33:52,160 --> 01:33:56,160
with this one priest called Father
Theodor Verhoeven.

970
01:33:56,160 --> 01:33:58,360
Now, back in the day, it was actually
quite common

971
01:33:58,360 --> 01:34:01,520
for priests and missionaries to also
dabble in archaeology,

972
01:34:01,520 --> 01:34:05,000
so he was out here on Flores looking
for archaeological sites.

973
01:34:05,000 --> 01:34:06,600
And in talking to locals,

974
01:34:06,600 --> 01:34:09,760
he got told about this one cave that
had potential.

975
01:34:09,760 --> 01:34:13,760
He turned up, it was actually being
used as an amateur school,

976
01:34:13,760 --> 01:34:19,440
but just below the surface, he did
actually find archaeology.

977
01:34:19,440 --> 01:34:24,240
Actually, it was stone tools belonging
to ancient humans.

978
01:34:24,240 --> 01:34:28,200
Now, that in of itself is huge, it's
really significant,

979
01:34:28,200 --> 01:34:32,120
but it would take another half a
century before we understood

980
01:34:32,120 --> 01:34:35,120
just how important this cave was.

981
01:34:51,040 --> 01:34:53,960
For over 20 years, a joint Indonesian
and international

982
01:34:53,960 --> 01:34:57,960
team of archaeologists has been
excavating these caves.

983
01:34:59,360 --> 01:35:01,920
They had been searching for evidence
of the spread

984
01:35:01,920 --> 01:35:04,040
of Homo sapiens through the islands.

985
01:35:05,880 --> 01:35:08,720
Instead, they found something
completely unexpected...

986
01:35:10,680 --> 01:35:15,280
..a strange skeleton from at least
70,000 years ago.

987
01:35:15,280 --> 01:35:19,840
So long before our species reached
this far from Africa.

988
01:35:22,400 --> 01:35:24,720
I think the first thing obviously that
strikes you

989
01:35:24,720 --> 01:35:27,560
when you see her is that she's very
short.

990
01:35:29,200 --> 01:35:31,080
Um, what are we talking, one metre?

991
01:35:36,160 --> 01:35:39,240
Right, so about three and a half feet?
- Yeah.

992
01:35:57,320 --> 01:35:59,360
- It's got wisdom teeth.
- Yes.

993
01:36:01,400 --> 01:36:04,000
- Yeah. I mean, the molars are... The
adult molars are there.

994
01:36:05,320 --> 01:36:06,520
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

995
01:36:06,520 --> 01:36:09,560
As soon as you look closely, this is
100% an adult.

996
01:36:09,560 --> 01:36:10,920
- Yeah. Yeah.

997
01:36:14,040 --> 01:36:17,720
- An adult, but the size of a child.

998
01:36:17,720 --> 01:36:19,760
And that was only the first surprise.

999
01:36:22,800 --> 01:36:25,240
The legs, they're quite short.
- Yeah.

1000
01:36:31,440 --> 01:36:32,480
- Whereas, with us...

1001
01:36:34,120 --> 01:36:36,360
Our legs are really long...

1002
01:36:36,360 --> 01:36:38,080
..compared to arms.

1003
01:36:38,080 --> 01:36:39,120
Yeah.

1004
01:36:40,720 --> 01:36:42,080
Yup.

1005
01:36:46,680 --> 01:36:48,480
Which is huge...
- Is huge, yes.

1006
01:36:48,480 --> 01:36:51,000
- ..because on me that would be about
that length.

1007
01:37:08,120 --> 01:37:10,880
I mean, this is one of those moments
in the history of the field

1008
01:37:10,880 --> 01:37:13,680
where I just wish I had been there.

1009
01:37:13,680 --> 01:37:16,640
I know she's a replica, but she's a
replica of the real thing,

1010
01:37:16,640 --> 01:37:20,280
and, yeah, it's...

1011
01:37:20,280 --> 01:37:21,640
It's giving me goose bumps.

1012
01:37:29,040 --> 01:37:31,920
This new species of human was a
revelation.

1013
01:37:33,720 --> 01:37:36,640
Named Homo floresiensis, after the
island,

1014
01:37:36,640 --> 01:37:40,640
they quickly became known to many as
"the hobbits," after the

1015
01:37:40,640 --> 01:37:46,880
heroes from the Lord of the Rings, who
were also small as adults.

1016
01:37:51,400 --> 01:37:55,040
It's likely they arrived entirely by
chance. Perhaps a few

1017
01:37:55,040 --> 01:38:00,160
individuals swept here on driftwood
from the islands to the north...

1018
01:38:02,440 --> 01:38:04,760
..more than 700,000 years ago.

1019
01:38:09,800 --> 01:38:12,320
Eventually becoming a unique species,

1020
01:38:12,320 --> 01:38:17,760
seemingly with a mix of modern and
more ancient characteristics.

1021
01:38:20,520 --> 01:38:23,520
Now, we can see obviously the brain is
small,

1022
01:38:23,520 --> 01:38:25,480
but how small are we talking?

1023
01:38:33,400 --> 01:38:36,160
That...
- That's right.
- How incredible.

1024
01:38:39,480 --> 01:38:43,200
Such a small brain, and yet they had
stone tools.

1025
01:38:47,320 --> 01:38:52,440
Before this, scientists assumed that a
human with such a small brain

1026
01:38:52,440 --> 01:38:54,560
could never have developed such tools.

1027
01:38:56,760 --> 01:38:59,680
One theory is that they were initially
a much larger

1028
01:38:59,680 --> 01:39:03,000
species, before the long isolation on
Flores caused them

1029
01:39:03,000 --> 01:39:08,240
to shrink, a process known as island
dwarfism,

1030
01:39:08,240 --> 01:39:12,960
where large animals get smaller due to
fewer resources.

1031
01:39:12,960 --> 01:39:18,840
At the same time, some small animals
actually get bigger,

1032
01:39:18,840 --> 01:39:20,800
due to a lack of predators.

1033
01:39:39,000 --> 01:39:42,080
So Stegodons generally are not the
size of water buffaloes.

1034
01:39:43,560 --> 01:39:45,040
- Exactly, yeah.
- But on this island...

1035
01:39:45,040 --> 01:39:47,160
- It's big one.
- ..they're the size of a water
buffalo.
- Yeah.

1036
01:39:47,160 --> 01:39:49,720
- And then on this island, you've got
humans that are a metre tall.

1037
01:39:49,720 --> 01:39:51,160
- Yeah, that small.

1038
01:39:51,160 --> 01:39:55,400
- What you're describing there is a
species that has been

1039
01:39:55,400 --> 01:39:57,080
shaped by this island, has been

1040
01:39:57,080 --> 01:40:01,840
shaped by the environment on this
island, and the result is this.

1041
01:40:05,880 --> 01:40:10,200
Long isolation allowed evolution to
tailor the hobbit

1042
01:40:10,200 --> 01:40:11,440
to this environment.

1043
01:40:15,520 --> 01:40:18,120
Their long arms, compared to short
legs,

1044
01:40:18,120 --> 01:40:21,280
a response to perhaps the steep
terrain,

1045
01:40:21,280 --> 01:40:24,840
or the lack of predators on the island
to run away from.

1046
01:40:27,520 --> 01:40:31,760
Physical adaptations that, along with
those simple stone tools,

1047
01:40:31,760 --> 01:40:35,960
helped them survive here for hundreds
of thousands of years.

1048
01:40:46,040 --> 01:40:48,680
You can see, it's like layers of cake.
- Yes.

1049
01:40:48,680 --> 01:40:50,680
- So every period has left a layer.

1050
01:40:51,960 --> 01:40:54,840
So this is like a snapshot in time,
telling us

1051
01:40:54,840 --> 01:40:57,280
a lot about different periods.

1052
01:41:05,960 --> 01:41:08,400
That's basically flow from volcanic
eruption?

1053
01:41:08,400 --> 01:41:09,440
- Yeah.

1054
01:41:21,360 --> 01:41:22,480
- Mm-hm.

1055
01:41:27,720 --> 01:41:28,880
Right.

1056
01:41:40,840 --> 01:41:42,320
Right.

1057
01:41:48,240 --> 01:41:49,440
So Homo sapiens.

1058
01:41:59,760 --> 01:42:01,040
That's really significant.

1059
01:42:01,040 --> 01:42:03,320
So the pyroclastic flow is when you
have the gas

1060
01:42:03,320 --> 01:42:05,480
and material that comes from a
volcanic eruption,

1061
01:42:05,480 --> 01:42:07,800
and really, I mean, that would just be
quite destructive.

1062
01:42:07,800 --> 01:42:09,040
- Yeah.

1063
01:42:22,960 --> 01:42:26,440
- We don't think that that final
eruption alone caused

1064
01:42:26,440 --> 01:42:28,520
the extinction of the hobbits.

1065
01:42:28,520 --> 01:42:31,920
It would have been a catastrophic
event here at the cave,

1066
01:42:31,920 --> 01:42:35,280
but we don't know how it affected the
rest of the island.

1067
01:42:37,360 --> 01:42:40,760
What we do know is that this shows the
time of the hobbits here

1068
01:42:40,760 --> 01:42:43,080
was coming to an end.

1069
01:42:46,240 --> 01:42:49,120
So you're looking at actually quite a
different world down there,

1070
01:42:49,120 --> 01:42:51,240
to up there. Yeah.
- Exactly, yes, exactly.

1071
01:43:07,200 --> 01:43:10,720
- This tiny island has been home to
two species of human.

1072
01:43:17,720 --> 01:43:19,320
One remains to this day.

1073
01:43:20,680 --> 01:43:22,240
One vanished long ago.

1074
01:43:36,200 --> 01:43:40,920
It is wonderful to imagine what this
place was like before all of this.

1075
01:43:43,080 --> 01:43:47,160
Thousands of years before our
ancestors, you had these

1076
01:43:47,160 --> 01:43:51,920
miniature elephant-like creatures who
wandered open grasslands.

1077
01:43:51,920 --> 01:43:57,440
You had actual dragons, the Komodo
dragons, who still exist.

1078
01:43:57,440 --> 01:44:02,960
And then giant marabou storks - storks
that were carnivorous,

1079
01:44:02,960 --> 01:44:06,200
that were my height or taller, and
could fly.

1080
01:44:06,200 --> 01:44:08,360
It was like a fantasy island.

1081
01:44:08,360 --> 01:44:09,840
And amongst all of it,

1082
01:44:09,840 --> 01:44:15,120
there were these humans who were tiny,
who came up to about my hip.

1083
01:44:17,920 --> 01:44:21,240
And those hobbits lived here on this
island for a staggering

1084
01:44:21,240 --> 01:44:27,040
length of time, potentially for more
than 700,000 years,

1085
01:44:27,040 --> 01:44:30,520
longer than we've existed as a
species.

1086
01:44:33,120 --> 01:44:36,440
And yet, there is this twist, because
so far,

1087
01:44:36,440 --> 01:44:40,480
we have found no evidence of them past
these shores.

1088
01:44:40,480 --> 01:44:45,280
Their whole story plays out only on
this island of Flores.

1089
01:44:49,760 --> 01:44:53,040
Our own species, in just a fraction of
that time,

1090
01:44:53,040 --> 01:44:57,760
was able to spread across a huge
portion of the globe.

1091
01:45:07,760 --> 01:45:12,440
Around 50,000 years ago, the climate
here became warmer and drier,

1092
01:45:12,440 --> 01:45:14,600
changing the environment.

1093
01:45:17,240 --> 01:45:22,040
At the same time, those violent
volcanic eruptions also struck.

1094
01:45:31,640 --> 01:45:35,560
Whatever the reason, it meant that
Homo floresiensis faced not

1095
01:45:35,560 --> 01:45:38,880
just change, but rapid change.

1096
01:45:38,880 --> 01:45:42,520
That meant that their physiology,
their physical adaptations,

1097
01:45:42,520 --> 01:45:47,240
that for so long had been a benefit,
were now a trap.

1098
01:45:47,240 --> 01:45:50,680
They were being left behind, because
it's actually incredibly

1099
01:45:50,680 --> 01:45:55,840
difficult to rapidly evolve your way
out of a sudden crisis.

1100
01:45:55,840 --> 01:46:00,120
And they couldn't behaviourally adapt
to this change either.

1101
01:46:00,120 --> 01:46:03,400
Nor could they, say, escape and move
to another island.

1102
01:46:03,400 --> 01:46:09,080
And so these wonderful, fantastic
relatives of ours vanished forever.

1103
01:46:10,080 --> 01:46:14,200
And in their place, Homo sapiens
appeared, making this island,

1104
01:46:14,200 --> 01:46:17,120
like so many places, their home.

1105
01:46:26,160 --> 01:46:30,920
So far, we've found no evidence that
our two species overlapped.

1106
01:46:37,600 --> 01:46:42,520
But for many, the final factor in the
hobbit's extinction

1107
01:46:42,520 --> 01:46:44,480
is likely our sudden arrival.

1108
01:46:49,760 --> 01:46:51,640
The hobbit simply couldn't compete

1109
01:46:51,640 --> 01:46:53,880
with this highly adaptable newcomer...

1110
01:46:56,720 --> 01:46:59,680
..a species able to change its
behaviour

1111
01:46:59,680 --> 01:47:02,920
to suit almost any environment and
condition.

1112
01:47:06,800 --> 01:47:11,680
The very characteristics driving our
continuing spread across the globe.

1113
01:47:20,880 --> 01:47:23,680
As we spread further and further away
from Africa,

1114
01:47:23,680 --> 01:47:25,520
entering into brand-new environments

1115
01:47:25,520 --> 01:47:28,880
that we had never experienced before,

1116
01:47:28,880 --> 01:47:32,960
we're not just surviving in these
places,

1117
01:47:32,960 --> 01:47:36,280
we're actually setting down roots.

1118
01:47:36,280 --> 01:47:39,320
And roots that would last us till this
very day.

1119
01:47:46,720 --> 01:47:49,280
There was one last part of this
journey to go.

1120
01:47:56,600 --> 01:48:01,640
We set out on a path no other human
species had travelled...

1121
01:48:04,640 --> 01:48:06,800
..perhaps following tantalising hints

1122
01:48:06,800 --> 01:48:08,760
that there was more land to explore.

1123
01:48:12,360 --> 01:48:17,720
Clouds on the horizon, returning
flights of birds...

1124
01:48:19,360 --> 01:48:24,160
..or maybe something much more
instinctive that inspired,

1125
01:48:24,160 --> 01:48:31,600
we think, dozens of families to strike
out on a voyage that

1126
01:48:31,600 --> 01:48:33,560
would carry them to a new continent...

1127
01:48:36,320 --> 01:48:37,440
..Australia.

1128
01:48:44,240 --> 01:48:46,880
Now, these were people who were
comfortable on the water,

1129
01:48:46,880 --> 01:48:49,360
they were going from island to island,

1130
01:48:49,360 --> 01:48:52,280
but Australia was something different.

1131
01:48:52,280 --> 01:48:56,080
We're talking about a journey that was
up to 100km,

1132
01:48:56,080 --> 01:48:58,680
60 miles.

1133
01:48:58,680 --> 01:49:02,080
That's days and nights on the open
ocean,

1134
01:49:02,080 --> 01:49:07,320
probably in something as basic as a
raft that was perhaps being

1135
01:49:07,320 --> 01:49:10,360
propelled and steered with just
paddles.

1136
01:49:13,080 --> 01:49:18,960
Launching out into that hostile and
expansive ocean,

1137
01:49:18,960 --> 01:49:24,040
that would be an expedition today, let
alone back then.

1138
01:49:26,520 --> 01:49:28,960
When I think about the risk involved,

1139
01:49:28,960 --> 01:49:35,240
when I think about the emptiness, it
is just absolutely astonishing.

1140
01:49:52,040 --> 01:49:55,200
The islands of Indonesia were another
waypoint

1141
01:49:55,200 --> 01:49:56,600
in our ongoing journey.

1142
01:50:02,160 --> 01:50:06,800
Our unique adaptability that helped us
cross the harsh deserts...

1143
01:50:08,440 --> 01:50:11,040
..and break through the barrier of the
rainforest...

1144
01:50:15,840 --> 01:50:19,720
..now carried us practically to the
ends of the Earth.

1145
01:50:21,640 --> 01:50:26,800
To Australia, around 9,000 miles from
where we began.

1146
01:50:29,680 --> 01:50:33,040
Which does beg the question, what kept
driving us on...

1147
01:50:35,000 --> 01:50:39,200
..ultimately inspiring us to take on
the dangers of the open ocean?

1148
01:50:42,960 --> 01:50:46,080
It's true that there will often have
been a push.

1149
01:50:47,200 --> 01:50:49,960
The simple need to find new resources

1150
01:50:49,960 --> 01:50:52,360
for our expanding population.

1151
01:50:55,520 --> 01:50:59,440
But I would argue that that is not the
full explanation,

1152
01:50:59,440 --> 01:51:02,840
that this is the most intangible part
of the story.

1153
01:51:02,840 --> 01:51:06,320
See, these people, in my opinion, were
just like us,

1154
01:51:06,320 --> 01:51:09,360
so they had the same fears and hopes
for their families.

1155
01:51:12,040 --> 01:51:14,000
We are clearly the explorer species.

1156
01:51:14,000 --> 01:51:16,040
I think that is beyond a doubt.

1157
01:51:18,040 --> 01:51:19,680
And, as a result,

1158
01:51:19,680 --> 01:51:24,000
we have been able to take on things
that seem absolutely impossible.

1159
01:51:26,320 --> 01:51:29,520
In that desire to understand what was
out there,

1160
01:51:29,520 --> 01:51:33,000
in the thrill and excitement of
understanding the unknown,

1161
01:51:33,000 --> 01:51:36,840
and the willingness to take risk to
know it.

1162
01:51:36,840 --> 01:51:39,920
See, wanderlust, creativity

1163
01:51:39,920 --> 01:51:44,400
and the imagination required to put
yourself in a different place,

1164
01:51:44,400 --> 01:51:50,840
into a different future and world, I
think that is fundamentally us.

1165
01:52:24,920 --> 01:52:31,120
We chart the spread of Homo sapiens
into the expanses of Europe

1166
01:52:31,120 --> 01:52:37,160
as our species struggles to survive in
the grip of a cruel Ice Age

1167
01:52:37,160 --> 01:52:43,040
and comes face-to-face with another
sophisticated species of human...

1168
01:52:44,920 --> 01:52:49,640
..the Neanderthals, who had long
mastered life in these cold lands.

1169
01:53:01,920 --> 01:53:05,920
In this episode, we filmed at a place
I've long dreamt of visiting,

1170
01:53:05,920 --> 01:53:10,120
one of the most important human
archaeological sites of all,

1171
01:53:10,120 --> 01:53:11,560
Liang Bua cave...

1172
01:53:13,280 --> 01:53:16,240
..where scientists are still trying to
solve the many mysteries

1173
01:53:16,240 --> 01:53:20,120
surrounding the hobbits, the ancient
humans that lived here.

1174
01:53:21,800 --> 01:53:24,720
In 2004, their discovery sent shock
waves through

1175
01:53:24,720 --> 01:53:26,360
the scientific community.

1176
01:53:28,920 --> 01:53:32,840
- So, the moment the paper's dropped,
it was massive.

1177
01:53:35,160 --> 01:53:36,400
It was all over the news.

1178
01:53:36,400 --> 01:53:38,040
It was all over the internet.

1179
01:53:38,040 --> 01:53:39,800
Everyone was talking about this tiny,

1180
01:53:39,800 --> 01:53:41,640
unexpected hobbit from Indonesia.

1181
01:53:43,960 --> 01:53:47,360
- Paige has known Thomas and the team
since 2017,

1182
01:53:47,360 --> 01:53:49,120
documenting their research.

1183
01:53:50,720 --> 01:53:52,960
Like many scientific breakthroughs,

1184
01:53:52,960 --> 01:53:56,520
the initial discovery created intense
controversy.

1185
01:53:58,480 --> 01:54:00,600
- The conferences got extremely
heated.

1186
01:54:00,600 --> 01:54:04,120
Sometimes there would be hobbit
sessions where within the same

1187
01:54:04,120 --> 01:54:07,760
session, you would have a few talks
would be sort of pro hobbit -

1188
01:54:07,760 --> 01:54:10,920
so, "This is a new species, this is
really exciting,

1189
01:54:10,920 --> 01:54:12,880
this is changing a lot of what we
thought we knew

1190
01:54:12,880 --> 01:54:14,040
about human evolution" -

1191
01:54:14,040 --> 01:54:15,320
and then in the same session,

1192
01:54:15,320 --> 01:54:16,880
you would have people that are saying,

1193
01:54:16,880 --> 01:54:18,440
"This is the biggest mistake

1194
01:54:18,440 --> 01:54:21,080
"that human evolution scientists have
ever made."

1195
01:54:23,640 --> 01:54:26,880
- Many argued that this was not a new
species,

1196
01:54:26,880 --> 01:54:32,040
but a Homo sapiens suffering from an
illness that caused its small

1197
01:54:32,040 --> 01:54:34,080
physical features and brain size.

1198
01:54:35,560 --> 01:54:40,960
Eventually that was discounted, and
Homo floresiensis was recognised

1199
01:54:40,960 --> 01:54:47,280
as a new species of human - raising,
if anything, even more questions.

1200
01:54:48,840 --> 01:54:50,920
- We still don't know, for example,

1201
01:54:50,920 --> 01:54:53,800
where they came from or who they're
closely related to.

1202
01:54:53,800 --> 01:54:57,360
So that question of the origins of
Homo floresiensis is still,

1203
01:54:57,360 --> 01:55:00,840
I would say, almost completely an open
one.

1204
01:55:04,280 --> 01:55:06,960
- It's possible they evolved from
another ancient

1205
01:55:06,960 --> 01:55:10,960
species of human, such as Homo
erectus,

1206
01:55:10,960 --> 01:55:14,360
which we know was in the area just
over a million years ago.

1207
01:55:16,000 --> 01:55:18,240
Perhaps carried to the island by
chance,

1208
01:55:18,240 --> 01:55:21,760
and then shrunk down over many years
of isolation.

1209
01:55:24,640 --> 01:55:27,880
But there is an even more
controversial idea.

1210
01:55:29,920 --> 01:55:32,400
- If you look really hard at a lot of
the characteristics,

1211
01:55:32,400 --> 01:55:34,200
particularly below the cranium...

1212
01:55:36,360 --> 01:55:38,600
..you see that this is a creature

1213
01:55:38,600 --> 01:55:42,040
that looks a lot more like some of our
really ancient ancestors,

1214
01:55:42,040 --> 01:55:44,640
more than two million years old, in
Africa.

1215
01:55:46,760 --> 01:55:50,120
And so maybe there was an exodus out
of Africa a million years

1216
01:55:50,120 --> 01:55:52,000
before we thought there was.

1217
01:55:54,440 --> 01:55:56,560
- This current dig might reveal the
answer.

1218
01:55:57,920 --> 01:56:00,920
With help from the Max Planck
Institute in Germany,

1219
01:56:00,920 --> 01:56:04,880
researchers are trying to collect
fragments of hobbit DNA.

1220
01:56:06,520 --> 01:56:09,880
- Ancient DNA is really helpful at
really laying out

1221
01:56:09,880 --> 01:56:14,320
relationships for us between different
species across time.

1222
01:56:14,320 --> 01:56:18,120
And so, because of the way that
mutations accumulate over time,

1223
01:56:18,120 --> 01:56:20,680
it allows us to kind of work backwards

1224
01:56:20,680 --> 01:56:23,960
and trace back when some of those
lineages would have split.

1225
01:56:25,200 --> 01:56:28,320
Homo floresiensis, and whoever their
closest ancestor is,

1226
01:56:28,320 --> 01:56:31,120
which is not a question we can answer
until we kind of

1227
01:56:31,120 --> 01:56:32,720
have some of that information.

1228
01:56:34,760 --> 01:56:40,080
- The problem is successfully finding
hobbit DNA will not be easy.

1229
01:56:41,880 --> 01:56:46,520
- Normally it would be impossible to
recover DNA from a situation

1230
01:56:46,520 --> 01:56:48,440
where it's this hot.

1231
01:56:48,440 --> 01:56:49,720
It's just too difficult.

1232
01:56:51,080 --> 01:56:53,800
DNA degrades really rapidly, and other
things move in

1233
01:56:53,800 --> 01:56:56,840
and muddy up the signal, like bacteria
and other things.

1234
01:56:58,120 --> 01:56:59,800
But in this cave in particular,

1235
01:56:59,800 --> 01:57:04,160
it is at a slightly higher altitude
than a lot of Indonesia is,

1236
01:57:04,160 --> 01:57:05,760
it's right up in the mountains,

1237
01:57:05,760 --> 01:57:09,520
and so it is a little bit cooler than
most equatorial areas.

1238
01:57:09,520 --> 01:57:12,880
And so there is a little bit of hope
that we might be able to

1239
01:57:12,880 --> 01:57:15,200
get a little bit of a signal from the
species.

1240
01:57:17,680 --> 01:57:22,080
- If successful, we might finally
solve the mystery of the hobbit.

1241
01:57:23,640 --> 01:57:27,160
Whatever happens, Homo floresiensis
will remain one of the most

1242
01:57:27,160 --> 01:57:33,240
important and unexpected discoveries
of recent history.

1243
01:58:27,800 --> 01:58:29,720
LABOURED BREATHING

1244
01:58:29,720 --> 01:58:31,040
CRY OF PAIN

1245
01:58:34,120 --> 01:58:35,680
GRUNTING

1246
01:58:39,960 --> 01:58:41,680
GROANING

1247
01:58:42,880 --> 01:58:44,440
BABY CRIES

1248
01:58:51,360 --> 01:58:57,480
Around 30,000 years ago, a child was
born into a new and lonely world.

1249
01:59:01,720 --> 01:59:04,480
They were the first child to be born
onto a planet

1250
01:59:04,480 --> 01:59:06,400
in which we were quite alone.

1251
01:59:14,280 --> 01:59:18,440
This was the first time in history
that only one species of human

1252
01:59:18,440 --> 01:59:19,840
walked this Earth.

1253
01:59:21,720 --> 01:59:23,440
All the others were now gone.

1254
01:59:25,000 --> 01:59:27,240
And in a tale written by the sole
survivors,

1255
01:59:27,240 --> 01:59:29,560
it's actually quite easy to forget

1256
01:59:29,560 --> 01:59:32,680
that we weren't destined to be the
only ones.

1257
01:59:32,680 --> 01:59:33,920
And yet here we are.

1258
01:59:36,520 --> 01:59:40,160
How this happened is one of the most
poignant chapters

1259
01:59:40,160 --> 01:59:41,720
in the human story.

1260
01:59:41,720 --> 01:59:44,120
And it's one that's etched into the
DNA

1261
01:59:44,120 --> 01:59:47,040
of every single one of us alive today.

1262
02:00:01,760 --> 02:00:05,120
For hundreds of thousands of years,

1263
02:00:05,120 --> 02:00:07,800
Homo sapiens evolved in Africa.

1264
02:00:14,280 --> 02:00:18,560
60,000 years ago, one group dispersed
into the Middle East...

1265
02:00:23,000 --> 02:00:26,720
..and continued onwards as far as
Australia.

1266
02:00:28,680 --> 02:00:30,640
But our ancestors didn't stop there.

1267
02:00:35,720 --> 02:00:38,840
Another group began to make their way
north into Europe...

1268
02:00:42,440 --> 02:00:44,400
..where their story continues.

1269
02:01:00,560 --> 02:01:05,080
For thousands of years, Europe had
been out of reach to Homo sapiens...

1270
02:01:06,600 --> 02:01:08,440
..repelled by its icy climate.

1271
02:01:14,920 --> 02:01:18,800
But now a shift in conditions opened
up a route

1272
02:01:18,800 --> 02:01:20,280
into this new realm.

1273
02:01:27,200 --> 02:01:31,360
And some of our ancestors left the
familiar behind...

1274
02:01:35,440 --> 02:01:37,600
..and stepped into the unknown.

1275
02:01:45,760 --> 02:01:48,600
We don't really know why they came.

1276
02:01:48,600 --> 02:01:53,000
Was it a romantic notion, like pure
curiosity?

1277
02:01:53,000 --> 02:01:56,800
Or was it something much more
practical? Say, the need for food.

1278
02:01:56,800 --> 02:02:01,120
Or perhaps it was the same forces that
drive migrants today -

1279
02:02:01,120 --> 02:02:03,280
that need for shelter and safety.

1280
02:02:08,040 --> 02:02:10,520
We don't know the exact routes they
took,

1281
02:02:10,520 --> 02:02:15,240
but by following rivers, coasts, or
wandering across mountain ranges

1282
02:02:15,240 --> 02:02:19,680
like these, they found their way into
this new world.

1283
02:02:31,960 --> 02:02:34,520
But not long after these migrants
reached Europe...

1284
02:02:38,760 --> 02:02:41,760
..they would have encountered
something unexpected.

1285
02:02:45,600 --> 02:02:46,880
When they got here,

1286
02:02:46,880 --> 02:02:50,960
they would have discovered that
another species had beat them to it.

1287
02:03:08,360 --> 02:03:11,520
Two other human species were
widespread at the time.

1288
02:03:12,840 --> 02:03:16,240
To the east, from Siberia to Southeast
Asia,

1289
02:03:16,240 --> 02:03:19,080
lived the mysterious Denisovans,

1290
02:03:19,080 --> 02:03:21,720
known only to us from DNA

1291
02:03:21,720 --> 02:03:24,280
preserved in a few fossil fragments.

1292
02:03:27,920 --> 02:03:31,880
Across lands to the west, all the way
from Russia

1293
02:03:31,880 --> 02:03:35,440
to the Atlantic coast of Europe, were
the Neanderthals.

1294
02:03:42,520 --> 02:03:44,960
Homo sapiens were latecomers to
Europe.

1295
02:03:46,280 --> 02:03:51,000
It had been home to the Neanderthals
for almost 400,000 years

1296
02:03:51,000 --> 02:03:52,240
before we showed up.

1297
02:03:55,120 --> 02:03:59,520
Now these Homo sapiens venturing into
Europe would have met

1298
02:03:59,520 --> 02:04:01,160
another sort of human.

1299
02:04:05,960 --> 02:04:10,240
People who looked a lot like us, but
with obvious differences.

1300
02:04:17,240 --> 02:04:21,160
We can only imagine what our ancestors
would have made of them...

1301
02:04:26,240 --> 02:04:30,720
..when our two cultures - perhaps just
two families...

1302
02:04:33,600 --> 02:04:36,680
..encountered each other for the first
time.

1303
02:05:01,600 --> 02:05:06,640
Neanderthals were close relatives of
Homo sapiens,

1304
02:05:06,640 --> 02:05:11,560
but we had evolved along separate
branches of the human family tree.

1305
02:05:14,560 --> 02:05:19,000
There's often this belief that we
evolved from Neanderthals,

1306
02:05:19,000 --> 02:05:20,640
so we came from Neanderthals.

1307
02:05:20,640 --> 02:05:21,920
Actually, that's incorrect.

1308
02:05:21,920 --> 02:05:23,640
We shared a common ancestor with them.

1309
02:05:23,640 --> 02:05:25,840
And then, due to chance and the
environment,

1310
02:05:25,840 --> 02:05:29,440
we went on these two really different
evolutionary journeys.

1311
02:05:29,440 --> 02:05:33,000
So, we evolved - Homo sapiens - for
Africa.

1312
02:05:33,000 --> 02:05:35,240
We ended up taller and leaner.

1313
02:05:35,240 --> 02:05:38,920
Now, the Neanderthals evolved for much
cooler,

1314
02:05:38,920 --> 02:05:40,560
more wooded environments.

1315
02:05:45,680 --> 02:05:47,160
So they were shorter -

1316
02:05:47,160 --> 02:05:49,080
on average, they were about 5'5" -

1317
02:05:49,080 --> 02:05:51,400
they had bigger torsos, but shorter
limbs.

1318
02:05:54,720 --> 02:05:57,080
They used a lot of brute force...

1319
02:05:58,640 --> 02:06:00,760
..because they were close-range
hunters.

1320
02:06:06,080 --> 02:06:08,800
The Neanderthals were masters of their
environment -

1321
02:06:08,800 --> 02:06:11,680
they had evolved here for hundreds of
thousands of years -

1322
02:06:11,680 --> 02:06:14,480
whereas we turn up and we're
immigrants,

1323
02:06:14,480 --> 02:06:17,680
we are ill-equipped and unprepared.

1324
02:06:17,680 --> 02:06:21,240
If you were going to place a bet on
who would be left standing,

1325
02:06:21,240 --> 02:06:24,920
you'd probably bet on the obvious
choice - and it wouldn't be us.

1326
02:06:31,080 --> 02:06:34,800
The Neanderthals had found a way to
thrive here for millennia.

1327
02:06:42,600 --> 02:06:44,400
Yet in the 19th century,

1328
02:06:44,400 --> 02:06:47,200
when the first Neanderthal fossils
were unearthed...

1329
02:06:50,840 --> 02:06:52,600
..we quickly made assumptions...

1330
02:06:56,200 --> 02:06:58,400
..that have persisted ever since.

1331
02:07:00,720 --> 02:07:04,800
As a result, Neanderthals haven't had
the best PR.

1332
02:07:07,320 --> 02:07:12,200
If somebody calls you a Neanderthal,
it's probably not a compliment.

1333
02:07:12,200 --> 02:07:14,960
And that stereotype of Neanderthals
has been with us

1334
02:07:14,960 --> 02:07:16,560
since the very beginning.

1335
02:07:16,560 --> 02:07:19,920
And it kind of suited us to see
ourselves as the pinnacle

1336
02:07:19,920 --> 02:07:23,520
of evolution, and them as these
knuckle-dragging ape men.

1337
02:07:23,520 --> 02:07:28,080
But partly, that stereotype is
actually just a mistake of science.

1338
02:07:28,080 --> 02:07:30,600
Palaeoanthropology at the time was
quite a new science,

1339
02:07:30,600 --> 02:07:33,560
and when they came to reconstruct this
one Neanderthal called

1340
02:07:33,560 --> 02:07:36,960
La Chapelle-aux-Saints, they portrayed
it as kind of really

1341
02:07:36,960 --> 02:07:40,440
hunched over and knuckle-dragging,
which was just wrong.

1342
02:07:40,440 --> 02:07:44,120
This kind of brutish, hairy
Neanderthal,

1343
02:07:44,120 --> 02:07:47,680
looking like it's about to attack,
it's incredibly aggressive.

1344
02:07:47,680 --> 02:07:50,280
And then Hollywood pick up this
stereotype.

1345
02:07:50,280 --> 02:07:52,400
Some of these images are so
ridiculous.

1346
02:07:53,520 --> 02:07:56,040
Very monkey-like Neanderthals.

1347
02:07:57,320 --> 02:08:00,120
That impression of Neanderthals just
solidifies.

1348
02:08:01,880 --> 02:08:03,720
I personally love Neanderthals,

1349
02:08:03,720 --> 02:08:07,520
and the more we learn about them, the
more we study them,

1350
02:08:07,520 --> 02:08:09,400
the more we discover about them,

1351
02:08:09,400 --> 02:08:12,920
the more we realise that this is
actually incredibly incorrect.

1352
02:08:21,720 --> 02:08:26,560
This now outdated image of the simple
brutish caveman is

1353
02:08:26,560 --> 02:08:27,960
finally being replaced...

1354
02:08:30,840 --> 02:08:35,080
..with a picture of a once vibrant,
thriving culture.

1355
02:08:41,640 --> 02:08:44,680
There may be no Neanderthals left to
tell their story...

1356
02:08:45,840 --> 02:08:48,640
..but thanks to the traces they left
behind,

1357
02:08:48,640 --> 02:08:53,360
we can begin to imagine people who
aren't so different from us.

1358
02:08:58,840 --> 02:09:01,240
We keep finding things at Neanderthal
sites

1359
02:09:01,240 --> 02:09:02,640
that really challenge us.

1360
02:09:04,320 --> 02:09:07,440
Things like beaded shells with
pigmentation on them,

1361
02:09:07,440 --> 02:09:09,760
almost like they're being used as
necklaces.

1362
02:09:11,000 --> 02:09:14,480
Eagle talons that have been polished
down.

1363
02:09:14,480 --> 02:09:18,520
And then there's my actual favourite,
which is

1364
02:09:18,520 --> 02:09:20,440
evidence of feathers.

1365
02:09:20,440 --> 02:09:21,760
But not just any feathers.

1366
02:09:21,760 --> 02:09:23,680
No, the Neanderthals seem to be really

1367
02:09:23,680 --> 02:09:27,960
interested in iridescent feathers from
things like red kites.

1368
02:09:27,960 --> 02:09:29,800
And you've got to wonder,

1369
02:09:29,800 --> 02:09:33,840
why were they so interested in those
particular colours?

1370
02:09:33,840 --> 02:09:35,840
And it's presumably because they're
high value.

1371
02:09:35,840 --> 02:09:37,200
They're beautiful.

1372
02:09:40,520 --> 02:09:43,160
You kind of have an impression of them
as having these incredible

1373
02:09:43,160 --> 02:09:47,040
headdresses or maybe cloaks made of
these brilliant, bright feathers.

1374
02:09:51,200 --> 02:09:53,000
When you put this all together,

1375
02:09:53,000 --> 02:09:56,240
you paint a picture of a Neanderthal,
not as this

1376
02:09:56,240 --> 02:10:00,880
aggressive creature standing behind a
rock with a massive club,

1377
02:10:00,880 --> 02:10:04,680
but actually as these beings very
interested in adorning themselves.

1378
02:10:06,640 --> 02:10:09,600
Interested in looking beautiful with
necklaces

1379
02:10:09,600 --> 02:10:12,000
and gorgeous coloured headdresses.

1380
02:10:17,760 --> 02:10:20,920
Suddenly you're looking at beings who
aren't just

1381
02:10:20,920 --> 02:10:23,160
interested in food and shelter -

1382
02:10:23,160 --> 02:10:26,000
they're interested in the way they are
seen by the world.

1383
02:10:27,120 --> 02:10:30,800
This - all this - makes them tangibly
human.

1384
02:10:37,600 --> 02:10:40,800
For generations, Homo sapiens and
Neanderthals lived

1385
02:10:40,800 --> 02:10:42,000
near one another.

1386
02:10:45,560 --> 02:10:47,240
But how close were we?

1387
02:10:56,880 --> 02:10:59,880
For decades, most assumed
interbreeding

1388
02:10:59,880 --> 02:11:02,400
between our two species didn't happen.

1389
02:11:07,520 --> 02:11:11,200
But in the early 2000s, this was
called into question...

1390
02:11:15,400 --> 02:11:18,600
..with the chance discovery of fossil
fragments...

1391
02:11:25,160 --> 02:11:30,880
..which revealed humans with a
mysterious mix of features.

1392
02:11:36,320 --> 02:11:39,400
It even smells like a fossil.

1393
02:11:40,640 --> 02:11:42,720
This, I assume, is Oase 1.

1394
02:11:42,720 --> 02:11:43,920
- This one is Oase 1.

1395
02:11:45,040 --> 02:11:48,000
- And that's Oase 2.
- Skull. That's Oase 2.

1396
02:11:48,000 --> 02:11:51,440
- This is quite special because I've
read about them.

1397
02:11:51,440 --> 02:11:53,280
I've studied them.

1398
02:11:53,280 --> 02:11:55,320
They're hugely significant fossils,

1399
02:11:55,320 --> 02:11:58,520
but I've never seen the originals.

1400
02:11:58,520 --> 02:12:01,160
I've never been this close to them.
It's...

1401
02:12:01,160 --> 02:12:02,920
- We excavated for two years.

1402
02:12:02,920 --> 02:12:08,000
We unearthed, like, more than 10,000
fossil remains,

1403
02:12:08,000 --> 02:12:11,400
mostly cave bear, but also Oase 2.

1404
02:12:11,400 --> 02:12:15,680
And it looks and it is modern Homo
sapiens.
- Yeah.

1405
02:12:15,680 --> 02:12:20,200
- But it has some features which are
more like Neanderthal.

1406
02:12:20,200 --> 02:12:22,240
- Yeah.
- Like this one. It's quite clear.

1407
02:12:22,240 --> 02:12:25,240
It's a mandible of a modern human with
this chin.

1408
02:12:25,240 --> 02:12:26,360
- Cos there's a chin.
- Yeah, a chin.

1409
02:12:26,360 --> 02:12:27,960
Yeah.
- And Neanderthals don't have a chin.

1410
02:12:27,960 --> 02:12:29,680
Neanderthals' chin kind of recedes.

1411
02:12:29,680 --> 02:12:33,040
- But then you see the size of the
molars...
- Yeah.

1412
02:12:33,040 --> 02:12:35,760
- ..which are really huge.
- More a Neanderthal feature.

1413
02:12:35,760 --> 02:12:40,240
- Modern sapiens, but with Neanderthal
teeth.

1414
02:12:40,240 --> 02:12:44,120
Yeah, Oase 2 has the same hybrid
features.
- Mm-mm.

1415
02:12:44,120 --> 02:12:45,880
- Like if you look at the face.

1416
02:12:45,880 --> 02:12:50,360
- You look at that and you do think
that's Homo sapiens.

1417
02:12:50,360 --> 02:12:54,560
And then it has these features on it,
which are more Neanderthal.

1418
02:12:54,560 --> 02:12:56,320
Like this occipital bun here at the
back,

1419
02:12:56,320 --> 02:12:58,480
that bulge at the back of the skull
here.

1420
02:12:58,480 --> 02:13:01,400
- Yeah, that's kind of strange.

1421
02:13:01,400 --> 02:13:05,520
It's not a Neanderthal, but it has
Neanderthal features,

1422
02:13:05,520 --> 02:13:08,920
which prompt us to think about some
sort of interbreeding.

1423
02:13:10,040 --> 02:13:12,760
Neanderthal, Homo sapiens
interbreeding.

1424
02:13:12,760 --> 02:13:15,120
It was pretty controversial.

1425
02:13:15,120 --> 02:13:17,000
- People thought it either didn't
happen,

1426
02:13:17,000 --> 02:13:18,800
because we were too genetically
distinct.

1427
02:13:18,800 --> 02:13:21,640
- People were just not ready to accept
that.

1428
02:13:21,640 --> 02:13:26,240
Interbreeding is not something
uncommon in biology.

1429
02:13:26,240 --> 02:13:27,760
It happens with other species.

1430
02:13:27,760 --> 02:13:29,960
At that time, it was somehow taboo.

1431
02:13:37,120 --> 02:13:41,000
- Around a decade later came a
revolutionary breakthrough.

1432
02:13:43,360 --> 02:13:47,720
Advances in genetic analysis allowed
scientists to extract

1433
02:13:47,720 --> 02:13:50,200
DNA from ancient fossils...

1434
02:13:54,840 --> 02:14:00,360
..proving these two species could -
and did - produce offspring.

1435
02:14:02,200 --> 02:14:06,160
How did it feel to be proven right, to
be vindicated,

1436
02:14:06,160 --> 02:14:08,520
especially over something so
controversial?

1437
02:14:09,600 --> 02:14:12,800
- We felt relieved.
- Yeah.

1438
02:14:12,800 --> 02:14:13,840
- Like, "OK.

1439
02:14:15,080 --> 02:14:16,680
"Now you know."

1440
02:14:17,760 --> 02:14:19,960
Yeah, we were happy to be right.

1441
02:14:19,960 --> 02:14:21,160
- Yeah.

1442
02:14:21,160 --> 02:14:24,720
How many generations ago was the
Neanderthal ancestor?

1443
02:14:24,720 --> 02:14:27,560
- We now know that this individual had

1444
02:14:27,560 --> 02:14:32,920
a Neanderthal ancestor somewhere back
four to six generations.

1445
02:14:32,920 --> 02:14:36,160
- One of the great-great-grandparents,
potentially, was a Neanderthal.

1446
02:14:36,160 --> 02:14:38,080
- Something like that.

1447
02:14:38,080 --> 02:14:41,840
- You know, people spend their whole
lives - their WHOLE lives -

1448
02:14:41,840 --> 02:14:45,800
trying to find a fossil as significant
as this, and...

1449
02:14:48,080 --> 02:14:49,480
Wow, it's just amazing.

1450
02:14:57,640 --> 02:15:02,840
Since the discovery of Oase 1,
evidence has continued to grow,

1451
02:15:02,840 --> 02:15:06,080
proving hybrids like this were not
just possible,

1452
02:15:06,080 --> 02:15:08,600
but may have been relatively common.

1453
02:15:11,720 --> 02:15:15,720
We'll never know the full story of
Oase 1 and the other hybrids,

1454
02:15:15,720 --> 02:15:18,520
and to be honest, we'll never know the
full circumstances

1455
02:15:18,520 --> 02:15:20,600
under which they were conceived.

1456
02:15:20,600 --> 02:15:23,720
For all we know, it could have been
nonconsensual, or it could have

1457
02:15:23,720 --> 02:15:26,720
been the result of a romantic notion
like love,

1458
02:15:26,720 --> 02:15:29,280
or it might have been the result of a
practical decision

1459
02:15:29,280 --> 02:15:31,000
like as part of a trade agreement.

1460
02:15:34,320 --> 02:15:36,440
But whatever it was,

1461
02:15:36,440 --> 02:15:40,120
what must it have been like to have
been a hybrid child,

1462
02:15:40,120 --> 02:15:44,120
to have had a parent or grandparent or
great-great-grandparent,

1463
02:15:44,120 --> 02:15:49,080
not just from a different race, but a
completely different species?

1464
02:15:52,640 --> 02:15:54,840
Did these children feel like they
belonged,

1465
02:15:54,840 --> 02:15:57,280
or were they teased and ostracised?

1466
02:15:59,600 --> 02:16:02,800
We'll never know, but what we do know,

1467
02:16:02,800 --> 02:16:07,720
because I held Oase 1 in my hands, is
that they existed.

1468
02:16:07,720 --> 02:16:09,360
And so somebody loved them,

1469
02:16:09,360 --> 02:16:12,440
and somebody was raising them to
adulthood.

1470
02:16:12,440 --> 02:16:15,360
And so we tangibly know that the
Neanderthals

1471
02:16:15,360 --> 02:16:19,280
and the Homo sapiens, they didn't just
meet - they joined.

1472
02:16:26,160 --> 02:16:29,520
We now know that, for a time at least,
Homo sapiens

1473
02:16:29,520 --> 02:16:32,840
and Neanderthals managed to live
alongside one another.

1474
02:16:39,200 --> 02:16:44,200
But a global change would push both
species to the limits of survival.

1475
02:16:55,440 --> 02:16:59,560
It's likely Homo sapiens arrived here
during a brief thaw.

1476
02:17:02,320 --> 02:17:06,480
And by doing so, they had walked into
a trap.

1477
02:17:23,480 --> 02:17:25,720
Europe was plunged into winter.

1478
02:17:26,840 --> 02:17:31,880
Unrecognisable to us today, it became
a barren and hostile world.

1479
02:17:37,200 --> 02:17:41,040
Rainfall in some areas fell to half
its modern level.

1480
02:17:42,560 --> 02:17:45,920
And much of the continent became
tundra.

1481
02:17:45,920 --> 02:17:48,120
A vast, inhospitable plain.

1482
02:17:58,160 --> 02:18:01,520
All of a sudden, Homo sapiens were
confronted by

1483
02:18:01,520 --> 02:18:03,400
a completely different world.

1484
02:18:07,440 --> 02:18:10,480
Frozen, relentless,

1485
02:18:10,480 --> 02:18:12,800
and utterly unexpected.

1486
02:18:28,320 --> 02:18:30,560
There's no way for them to have known
it,

1487
02:18:30,560 --> 02:18:33,120
but before the first Homo sapiens
arrived,

1488
02:18:33,120 --> 02:18:36,160
most of Europe would have been in the
depths of winter.

1489
02:18:38,000 --> 02:18:41,000
Ice sheets like this one would have
spread from here

1490
02:18:41,000 --> 02:18:42,680
all the way down to Britain.

1491
02:18:46,360 --> 02:18:49,320
Homo sapiens evolved in Africa,

1492
02:18:49,320 --> 02:18:53,840
so these conditions would have been
completely shocking to them.

1493
02:18:53,840 --> 02:18:56,760
It's currently minus eight degrees.

1494
02:18:56,760 --> 02:19:01,360
I am wearing so many layers, it's
actually ridiculous.

1495
02:19:01,360 --> 02:19:04,200
And yet, I am still completely
miserable.

1496
02:19:04,200 --> 02:19:06,680
It is so cold, I can't feel parts of
my face.

1497
02:19:08,560 --> 02:19:11,240
These families, they were here

1498
02:19:11,240 --> 02:19:14,480
and they were trying to keep young
children alive.

1499
02:19:14,480 --> 02:19:17,200
These conditions would have been
life-threatening.

1500
02:19:25,680 --> 02:19:29,160
But while Homo sapiens weren't adapted
for the cold...

1501
02:19:34,920 --> 02:19:37,720
..Neanderthals had evolved to survive
brutal

1502
02:19:37,720 --> 02:19:41,240
winters for almost 400,000 years.

1503
02:19:44,760 --> 02:19:48,200
They knew where to shelter and hunt
for scarce food.

1504
02:19:54,160 --> 02:19:57,280
But survival was also in their
biology.

1505
02:20:03,440 --> 02:20:08,760
It's thought they evolved to store
more brown fat than Homo sapiens.

1506
02:20:08,760 --> 02:20:11,840
This burns more calories and generates
heat,

1507
02:20:11,840 --> 02:20:14,240
conserving energy in the cold.

1508
02:20:19,680 --> 02:20:23,640
And larger nasal passages acted like
natural radiators...

1509
02:20:24,960 --> 02:20:28,800
..warming and moistening the icy air
before it reached their lungs.

1510
02:20:36,640 --> 02:20:40,600
When the going got tough, Neanderthals
were built to endure.

1511
02:20:53,080 --> 02:20:56,480
Without the Neanderthals' adaptations
or knowledge,

1512
02:20:56,480 --> 02:21:00,440
these early European Homo sapiens
would have been doing

1513
02:21:00,440 --> 02:21:03,320
everything they could just to cling
on.

1514
02:21:09,720 --> 02:21:12,680
And yet the bitter cold was just the
beginning.

1515
02:21:21,280 --> 02:21:25,600
This glacier is the remnant of an ice
sheet that's incrementally

1516
02:21:25,600 --> 02:21:27,960
grown and shrunk for millennia.

1517
02:21:34,440 --> 02:21:37,800
Deep within are clues about the world
our ancestors

1518
02:21:37,800 --> 02:21:39,960
would have found themselves in.

1519
02:21:48,200 --> 02:21:51,000
- We're working in mountain glaciers
like Folgefonna

1520
02:21:51,000 --> 02:21:54,560
because we can use the evidence of how
the glaciers have changed

1521
02:21:54,560 --> 02:21:57,080
in the past to understand how they
behaved

1522
02:21:57,080 --> 02:21:59,600
in response to climate change.

1523
02:21:59,600 --> 02:22:01,720
Many of the places we live in now,
where I live in Bergen,

1524
02:22:01,720 --> 02:22:04,400
would have been underneath a kilometre
of ice.
- Yeah.

1525
02:22:04,400 --> 02:22:07,000
I mean, there were times when Britain
was part of that.

1526
02:22:07,000 --> 02:22:10,320
- The ice sheet came as far south as
about Birmingham.

1527
02:22:10,320 --> 02:22:13,520
- Birmingham, my own hometown. There
we go!

1528
02:22:15,200 --> 02:22:17,120
- So, this is where we're drilling the
ice core.
- Yeah.

1529
02:22:17,120 --> 02:22:19,240
So, it's manual drilling?
- Yes, exactly.

1530
02:22:19,240 --> 02:22:21,400
And there's blades at the bottom that
are cutting through the ice.

1531
02:22:21,400 --> 02:22:24,720
- How tough is that?
- It can be quite hard work. Yeah.

1532
02:22:24,720 --> 02:22:27,680
And then we lift it out, and we bring
it over here.

1533
02:22:30,680 --> 02:22:32,480
We can see...
- Look at that.

1534
02:22:32,480 --> 02:22:35,080
- If we hold it up to the light, we
can see the air bubbles.

1535
02:22:35,080 --> 02:22:38,600
- So basically, this is effectively a
time capsule.
- Yes.

1536
02:22:38,600 --> 02:22:41,200
And this is young ice from Folgefonna
glacier.

1537
02:22:43,880 --> 02:22:47,280
But if this was from Greenland and it
was deep, old ice core,

1538
02:22:47,280 --> 02:22:49,720
those air bubbles would tell us about
what the atmosphere

1539
02:22:49,720 --> 02:22:51,200
was like in the past.

1540
02:22:53,600 --> 02:22:56,400
We can look at what we see from the
ice cores in Greenland.

1541
02:22:56,400 --> 02:22:57,880
And this shows us how the climate

1542
02:22:57,880 --> 02:23:01,160
changed through that period in the
North Atlantic region.
- Yeah.

1543
02:23:01,160 --> 02:23:03,360
- There was a relatively cold

1544
02:23:03,360 --> 02:23:06,680
but stable climate from 70,000 to
60,000 years ago.

1545
02:23:06,680 --> 02:23:09,080
And then between 60,000 and 30,000
years ago,

1546
02:23:09,080 --> 02:23:14,040
the climate in this region jumped by
eight to ten degrees warmer over

1547
02:23:14,040 --> 02:23:16,040
maybe one or two decades.
- That's quite a lot.

1548
02:23:16,040 --> 02:23:17,360
- It's huge. It's huge.

1549
02:23:17,360 --> 02:23:20,120
And that cycle is repeated all through
that period.

1550
02:23:20,120 --> 02:23:22,400
And then it cooled again and then
jumped.

1551
02:23:22,400 --> 02:23:23,440
And this carried on.

1552
02:23:23,440 --> 02:23:26,040
And we see then a cold, but slightly
more stable,

1553
02:23:26,040 --> 02:23:28,800
climate before we then warm into the
present day.

1554
02:23:30,000 --> 02:23:31,800
- I mean, how do you exist

1555
02:23:31,800 --> 02:23:34,760
if the climate changes like that in
such an extreme fashion?

1556
02:23:34,760 --> 02:23:35,960
- Well, it's very challenging.

1557
02:23:35,960 --> 02:23:39,480
It's maybe not even possible because
everything you know

1558
02:23:39,480 --> 02:23:42,160
about how to live, how to raise
children,

1559
02:23:42,160 --> 02:23:45,080
becomes in 10-20 years...
- Yeah. Obsolete.
- ..totally changes.

1560
02:23:45,080 --> 02:23:46,920
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- Totally changes.

1561
02:23:51,640 --> 02:23:54,640
- Entire ecosystems collapsed.

1562
02:24:02,320 --> 02:24:04,680
Forests became barren plains.

1563
02:24:10,520 --> 02:24:11,760
Lakes dried up.

1564
02:24:14,280 --> 02:24:16,160
And rivers froze over.

1565
02:24:23,440 --> 02:24:25,600
The real enemy wasn't cold.

1566
02:24:27,280 --> 02:24:28,640
It was chaos.

1567
02:24:35,080 --> 02:24:40,320
As landscapes shifted, herds of
animals disappeared.

1568
02:24:45,000 --> 02:24:47,200
And sources of food grew scarce.

1569
02:24:53,560 --> 02:24:57,200
People were driven into unfamiliar
territories

1570
02:24:57,200 --> 02:25:00,000
and forced to compete for what little
remained.

1571
02:25:04,080 --> 02:25:06,640
It was a brutal time to be alive.

1572
02:25:09,640 --> 02:25:13,760
Imagine what it would be like for our
ancestors to live in this

1573
02:25:13,760 --> 02:25:17,320
world where the land of their
grandparents was not

1574
02:25:17,320 --> 02:25:19,600
the land of their grandchildren.

1575
02:25:19,600 --> 02:25:22,640
And when that happens,
intergenerational knowledge -

1576
02:25:22,640 --> 02:25:25,800
knowledge that's passed on from one
generation to the next,

1577
02:25:25,800 --> 02:25:30,040
that's so important for survival in
these environments -

1578
02:25:30,040 --> 02:25:33,760
suddenly that knowledge isn't actually
very useful

1579
02:25:33,760 --> 02:25:38,000
because the plants, the animals, the
landscape, it's all different.

1580
02:25:42,320 --> 02:25:46,280
To survive, each generation had to
discover the world anew...

1581
02:25:50,000 --> 02:25:53,520
..roaming further in search of
dwindling resources

1582
02:25:53,520 --> 02:25:55,040
that might not be there.

1583
02:26:01,400 --> 02:26:04,800
Homo sapiens and Neanderthals would
have been forced to find

1584
02:26:04,800 --> 02:26:07,080
shelter wherever they were able to...

1585
02:26:13,800 --> 02:26:17,760
..seeking refuge in the few habitable
places they could find.

1586
02:26:36,440 --> 02:26:39,120
55,000 years ago,

1587
02:26:39,120 --> 02:26:42,360
the south of France was still in the
thick of the Ice Age.

1588
02:26:46,800 --> 02:26:50,520
Yet, compared to the deep freeze of
the north, it was

1589
02:26:50,520 --> 02:26:55,600
one of the more bearable places in an
otherwise hostile landscape.

1590
02:27:02,920 --> 02:27:04,480
And here at Grotte Mandrin...

1591
02:27:05,760 --> 02:27:09,080
..archaeologists have spent over three
decades

1592
02:27:09,080 --> 02:27:10,720
unearthing its secrets...

1593
02:27:13,280 --> 02:27:14,720
..layer by layer...

1594
02:27:16,560 --> 02:27:20,440
..revealing a place that was home to
Neanderthals for more

1595
02:27:20,440 --> 02:27:22,200
than 80,000 years.

1596
02:27:26,000 --> 02:27:28,720
Shoes off.
- Yes.
- There we go.

1597
02:27:54,680 --> 02:27:55,760
Yeah.

1598
02:28:04,240 --> 02:28:05,480
Uh-huh.

1599
02:28:09,600 --> 02:28:12,160
So, what you're seeing here is phases
of occupation

1600
02:28:12,160 --> 02:28:14,720
over 80,000 years.
- Yeah.

1601
02:28:14,720 --> 02:28:17,520
- And because you've got incredible
resolution, you can

1602
02:28:17,520 --> 02:28:18,720
really hone in on that.

1603
02:28:33,240 --> 02:28:35,960
Each layer has preserved a moment in
time.

1604
02:28:40,520 --> 02:28:43,360
And from the treasures buried within,

1605
02:28:43,360 --> 02:28:47,280
it's possible to piece together
different chapters of history.

1606
02:28:51,960 --> 02:28:55,400
For millennia, this cave was home to
Neanderthals.

1607
02:29:00,760 --> 02:29:06,160
But one layer stood out, containing
finely crafted tools.

1608
02:29:13,080 --> 02:29:14,960
Small and precise.

1609
02:29:16,720 --> 02:29:20,920
Techniques that suggested they were
made not by Neanderthals,

1610
02:29:20,920 --> 02:29:22,680
but by Homo sapiens.

1611
02:29:31,520 --> 02:29:36,920
A suspicion confirmed when the Earth
revealed another treasure.

1612
02:29:49,600 --> 02:29:55,760
That then is conclusive evidence that
that layer with those

1613
02:29:55,760 --> 02:29:59,200
strange, unusual stone tools is
definitely a Homo sapien layer?

1614
02:29:59,200 --> 02:30:00,240
- Yes.

1615
02:30:08,320 --> 02:30:12,840
- These discoveries tell us a story of
one group of Homo sapiens.

1616
02:30:15,160 --> 02:30:16,880
Among the first to come to Europe...

1617
02:30:21,800 --> 02:30:24,480
..they had ventured into Neanderthal
territory...

1618
02:30:26,720 --> 02:30:31,160
..seeking refuge in this cave in the
depths of the Ice Age.

1619
02:30:33,520 --> 02:30:36,760
When we imagine the past, we often
don't imagine children.

1620
02:30:36,760 --> 02:30:39,920
We imagine, well, a man, a caveman,
right?
- Yeah.

1621
02:30:39,920 --> 02:30:43,680
- But, actually, these were cave
children.
- Yeah.

1622
02:30:43,680 --> 02:30:46,400
- And you imagine what they were
doing, were they playing?

1623
02:30:46,400 --> 02:30:47,720
- They were playing.

1624
02:30:47,720 --> 02:30:51,480
- But imagine to have been born, the
first of your people

1625
02:30:51,480 --> 02:30:53,160
to turn up there - and we don't know,

1626
02:30:53,160 --> 02:30:55,360
they might have been born somewhere
else - but...
- Yeah.

1627
02:30:55,360 --> 02:30:56,640
- ..it's fascinating.

1628
02:30:58,480 --> 02:30:59,520
Wow.

1629
02:31:04,160 --> 02:31:09,040
Using advanced dating techniques, a
team were able to uncover

1630
02:31:09,040 --> 02:31:12,920
even more precise details about the
people who lived here.

1631
02:31:29,760 --> 02:31:32,040
So people were building fires...
- Yeah.

1632
02:31:32,040 --> 02:31:35,440
- ..the fire created soot that would
end up on the roof.
- Exactly.

1633
02:31:35,440 --> 02:31:36,960
- And then bits of the roof would
collapse

1634
02:31:36,960 --> 02:31:39,600
and end up in your archaeological
layers?
- Yes.

1635
02:31:39,600 --> 02:31:43,560
- It's literally telling you when
they're using this place.
- Exactly.

1636
02:31:45,640 --> 02:31:48,480
- By counting the microscopic layers
of soot

1637
02:31:48,480 --> 02:31:50,560
deposited on the cave ceiling,

1638
02:31:50,560 --> 02:31:54,080
the team could tell how often these
people came here.

1639
02:32:06,720 --> 02:32:08,240
But what happened to them?

1640
02:32:25,920 --> 02:32:29,760
This exceptional site tells the story
of a group of Homo sapiens

1641
02:32:29,760 --> 02:32:34,600
pioneers who lived here in between
tens of thousands

1642
02:32:34,600 --> 02:32:36,680
of years of Neanderthal occupation.

1643
02:32:39,280 --> 02:32:42,120
But then all traces of them vanished.

1644
02:32:43,920 --> 02:32:49,200
It's one small but very important
chapter in our bigger story.

1645
02:32:50,880 --> 02:32:53,680
We don't know what happened to that
particular group of Homo sapiens

1646
02:32:53,680 --> 02:32:56,480
from Grotte Mandrin, but it's likely
that their story

1647
02:32:56,480 --> 02:33:00,160
reflects what was unfolding across the
continent.

1648
02:33:00,160 --> 02:33:05,840
This wave of Homo sapiens was lured
into Europe during a warmer spell.

1649
02:33:05,840 --> 02:33:09,360
They were pioneers for sure, but they
were trying to

1650
02:33:09,360 --> 02:33:13,160
survive in a brand-new environment as
best as they could,

1651
02:33:13,160 --> 02:33:17,800
as best as they knew how, really,
finding temporary places to shelter

1652
02:33:17,800 --> 02:33:20,960
before in the blink of an eye moving
on -

1653
02:33:20,960 --> 02:33:23,760
or worse, dying out completely.

1654
02:33:23,760 --> 02:33:27,280
Because that band of Homo sapiens from
Grotte Mandrin

1655
02:33:27,280 --> 02:33:30,960
would be the last of our species found
on this continent

1656
02:33:30,960 --> 02:33:32,640
for thousands of years.

1657
02:33:38,760 --> 02:33:42,720
Perhaps unprepared for the harsh
environment they faced,

1658
02:33:42,720 --> 02:33:47,480
this early wave of Homo sapiens in
Europe did not survive.

1659
02:33:47,480 --> 02:33:50,880
Once again, and for the next 9,000
years,

1660
02:33:50,880 --> 02:33:54,280
it became exclusively Neanderthal
territory.

1661
02:34:04,160 --> 02:34:08,840
Neanderthals had survived while Homo
sapiens died out in Europe.

1662
02:34:11,440 --> 02:34:13,920
Yet today, we're the only ones left.

1663
02:34:15,960 --> 02:34:19,040
How did our stories end so
differently?

1664
02:34:33,800 --> 02:34:36,600
Part of the answer can be found deep

1665
02:34:36,600 --> 02:34:38,920
within the forests of northern
Spain...

1666
02:34:46,840 --> 02:34:51,000
..where evidence hints that the grip
of the Ice Age was

1667
02:34:51,000 --> 02:34:53,160
taking its toll on the Neanderthals.

1668
02:35:01,720 --> 02:35:06,520
A struggle uncovered in a cave known
as the Tunnel of Bones.

1669
02:35:18,400 --> 02:35:19,720
Oh, wow.

1670
02:35:25,840 --> 02:35:28,800
So this is the famous El Sidron Cave.
- It is, yes.

1671
02:35:33,360 --> 02:35:36,480
- It's got more character than I was
expecting, actually.
- Yes.

1672
02:36:02,080 --> 02:36:03,360
- And how did you find them?

1673
02:36:16,560 --> 02:36:17,720
Wow.

1674
02:36:22,720 --> 02:36:26,040
Such a diverse group in terms of
individuals...

1675
02:36:28,960 --> 02:36:31,240
..all found in one spot.

1676
02:36:57,400 --> 02:37:02,760
And, you know, when you say that one
of those people had red hair,

1677
02:37:02,760 --> 02:37:09,360
it suddenly brings what are just
fossils, really, to life.

1678
02:37:15,000 --> 02:37:17,440
It's a cave that's filled with ghosts.

1679
02:37:28,880 --> 02:37:31,520
This was not a natural death.

1680
02:37:33,520 --> 02:37:36,600
Cracked skulls and precise cuts on the
bones...

1681
02:37:38,320 --> 02:37:41,080
..suggest that this was a brutal
massacre.

1682
02:37:44,920 --> 02:37:48,640
13 people killed by another
Neanderthal group.

1683
02:37:53,520 --> 02:37:56,080
But closer analysis of their
remains...

1684
02:37:57,600 --> 02:37:59,880
..revealed an even darker truth.

1685
02:38:02,720 --> 02:38:04,680
So what do the bones actually tell us?

1686
02:38:12,360 --> 02:38:17,040
They were really eating these 13
individuals?
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

1687
02:38:17,040 --> 02:38:21,840
- So how do we know that this was
cannibalism as opposed to

1688
02:38:21,840 --> 02:38:26,000
just straight up murder - or, for that
matter, an animal coming?

1689
02:38:38,600 --> 02:38:40,120
So you're looking for something sharp?

1690
02:38:40,120 --> 02:38:41,720
And now, you have a...
- Yeah, that's it, let's see.

1691
02:38:50,920 --> 02:38:52,880
- Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah.

1692
02:38:55,080 --> 02:38:58,200
Yeah. So, they're focusing on the
areas where there's muscle,

1693
02:38:58,200 --> 02:39:00,440
where there's meat, effectively.
- That's it.

1694
02:39:07,760 --> 02:39:09,080
- Yeah. Oh!

1695
02:39:14,440 --> 02:39:16,560
Yeah, if you're getting bone marrow...
- That's it, yes.

1696
02:39:16,560 --> 02:39:18,120
- ..that is an indication of
cannibalism, for sure.

1697
02:39:18,120 --> 02:39:19,720
- Yes, it is, sure.
- Yeah.

1698
02:39:25,360 --> 02:39:30,680
This murder/cannibalism of 13 members
of a family group

1699
02:39:30,680 --> 02:39:33,040
isn't the only dark thing that's
happening here.

1700
02:39:51,400 --> 02:39:53,960
That's unusual, that's a congenital
anomaly.

1701
02:40:17,080 --> 02:40:19,520
So, basically, you've got an inbred
population.

1702
02:40:30,120 --> 02:40:31,680
It's painting a picture, isn't it?

1703
02:40:31,680 --> 02:40:34,480
Of those...those final thousands...
- Yes.

1704
02:40:34,480 --> 02:40:38,000
- ..thousands of years before they
eventually became extinct.

1705
02:40:43,000 --> 02:40:45,320
Yeah, it's a silent killer. You're
right.

1706
02:41:01,560 --> 02:41:05,560
The El Sidron bones hint at more than
the suffering of one family.

1707
02:41:09,480 --> 02:41:13,120
Because this pattern of starvation,
cannibalism

1708
02:41:13,120 --> 02:41:16,200
and violence was happening across
Europe...

1709
02:41:18,440 --> 02:41:20,760
..this was a species in free fall.

1710
02:41:24,640 --> 02:41:26,680
This is a haunting place.

1711
02:41:26,680 --> 02:41:29,360
It's not exactly Neanderthals in their
heyday, is it?

1712
02:41:29,360 --> 02:41:33,080
If anything, it's kind of like the end
of days for them.

1713
02:41:33,080 --> 02:41:37,080
They've been driven into this
evolutionary cul-de-sac,

1714
02:41:37,080 --> 02:41:40,120
reduced to eating each other

1715
02:41:40,120 --> 02:41:42,760
and having children with their
relatives.

1716
02:41:42,760 --> 02:41:47,160
And that inbreeding would have made
them more susceptible to disease.

1717
02:41:47,160 --> 02:41:49,880
If, on the evolutionary timescale,

1718
02:41:49,880 --> 02:41:53,600
12:00 midnight represents extinction
for the Neanderthals,

1719
02:41:53,600 --> 02:41:56,280
this site is past 11:30.

1720
02:42:02,320 --> 02:42:05,080
This once resilient species...

1721
02:42:06,360 --> 02:42:10,040
..was now reduced to just a few
isolated groups...

1722
02:42:11,600 --> 02:42:13,160
..turning on one another.

1723
02:42:22,960 --> 02:42:26,600
But any chance Neanderthals may have
had of weathering this storm...

1724
02:42:29,040 --> 02:42:32,440
..was shattered by the return of
another species.

1725
02:42:35,600 --> 02:42:36,960
Homo sapiens.

1726
02:42:42,600 --> 02:42:47,040
9,000 years after Homo sapiens had
disappeared from Europe,

1727
02:42:47,040 --> 02:42:48,880
waves of settlers returned.

1728
02:42:58,960 --> 02:43:00,400
A new generation...

1729
02:43:02,040 --> 02:43:05,440
..who, even though the climate was as
volatile as ever...

1730
02:43:08,080 --> 02:43:09,480
..were undeterred.

1731
02:43:13,400 --> 02:43:17,480
These were survivors, and they were
here to stay.

1732
02:43:23,000 --> 02:43:24,480
Some archaeological finds,

1733
02:43:24,480 --> 02:43:27,960
their significance is immediately
obvious, but others you don't

1734
02:43:27,960 --> 02:43:31,120
necessarily know what you're looking
at until you suddenly do.

1735
02:43:31,120 --> 02:43:33,520
And this is a really good example of
this.

1736
02:43:33,520 --> 02:43:35,440
This might not seem like a lot,

1737
02:43:35,440 --> 02:43:38,200
but actually it represents a massive
step forward.

1738
02:43:38,200 --> 02:43:40,600
So what you're looking at here is

1739
02:43:40,600 --> 02:43:43,160
the imprint, in clay, of weaving.

1740
02:43:47,200 --> 02:43:48,640
Now we don't know if it was
intentional -

1741
02:43:48,640 --> 02:43:52,040
it might have just been that there was
some material on the floor

1742
02:43:52,040 --> 02:43:54,040
and somebody just happened to throw
down some clay,

1743
02:43:54,040 --> 02:43:58,520
but they actually think that this may
have been made with nettle.

1744
02:43:58,520 --> 02:44:01,800
And you're probably thinking, "Well,
nettle, really?"

1745
02:44:01,800 --> 02:44:04,760
Well, that is probably a by-product of
the modern world

1746
02:44:04,760 --> 02:44:08,720
and all the fabrics that we use, but
actually this here is made of

1747
02:44:08,720 --> 02:44:13,800
nettle, and this is the woven fabric
that they were able to make from it.

1748
02:44:16,680 --> 02:44:19,720
If you can make this, you can suddenly
make better clothing...

1749
02:44:26,120 --> 02:44:29,560
..and you're able to protect yourself
so much more from the cold.

1750
02:44:32,480 --> 02:44:35,800
Maybe those young children in a cold
spell might have survived

1751
02:44:35,800 --> 02:44:38,960
a bit better if their clothing fitted
better.

1752
02:44:41,880 --> 02:44:45,880
But you can't just think about weaving
as being about clothing,

1753
02:44:45,880 --> 02:44:50,320
because if you can weave, suddenly
your nets, your traps, are better.

1754
02:44:50,320 --> 02:44:51,600
You're able to get more food.

1755
02:44:51,600 --> 02:44:54,080
You're potentially able to make better
shelter.

1756
02:44:57,760 --> 02:45:00,640
Whenever we talk about Palaeolithic
technology,

1757
02:45:00,640 --> 02:45:04,400
you're probably thinking about spears
or stone tools.

1758
02:45:04,400 --> 02:45:06,160
It's always weaponry, right?

1759
02:45:06,160 --> 02:45:08,800
Well, actually, this stuff might have
really given them

1760
02:45:08,800 --> 02:45:10,000
the edge, as well.

1761
02:45:14,360 --> 02:45:18,160
It's likely the ability to make better
clothing increased

1762
02:45:18,160 --> 02:45:21,600
infant survival, even in the harshest
months.

1763
02:45:27,200 --> 02:45:30,840
Each advance, however small, added
up...

1764
02:45:32,760 --> 02:45:36,320
..giving Homo sapiens the one thing
Neanderthals lacked...

1765
02:45:37,800 --> 02:45:39,880
..strength in numbers.

1766
02:45:53,640 --> 02:45:58,040
The Neanderthals had existed for over
400,000 years...

1767
02:46:00,000 --> 02:46:02,120
..developing a rich culture...

1768
02:46:10,320 --> 02:46:13,680
..and withstanding brutal conditions
for millennia.

1769
02:46:19,040 --> 02:46:22,760
But the relentless climate, dwindling
resources...

1770
02:46:25,400 --> 02:46:31,000
..and another species growing in
strength pushed them to the brink.

1771
02:46:36,080 --> 02:46:38,200
But what delivered the final blow?

1772
02:46:41,080 --> 02:46:44,360
How does an entire human species
disappear

1773
02:46:44,360 --> 02:46:45,960
from the face of the Earth?

1774
02:46:49,440 --> 02:46:53,600
Part of the answer may lie in the
smallest of things...

1775
02:46:55,320 --> 02:46:59,840
..the genes we exchanged in the form
of our hybrid children.

1776
02:47:10,080 --> 02:47:12,640
I'm going to try and do a demo to
explain genetics.

1777
02:47:12,640 --> 02:47:14,440
So let's see how this goes.

1778
02:47:14,440 --> 02:47:16,160
Let's say that these are the
Neanderthals,

1779
02:47:16,160 --> 02:47:17,960
and these are the Homo sapiens,

1780
02:47:17,960 --> 02:47:19,280
and they interbreed.

1781
02:47:20,440 --> 02:47:23,080
We don't know where the hybrid
children ended up.

1782
02:47:23,080 --> 02:47:24,440
Did they end up with the Neanderthals,

1783
02:47:24,440 --> 02:47:27,080
or did they end up with the Homo
sapiens? So, let's just say,

1784
02:47:27,080 --> 02:47:28,560
they went back 50-50.

1785
02:47:29,840 --> 02:47:33,160
And we see a little Homo sapiens DNA
in the Neanderthal group...

1786
02:47:34,920 --> 02:47:37,880
..and a little Neanderthal DNA in the
Homo sapiens group.

1787
02:47:39,640 --> 02:47:42,880
The Neanderthals lived in small,
isolated populations,

1788
02:47:42,880 --> 02:47:45,560
but the Homo sapiens were probably a
little bit better

1789
02:47:45,560 --> 02:47:47,120
at keeping their kids alive.

1790
02:47:47,120 --> 02:47:50,800
And also, importantly, they were
constantly replenishing

1791
02:47:50,800 --> 02:47:54,760
from source populations in the Middle
East, Africa, and elsewhere.

1792
02:47:58,920 --> 02:48:00,920
Numbers made all the difference.

1793
02:48:05,200 --> 02:48:08,640
As more Homo sapiens migrated into
Europe,

1794
02:48:08,640 --> 02:48:10,880
Neanderthals were already declining.

1795
02:48:14,160 --> 02:48:15,720
So, when the two interbred,

1796
02:48:15,720 --> 02:48:18,840
the impact on Neanderthals was far
greater.

1797
02:48:22,200 --> 02:48:25,680
If you're a huge population, that
interbreeding doesn't have

1798
02:48:25,680 --> 02:48:30,160
the same impact as it does on the much
smaller Neanderthal population.

1799
02:48:30,160 --> 02:48:32,440
It's already a little bit interbred.

1800
02:48:32,440 --> 02:48:36,440
Perhaps they were simply absorbed into
the larger Homo sapiens

1801
02:48:36,440 --> 02:48:38,840
population that just kept on
replenishing.

1802
02:48:40,200 --> 02:48:43,320
Over time, Neanderthal DNA became
increasingly

1803
02:48:43,320 --> 02:48:47,840
diluted by the much larger Homo
sapiens population.

1804
02:48:48,840 --> 02:48:52,080
So, it doesn't actually need to be
this big act of aggression.

1805
02:48:52,080 --> 02:48:55,120
It might just be the fact that we were
there, that we

1806
02:48:55,120 --> 02:48:56,560
were interbreeding with them,

1807
02:48:56,560 --> 02:48:58,920
and that we had large population
sizes.

1808
02:48:58,920 --> 02:49:03,800
Perhaps that was enough to push the
Neanderthals to extinction.

1809
02:49:12,040 --> 02:49:14,640
It was a perfect storm for
Neanderthals.

1810
02:49:17,160 --> 02:49:21,640
By around 40,000 years ago, their gene
pool was diminishing...

1811
02:49:22,960 --> 02:49:27,800
..until only a handful of distinct
Neanderthal populations remained...

1812
02:49:31,400 --> 02:49:35,320
..hanging on in just a few isolated
enclaves.

1813
02:49:38,240 --> 02:49:41,080
We don't know where the last
Neanderthal outpost was.

1814
02:49:41,080 --> 02:49:44,880
It was likely a very remote part of
Europe or Asia.

1815
02:49:44,880 --> 02:49:48,800
But around 40,000 years ago, that
place probably

1816
02:49:48,800 --> 02:49:53,200
acted as a refuge to the very, very
last of their kind.

1817
02:49:59,800 --> 02:50:03,760
Archaeologists have pieced together
what may be among the final

1818
02:50:03,760 --> 02:50:06,040
moments of Neanderthal extinction.

1819
02:50:10,400 --> 02:50:12,800
Uncovering remains of what could be

1820
02:50:12,800 --> 02:50:15,560
the last surviving Neanderthal groups.

1821
02:50:18,640 --> 02:50:21,560
Some of that evidence has been
discovered

1822
02:50:21,560 --> 02:50:24,120
in coastal caves in southern Spain.

1823
02:50:30,880 --> 02:50:35,400
We don't know what truly happened in
those final moments,

1824
02:50:35,400 --> 02:50:37,080
or who was left at the end.

1825
02:50:40,480 --> 02:50:42,080
But there was an ending.

1826
02:50:47,600 --> 02:50:51,760
Because after that, our sister
species,

1827
02:50:51,760 --> 02:50:53,800
who had existed for around

1828
02:50:53,800 --> 02:50:55,760
400,000 years...

1829
02:51:00,120 --> 02:51:03,880
..vanishes from the archaeological
record completely.

1830
02:51:06,160 --> 02:51:08,000
It feels like a moment of loss.

1831
02:51:08,000 --> 02:51:09,640
We lost something.

1832
02:51:09,640 --> 02:51:10,680
But also...

1833
02:51:11,760 --> 02:51:14,040
..it's part of the human story.

1834
02:51:14,040 --> 02:51:15,720
It's our story.

1835
02:51:15,720 --> 02:51:17,600
These were our ancestors.

1836
02:51:23,880 --> 02:51:28,760
On the one hand, it's hard not to be
impressed with Homo sapiens.

1837
02:51:28,760 --> 02:51:32,720
And if we hadn't have been so
successful, if we hadn't have had

1838
02:51:32,720 --> 02:51:38,800
this hunger to innovate, to explore,
would you and I even be here?

1839
02:51:40,720 --> 02:51:45,040
And yet, those same things that make
us so remarkable

1840
02:51:45,040 --> 02:51:47,360
seem to be damning to those around us.

1841
02:51:54,160 --> 02:51:56,480
This is where this chain of events
ends.

1842
02:52:00,080 --> 02:52:04,360
A slow, unwitting war of attrition
against our sister species...

1843
02:52:12,200 --> 02:52:14,480
..until they simply faded away.

1844
02:52:21,440 --> 02:52:23,560
But this wasn't the only ending.

1845
02:52:24,800 --> 02:52:28,360
After the last Neanderthals, the
Denisovans -

1846
02:52:28,360 --> 02:52:31,720
the species who once spanned much of
Asia -

1847
02:52:31,720 --> 02:52:35,400
may have survived for another 10,000
years...

1848
02:52:36,760 --> 02:52:40,680
..until they, too, were overwhelmed by
Homo sapiens.

1849
02:52:41,960 --> 02:52:46,160
This story starts with three species,
but it ends with one.

1850
02:52:46,160 --> 02:52:50,520
And it's part of a wider pattern that
always goes the same way -

1851
02:52:50,520 --> 02:52:55,120
the survival of our species leading to
the demise of everyone else.

1852
02:53:02,720 --> 02:53:06,320
Today, these events have faded from
memory.

1853
02:53:11,440 --> 02:53:13,520
But it's not quite the end of the
story.

1854
02:53:15,240 --> 02:53:18,480
Because we carry a piece of this
history within us.

1855
02:53:22,680 --> 02:53:26,480
One of the most striking revelations
over the last few years

1856
02:53:26,480 --> 02:53:29,320
is that everybody from outside of
Sub-Saharan Africa

1857
02:53:29,320 --> 02:53:31,520
has about 2% Neanderthal DNA.

1858
02:53:35,040 --> 02:53:37,840
And that DNA is associated with
negative things

1859
02:53:37,840 --> 02:53:39,360
like Crohn's disease,

1860
02:53:39,360 --> 02:53:42,720
but it's also associated with all
kinds of positives,

1861
02:53:42,720 --> 02:53:45,240
like being better adapted to the cold.

1862
02:53:48,800 --> 02:53:51,360
And now we know that Denisovan DNA

1863
02:53:51,360 --> 02:53:54,000
has been found in Homo sapiens
populations.

1864
02:53:54,000 --> 02:53:57,280
It's as high as 6% in the Philippines.

1865
02:53:57,280 --> 02:53:59,160
And it's associated with things like

1866
02:53:59,160 --> 02:54:01,560
being able to survive better at high
altitude.

1867
02:54:05,280 --> 02:54:09,760
And if you think about it, it actually
makes perfect sense.

1868
02:54:09,760 --> 02:54:13,760
Because when we were leaving Africa,
the Neanderthals

1869
02:54:13,760 --> 02:54:19,040
and the Denisovans had already spent
hundreds of thousands of years

1870
02:54:19,040 --> 02:54:24,600
adapting and evolving to their local
environments and pathogens.

1871
02:54:24,600 --> 02:54:27,440
And so what we were doing by
interbreeding with them

1872
02:54:27,440 --> 02:54:29,920
was effectively a quick fix.

1873
02:54:29,920 --> 02:54:34,800
We were adopting adaptations that
would ultimately aid our survival.

1874
02:54:40,200 --> 02:54:43,160
Depending on where you're from, you'll
probably find

1875
02:54:43,160 --> 02:54:46,600
traces of Neanderthal or Denisovan DNA
within you...

1876
02:54:49,520 --> 02:54:53,680
..a genetic echo of the human story
connecting us

1877
02:54:53,680 --> 02:54:56,520
to this long line of distant ghosts.

1878
02:54:59,840 --> 02:55:04,720
2% might not sound like a lot, but my
2% is different from your 2%.

1879
02:55:04,720 --> 02:55:07,840
And collectively, all of that
Neanderthal DNA

1880
02:55:07,840 --> 02:55:10,640
that exists within humans living today

1881
02:55:10,640 --> 02:55:14,360
would make up about two-thirds of the
Neanderthal genome.

1882
02:55:14,360 --> 02:55:17,120
And so in a very real sense,
Neanderthals

1883
02:55:17,120 --> 02:55:21,080
and Denisovans have been assimilated
into our bodies.

1884
02:55:21,080 --> 02:55:24,320
And it's just the loveliest thought,
isn't it?

1885
02:55:24,320 --> 02:55:27,240
That they live on and exist within us.

1886
02:55:34,880 --> 02:55:38,640
Our planet was once home to many human
species.

1887
02:55:41,960 --> 02:55:47,120
Bit by bit, they've all disappeared,
leaving only one...

1888
02:55:49,000 --> 02:55:51,240
..the inheritors of their DNA.

1889
02:56:03,200 --> 02:56:06,920
..as the Ice Age reaches greater
extremes,

1890
02:56:06,920 --> 02:56:10,160
we step into an unexplored
continent...

1891
02:56:11,800 --> 02:56:14,240
..where new dangers lie in wait...

1892
02:56:16,720 --> 02:56:18,480
..starvation threatens...

1893
02:56:20,760 --> 02:56:23,880
..and humans have to fight to survive.

1894
02:57:13,200 --> 02:57:18,880
For 270,000 years, our species, Homo
sapiens,

1895
02:57:18,880 --> 02:57:22,880
lived in a world inhabited by other
types of human.

1896
02:57:26,120 --> 02:57:29,880
We hunted and foraged for food,

1897
02:57:29,880 --> 02:57:33,280
alongside many of our human relatives.

1898
02:57:36,640 --> 02:57:40,360
But one by one, we out-survived
them...

1899
02:57:41,680 --> 02:57:47,440
..and spread across the planet as
small bands of nomads...

1900
02:57:49,080 --> 02:57:54,200
..until we'd reached almost every
corner of the globe.

1901
02:57:59,800 --> 02:58:03,400
But a great landmass still evaded us.

1902
02:58:09,760 --> 02:58:11,720
The Americas.

1903
02:58:15,360 --> 02:58:22,040
As we entered this new world, we would
face ferocious predators...

1904
02:58:23,920 --> 02:58:25,960
..and towering giants.

1905
02:58:25,960 --> 02:58:28,000
MAMMOTHS BELLOW

1906
02:58:29,960 --> 02:58:32,200
But how we took on these challenges...

1907
02:58:33,640 --> 02:58:37,400
..and the ways we began to tame nature

1908
02:58:37,400 --> 02:58:39,880
in our journey through the Americas...

1909
02:58:41,560 --> 02:58:46,280
..would set us on a path to how we
live today.

1910
02:58:52,480 --> 02:58:54,640
It's a chapter of our story

1911
02:58:54,640 --> 02:58:59,320
that begins in one of the coldest and
most dangerous times

1912
02:58:59,320 --> 02:59:01,440
humans have ever known.

1913
02:59:37,040 --> 02:59:40,040
At the height of the last Ice Age,

1914
02:59:40,040 --> 02:59:44,280
a time when sea levels were lower than
today,

1915
02:59:44,280 --> 02:59:47,440
people were spreading from East Asia

1916
02:59:47,440 --> 02:59:51,000
into a place that no longer exists.

1917
02:59:52,880 --> 02:59:56,160
A vast land bridge called Beringia.

1918
02:59:57,280 --> 02:59:59,920
WIND HOWLS

1919
02:59:59,920 --> 03:00:02,080
And in this frozen north,

1920
03:00:02,080 --> 03:00:06,160
small groups of travellers dispersed
ever eastward...

1921
03:00:07,640 --> 03:00:13,200
..and found themselves stepping into a
new land.

1922
03:00:49,240 --> 03:00:51,400
If you were asked to conjure up in
your mind

1923
03:00:51,400 --> 03:00:56,120
a world that was magical, that was
pristine, that was primal,

1924
03:00:56,120 --> 03:00:58,600
you'd imagine something like this.

1925
03:00:58,600 --> 03:01:03,600
The northwest coast of America
absolutely takes your breath away.

1926
03:01:08,760 --> 03:01:13,320
We don't exactly know when humans
first arrived in North America...

1927
03:01:14,760 --> 03:01:16,960
..but many archaeologists believe

1928
03:01:16,960 --> 03:01:21,200
it was sometime around 20,000 years
ago.

1929
03:01:21,200 --> 03:01:25,560
A time when this would have been a
challenging place to live.

1930
03:01:30,120 --> 03:01:35,680
They were here at one of the coldest
moments Homo sapiens had ever known.

1931
03:01:37,800 --> 03:01:40,160
And the landscape would have looked so
different.

1932
03:01:40,160 --> 03:01:43,080
There would have been very few trees.

1933
03:01:43,080 --> 03:01:45,640
And, as far as the eye could see,

1934
03:01:45,640 --> 03:01:48,920
there would have been barren, icy
rock.

1935
03:01:53,080 --> 03:01:54,600
They knew how to survive

1936
03:01:54,600 --> 03:01:57,800
in the barren lands of Beringia that
they'd come from.

1937
03:01:59,520 --> 03:02:04,680
But their new environment was
different in a few crucial ways.

1938
03:02:06,280 --> 03:02:08,520
The northern half of this continent

1939
03:02:08,520 --> 03:02:12,760
was covered in a vast, towering ice
sheet.

1940
03:02:14,400 --> 03:02:16,680
From here in the northwest,

1941
03:02:16,680 --> 03:02:21,600
this wall of ice blocked routes into
the deep interior...

1942
03:02:23,160 --> 03:02:28,720
..largely confining people to the
ice-free land nearer the coast.

1943
03:02:30,160 --> 03:02:33,200
WAVES CRASH

1944
03:02:43,360 --> 03:02:45,600
All that's left from their time here

1945
03:02:45,600 --> 03:02:49,280
are footprints, stone tools, and
animal bones.

1946
03:02:49,280 --> 03:02:52,120
Now, we know that they sometimes would
have hunted seal,

1947
03:02:52,120 --> 03:02:53,800
they would have eaten fish,

1948
03:02:53,800 --> 03:02:56,840
they would have eaten seabirds if they
could catch them.

1949
03:02:56,840 --> 03:02:58,880
GULLS CRY

1950
03:03:00,960 --> 03:03:04,160
Only tiny fragments of evidence
remain...

1951
03:03:04,160 --> 03:03:05,400
SLIDE PROJECTOR CLICKS

1952
03:03:06,560 --> 03:03:09,440
..that hint at how they survived.

1953
03:03:18,320 --> 03:03:20,760
And whilst this northwest coast

1954
03:03:20,760 --> 03:03:24,480
offered them steady but limited
sustenance,

1955
03:03:24,480 --> 03:03:28,320
the strip of land between the shore
and the ice sheets

1956
03:03:28,320 --> 03:03:32,040
promised new opportunities to find
food...

1957
03:03:35,360 --> 03:03:40,000
..but also hid unexpected new dangers.

1958
03:03:49,000 --> 03:03:50,240
Oof.

1959
03:03:51,720 --> 03:03:55,040
This is a now-extinct predator,

1960
03:03:55,040 --> 03:03:58,120
and it would have roamed these parts
in the northwest

1961
03:03:58,120 --> 03:04:00,720
when the first people arrived in the
Americas,

1962
03:04:00,720 --> 03:04:03,160
and they actually call it the
short-faced bear.

1963
03:04:04,760 --> 03:04:07,360
And there is nothing short about this
bear.

1964
03:04:07,360 --> 03:04:08,760
When it stood on its hind legs,

1965
03:04:08,760 --> 03:04:12,520
it would have been about 11, 12 feet
tall.

1966
03:04:12,520 --> 03:04:14,160
That's about four metres.

1967
03:04:14,160 --> 03:04:16,600
And so it would have made the grizzly
bear look...

1968
03:04:16,600 --> 03:04:19,120
..actually somewhat manageable.

1969
03:04:19,120 --> 03:04:23,240
And then look at these teeth, look at
these canines.

1970
03:04:23,240 --> 03:04:25,640
The stuff that nightmares are made of.

1971
03:04:25,640 --> 03:04:27,520
And when it bumped into humans...

1972
03:04:29,280 --> 03:04:33,040
..it must have been absolutely
terrifying.

1973
03:04:33,040 --> 03:04:35,040
And just like those humans,

1974
03:04:35,040 --> 03:04:37,480
these bears, too, would have been
hungry.

1975
03:04:44,720 --> 03:04:47,360
But the early people of the northwest

1976
03:04:47,360 --> 03:04:51,320
did not run from the monsters that
roamed this land.

1977
03:04:56,440 --> 03:05:00,000
Instead, it seems, they went on the
offensive.

1978
03:05:18,920 --> 03:05:23,840
Signs of their bravery remain in caves
along the Canadian coast.

1979
03:05:38,400 --> 03:05:42,880
Here, archaeologists sift through the
muddy layers of time...

1980
03:05:45,240 --> 03:05:50,760
..to find out more about the risks
these early people took to survive.

1981
03:05:56,440 --> 03:05:59,680
You know when people talk about
archaeology?
- Yes.

1982
03:05:59,680 --> 03:06:02,000
- At the back of a cave, digging mud
is...

1983
03:06:03,200 --> 03:06:04,800
..is... This is the hard stuff.

1984
03:06:04,800 --> 03:06:06,120
- One thing that has been found

1985
03:06:06,120 --> 03:06:09,800
in a number of caves on the northwest
coast

1986
03:06:09,800 --> 03:06:14,000
is, er...spear points in association
with bear bones.

1987
03:06:14,000 --> 03:06:17,520
- Yeah.
- And these date as far back as 13,000
years.
- Mm.

1988
03:06:17,520 --> 03:06:20,560
So is this one of these spear points?

1989
03:06:20,560 --> 03:06:22,720
- This is a fragment of a spear point

1990
03:06:22,720 --> 03:06:25,480
that was found in a cave not too far
from here.
- Yeah.

1991
03:06:28,880 --> 03:06:33,080
- We have uncovered a bone in the wall
of this unit.

1992
03:06:33,080 --> 03:06:36,440
And it's, er, 20 centimetres below the
surface.

1993
03:06:36,440 --> 03:06:41,080
And, er, so I'm going to pull it and
we'll see if it moves.
- All right.

1994
03:06:42,320 --> 03:06:45,720
And we don't know what species it is
or what bit of bone it is?

1995
03:06:45,720 --> 03:06:48,600
- Er, there's not enough here to know
for sure.
- Yeah.

1996
03:06:48,600 --> 03:06:52,840
- But it is a pretty big mammal, for
certain.
- Oh, look at that.

1997
03:06:52,840 --> 03:06:54,760
THEY CHUCKLE
Oh, it's not ending.

1998
03:06:56,840 --> 03:06:58,600
- Just make sure it slides out.

1999
03:07:00,720 --> 03:07:04,720
- Ah, it's a rib, isn't it? Is it?
- It looks like a rib.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.

2000
03:07:04,720 --> 03:07:08,960
So that could be a bear rib.

2001
03:07:08,960 --> 03:07:12,960
It's probably most likely what it is,
cos it's quite robust.

2002
03:07:12,960 --> 03:07:15,000
- How amazing.

2003
03:07:15,000 --> 03:07:17,160
What age do you think it is?

2004
03:07:17,160 --> 03:07:22,760
- Well, we have some other samples
from above where this bone is.
- Yeah.

2005
03:07:22,760 --> 03:07:26,200
- And they're coming back, er, around
14,000 years old.

2006
03:07:26,200 --> 03:07:29,720
- OK. So it's old.
- So it could be the same age or
older.
- Yeah.

2007
03:07:30,920 --> 03:07:34,080
You know, one of the most wonderful
things about archaeology

2008
03:07:34,080 --> 03:07:37,080
is that sometimes you uncover
something

2009
03:07:37,080 --> 03:07:40,520
that hasn't seen the light of day in
thousands of years.

2010
03:07:40,520 --> 03:07:44,040
And in this case, well, maybe 14,000
years.

2011
03:07:44,040 --> 03:07:48,400
- Well, we're interested in where
bears were hunted in the past.

2012
03:07:48,400 --> 03:07:50,120
And in the winter,

2013
03:07:50,120 --> 03:07:52,560
when there's... There's not as many
resources around

2014
03:07:52,560 --> 03:07:55,000
and people are feeling a bit hungry,

2015
03:07:55,000 --> 03:07:59,120
knowing where there is a bear den is
quite a valuable thing,

2016
03:07:59,120 --> 03:08:04,440
cos you can come up there and dispatch
the bear.

2017
03:08:04,440 --> 03:08:09,040
You'll have a load of meat, fur, as
well as bones.

2018
03:08:11,640 --> 03:08:14,840
- One theory of how they hunted bears

2019
03:08:14,840 --> 03:08:18,040
would have meant getting perilously
close.

2020
03:08:19,760 --> 03:08:24,880
- Essentially, a hunter would go with
a party to a cave,

2021
03:08:24,880 --> 03:08:27,680
smoke the bear out of the cave,

2022
03:08:27,680 --> 03:08:33,520
and entice that bear to attack a
single hunter.

2023
03:08:33,520 --> 03:08:37,400
That hunter would be armed with a
bracing spear.

2024
03:08:37,400 --> 03:08:42,440
A bear would come, er, to take the
hunter up in a bear hug,

2025
03:08:42,440 --> 03:08:45,280
which is a common thing that they do.
- Yeah.

2026
03:08:45,280 --> 03:08:48,360
- And the idea is a bear would take
that hunter

2027
03:08:48,360 --> 03:08:51,880
and cru, er... essentially give him a
good crushing.

2028
03:08:51,880 --> 03:08:55,480
The hunter, at the same time, would
brace the spear on the ground

2029
03:08:55,480 --> 03:08:57,160
and aim it at the bear's heart.

2030
03:08:57,160 --> 03:08:59,240
And so essentially the bear would
take...
- Oh...

2031
03:08:59,240 --> 03:09:02,440
- ..the hunter and the spear into the
bear hug,

2032
03:09:02,440 --> 03:09:04,680
thereby spearing itself through the
heart.

2033
03:09:18,800 --> 03:09:23,080
- A successful bear hunt could have
meant food through the winter.

2034
03:09:30,440 --> 03:09:33,000
But not every hunter survived.

2035
03:09:46,360 --> 03:09:49,400
This is the bone cast of the oldest
adult

2036
03:09:49,400 --> 03:09:53,920
to have been found along this coast.
They were born 10,000 years ago.

2037
03:09:53,920 --> 03:09:57,440
And this individual has been given a
name - Shuka Kaa.

2038
03:09:57,440 --> 03:10:00,160
And there's so much we don't know
about this person.

2039
03:10:00,160 --> 03:10:01,840
We don't know about their family life.

2040
03:10:01,840 --> 03:10:04,240
We don't know if they had children.

2041
03:10:04,240 --> 03:10:06,080
But the amazing thing about bones

2042
03:10:06,080 --> 03:10:09,680
is that they can tell a story if you
know how to read them.

2043
03:10:09,680 --> 03:10:12,720
We know that this individual was a
male.

2044
03:10:12,720 --> 03:10:14,800
We can tell that from various
features,

2045
03:10:14,800 --> 03:10:18,040
like the squareness here of the chin,

2046
03:10:18,040 --> 03:10:21,720
like the back of the mandible,

2047
03:10:21,720 --> 03:10:24,200
like the angle here on the pelvis.

2048
03:10:24,200 --> 03:10:27,720
On a female, you would typically
expect that angle to be much wider.

2049
03:10:28,800 --> 03:10:30,680
And it's kind of sad

2050
03:10:30,680 --> 03:10:36,400
because you can also tell quite a
tragic story on the bones as well.

2051
03:10:36,400 --> 03:10:39,040
If you notice here -

2052
03:10:39,040 --> 03:10:41,640
that is a puncture wound,

2053
03:10:41,640 --> 03:10:46,120
and it fits quite well with the canine
of a bear.

2054
03:10:46,120 --> 03:10:49,800
And so we think that this individual
possibly met their demise

2055
03:10:49,800 --> 03:10:51,880
because they were hunting for bears.

2056
03:10:57,720 --> 03:11:01,480
The dangers early humans faced down in
order to survive

2057
03:11:01,480 --> 03:11:03,200
are hard to imagine now.

2058
03:11:05,040 --> 03:11:08,800
But their precarious relationship with
this unforgiving land

2059
03:11:08,800 --> 03:11:10,400
had begun to shift...

2060
03:11:13,960 --> 03:11:17,160
..thanks partly to a surprising form
of help.

2061
03:11:24,320 --> 03:11:29,960
WOLVES CHATTER

2062
03:11:29,960 --> 03:11:31,640
By hunting in packs,

2063
03:11:31,640 --> 03:11:36,680
wolves can bring down prey far larger
than themselves.

2064
03:11:36,680 --> 03:11:41,520
A person, especially on their own,
would be highly vulnerable.

2065
03:11:49,320 --> 03:11:51,080
- Good girl. Yeah.

2066
03:11:51,080 --> 03:11:53,680
It's unusual to have them all just
around, hey?

2067
03:11:55,560 --> 03:11:57,000
OK, come on. Let's go.

2068
03:12:00,440 --> 03:12:04,640
- Wolves are, and always have been,
wild animals.

2069
03:12:07,880 --> 03:12:11,000
Shelley, am I able to come a bit
closer?
- Yep.

2070
03:12:15,640 --> 03:12:17,640
- I think the question is, how close?

2071
03:12:21,200 --> 03:12:23,960
It's funny, I can feel it in my
shoulders.

2072
03:12:23,960 --> 03:12:25,960
My shoulders are a little bit tense.

2073
03:12:35,480 --> 03:12:40,720
But, given time, wolves are able to
habituate to humans.

2074
03:12:43,200 --> 03:12:44,440
Hello.

2075
03:12:45,720 --> 03:12:46,840
WHISPERING: Hello.

2076
03:12:52,720 --> 03:12:57,960
From around 40,000 years ago, probably
in Siberia,

2077
03:12:57,960 --> 03:13:01,440
before humans had even reached North
America,

2078
03:13:01,440 --> 03:13:03,720
the threat they faced from wolves

2079
03:13:03,720 --> 03:13:07,000
began to transform into something
different.

2080
03:13:11,360 --> 03:13:13,240
Now, we're not exactly sure of the
details,

2081
03:13:13,240 --> 03:13:15,240
but it might have gone something like
this.

2082
03:13:15,240 --> 03:13:17,640
Wolves would gather around human
campsites.

2083
03:13:17,640 --> 03:13:20,960
Now, at first, maybe humans were
terrified.

2084
03:13:20,960 --> 03:13:24,120
Maybe they thought that they wanted to
eat them.

2085
03:13:24,120 --> 03:13:27,760
But actually, some of those wolves
weren't interested in that at all -

2086
03:13:27,760 --> 03:13:30,720
they were looking for scraps.

2087
03:13:30,720 --> 03:13:32,400
And as they were doing that,

2088
03:13:32,400 --> 03:13:35,760
maybe they started fending off other
predators

2089
03:13:35,760 --> 03:13:39,560
and protecting our combined territory.

2090
03:13:39,560 --> 03:13:42,880
And because of this, humans started
tolerating

2091
03:13:42,880 --> 03:13:45,360
some of the least aggressive, some of
the most docile of these.

2092
03:13:45,360 --> 03:13:47,560
Maybe they even started feeding them.

2093
03:13:51,040 --> 03:13:54,040
We were reshaping wolves into dogs...

2094
03:13:57,200 --> 03:13:58,720
..and began to use them...

2095
03:14:00,360 --> 03:14:01,840
..to guard our camps...

2096
03:14:05,520 --> 03:14:06,680
..hunt prey...

2097
03:14:08,600 --> 03:14:10,240
..and pull sleds.

2098
03:14:12,520 --> 03:14:14,920
Generation after generation,

2099
03:14:14,920 --> 03:14:19,680
we selected the most docile animals
and reared their pups...

2100
03:14:23,120 --> 03:14:26,600
..driving the evolution of a
cooperative behaviour

2101
03:14:26,600 --> 03:14:28,320
that suited our needs.

2102
03:14:31,080 --> 03:14:35,000
This marked a turning point for the
human species.

2103
03:14:37,360 --> 03:14:40,880
Living with dogs helped us hunt for
food and survive.

2104
03:14:40,880 --> 03:14:44,840
It gave us this much-needed edge over
hunger,

2105
03:14:44,840 --> 03:14:50,560
but it also marked this profound and
completely unprecedented shift

2106
03:14:50,560 --> 03:14:52,640
in our relationship with nature.

2107
03:14:52,640 --> 03:14:55,000
Because never before had any living
thing,

2108
03:14:55,000 --> 03:14:58,360
whether plant or animal, been
domesticated.

2109
03:14:58,360 --> 03:15:00,440
This was a complete first.

2110
03:15:09,120 --> 03:15:14,600
Unbeknownst to us, we were becoming
curators of nature

2111
03:15:14,600 --> 03:15:17,800
and gaining more control over our own
fate.

2112
03:15:19,840 --> 03:15:24,520
But powerful forces far beyond the
control of any human

2113
03:15:24,520 --> 03:15:29,240
were about to open new gateways into
the North American continent.

2114
03:15:32,280 --> 03:15:36,960
And as people answered the call of the
interior,

2115
03:15:36,960 --> 03:15:40,720
far beyond the mountains and glaciers,

2116
03:15:40,720 --> 03:15:45,920
they would be forced to find entirely
new ways to survive.

2117
03:15:59,720 --> 03:16:02,960
A fresh wave of human innovation would
be triggered

2118
03:16:02,960 --> 03:16:08,040
around 15,000 years ago, when the
climate began to warm.

2119
03:16:15,440 --> 03:16:18,760
The ice sheets and glaciers started to
retreat.

2120
03:16:32,480 --> 03:16:35,640
And as they did, the last major
barrier

2121
03:16:35,640 --> 03:16:38,600
blocking routes into the continent
fell.

2122
03:17:02,240 --> 03:17:04,360
The first people to enter into the
Americas

2123
03:17:04,360 --> 03:17:06,600
were coastal people in the northwest,

2124
03:17:06,600 --> 03:17:09,520
but it's likely that they eventually
travelled

2125
03:17:09,520 --> 03:17:15,360
incredibly rapidly down south, all the
way to Central America

2126
03:17:15,360 --> 03:17:20,320
and then carried on all the way to the
tip of South America.

2127
03:17:20,320 --> 03:17:23,520
Because remember - they were coastal
people.

2128
03:17:23,520 --> 03:17:26,720
It's likely that they were using some
kind of seafaring method.

2129
03:17:27,960 --> 03:17:29,320
So, very early on,

2130
03:17:29,320 --> 03:17:32,320
some humans would have started to
enter the continent

2131
03:17:32,320 --> 03:17:33,840
from along this sea route.

2132
03:17:37,840 --> 03:17:41,200
But when the ice sheets eventually
started to retreat,

2133
03:17:41,200 --> 03:17:43,800
many new routes would have opened up.

2134
03:17:47,040 --> 03:17:52,360
More people started travelling into
the interior of the country

2135
03:17:52,360 --> 03:17:56,440
and finding these completely new
landscapes.

2136
03:18:02,120 --> 03:18:05,240
Some of the first humans to reach the
interior

2137
03:18:05,240 --> 03:18:07,840
left traces here in New Mexico.

2138
03:18:08,960 --> 03:18:10,960
SLIDE PROJECTOR CLICKS

2139
03:18:12,000 --> 03:18:13,720
Fossilised footprints.

2140
03:18:16,080 --> 03:18:19,880
Left in the muddy shore of an ancient
lake.

2141
03:18:29,360 --> 03:18:30,840
The people who made them

2142
03:18:30,840 --> 03:18:34,520
may have been part of one of the very
earliest waves

2143
03:18:34,520 --> 03:18:39,640
of what was to become 10,000 years of
human migration inland.

2144
03:18:43,840 --> 03:18:47,760
Where there is now desert, they saw
rich grasslands.

2145
03:18:52,480 --> 03:18:56,200
The fossilised footprints of these
continental pioneers

2146
03:18:56,200 --> 03:19:00,600
reveal what kind of a world they'd
stepped into.

2147
03:19:02,480 --> 03:19:05,320
These are the footprints of an actual
human being

2148
03:19:05,320 --> 03:19:08,800
who stood basically where I'm
standing.

2149
03:19:08,800 --> 03:19:11,520
And we think she was a female.

2150
03:19:11,520 --> 03:19:13,720
And if you look closely at those
footprints,

2151
03:19:13,720 --> 03:19:16,480
what you see is that, at times, the
footprints,

2152
03:19:16,480 --> 03:19:19,000
they get broader and they slip a
little in the mud.

2153
03:19:27,000 --> 03:19:28,760
SLIDE PROJECTOR CLICKS

2154
03:19:31,400 --> 03:19:32,800
And that's because

2155
03:19:32,800 --> 03:19:35,080
she was carrying a child.

2156
03:19:35,080 --> 03:19:38,120
Sometimes on this hip and sometimes on
this hip.

2157
03:19:51,160 --> 03:19:55,320
Then at other times, she stopped and
put the child down,

2158
03:19:55,320 --> 03:19:57,880
and you end up with two sets of
footprints.

2159
03:20:01,440 --> 03:20:03,120
SLIDE PROJECTOR CLICKS

2160
03:20:07,080 --> 03:20:10,760
And she walked for at least a
kilometre north,

2161
03:20:10,760 --> 03:20:12,960
and then heads back south.

2162
03:20:12,960 --> 03:20:17,400
I just can't think of anything
more...more human

2163
03:20:17,400 --> 03:20:20,680
than a mother and a child walking
together,

2164
03:20:20,680 --> 03:20:23,560
and a mother carrying her child.

2165
03:20:23,560 --> 03:20:26,200
And it's interesting, cos this whole
journey

2166
03:20:26,200 --> 03:20:31,560
has been us tracing the footsteps of
our ancient ancestors.

2167
03:20:31,560 --> 03:20:34,960
And in a moment like this, that's
actually literal.

2168
03:20:48,360 --> 03:20:52,200
Archaeologists are finding more of
these footprints,

2169
03:20:52,200 --> 03:20:56,880
left by a female or possibly an
adolescent male carrying a child,

2170
03:20:56,880 --> 03:20:59,680
hidden beneath the hard, packed sand.

2171
03:21:01,480 --> 03:21:06,120
It's allowing us to piece together an
ever more detailed snapshot

2172
03:21:06,120 --> 03:21:09,560
of what happened in the moments
captured here.

2173
03:21:11,440 --> 03:21:13,640
- Let's see if we can define the
footprint a little bit.
- Yeah.

2174
03:21:15,240 --> 03:21:18,360
It's always scary when you start these
things.

2175
03:21:18,360 --> 03:21:19,400
You've got to...

2176
03:21:20,560 --> 03:21:21,920
..take them out.

2177
03:21:21,920 --> 03:21:24,600
- There's a subtle difference between
the soil in the print...

2178
03:21:24,600 --> 03:21:28,800
- It's looser, it's a little damp, so
it's going to smear a bit today,

2179
03:21:28,800 --> 03:21:30,280
but it will come out.

2180
03:21:34,600 --> 03:21:36,240
- You see it so...

2181
03:21:37,560 --> 03:21:38,760
..so clearly.

2182
03:21:38,760 --> 03:21:41,800
OK. So how have you...? So you've just
traced along the...?

2183
03:21:41,800 --> 03:21:46,880
- I've just... I've literally just
broken the surface

2184
03:21:46,880 --> 03:21:49,200
with the dental pick.
- Yeah.

2185
03:21:49,200 --> 03:21:51,360
- And then this particular example

2186
03:21:51,360 --> 03:21:54,360
just brushes out with a little bit of
encouragement.
- Yeah.

2187
03:21:54,360 --> 03:21:59,360
- And you can see the contrast between
the white...
- Yeah.

2188
03:21:59,360 --> 03:22:02,600
- ..and the fill in there. I'm
removing the...
- Wow.

2189
03:22:02,600 --> 03:22:05,080
- ..the sediment that's blown into the
footprint.

2190
03:22:06,840 --> 03:22:08,640
- So we think she was walking quite
quickly, then?

2191
03:22:08,640 --> 03:22:13,080
- Yeah, she's walking at about 1.6,
something like, metres per second.

2192
03:22:13,080 --> 03:22:18,160
- Wow.
- And, and a comfortable, normal sort
of walk is about 1.3 to 1.5.

2193
03:22:18,160 --> 03:22:22,360
So she, she's moving. And this surface
is wet, it's slippy.

2194
03:22:22,360 --> 03:22:25,000
We do know that this was a mission.

2195
03:22:25,000 --> 03:22:26,160
They were on a mission.

2196
03:22:26,160 --> 03:22:29,640
They were moving quickly at speed, for
whatever reason,

2197
03:22:29,640 --> 03:22:32,640
and the footprint, um, tells that
story.

2198
03:22:37,560 --> 03:22:42,720
- Why that person was hurrying might
be explained by evidence nearby.

2199
03:22:50,720 --> 03:22:55,200
Other footprints, each one around two
feet in diameter...

2200
03:22:58,920 --> 03:23:01,080
..left by mammoths.

2201
03:23:05,880 --> 03:23:10,000
And crisscrossing the footprints of
the mother and child

2202
03:23:10,000 --> 03:23:12,960
are the tracks of a giant ground
sloth.

2203
03:23:17,520 --> 03:23:21,360
Out in the open, with dangerous
animals close by,

2204
03:23:21,360 --> 03:23:26,320
the mother was perhaps seeking safety
for herself and her child.

2205
03:23:29,320 --> 03:23:33,080
This landscape would have been filled
with mammoth and mastodon

2206
03:23:33,080 --> 03:23:37,200
and sabre-toothed cats - just huge
animals.

2207
03:23:37,200 --> 03:23:39,240
They would have dwarfed us.

2208
03:23:39,240 --> 03:23:42,000
The mammoth alone would stand at about
four metres high,

2209
03:23:42,000 --> 03:23:45,200
that's about 13 feet, at the
shoulders,

2210
03:23:45,200 --> 03:23:47,840
and the mastodon were only slightly
smaller.

2211
03:23:49,920 --> 03:23:53,240
For the humans here, this was their
new world.

2212
03:23:55,280 --> 03:23:57,440
The early people of the plains

2213
03:23:57,440 --> 03:24:00,520
would have given these prehistoric
mammals...

2214
03:24:01,640 --> 03:24:03,280
..a wide berth.

2215
03:24:06,520 --> 03:24:07,960
SLIDE PROJECTOR CLICKS

2216
03:24:15,200 --> 03:24:17,000
But they must have realised

2217
03:24:17,000 --> 03:24:20,200
that those animals also represented
opportunity.

2218
03:24:24,160 --> 03:24:28,320
That these grazing giants could
provide them with food...

2219
03:24:31,800 --> 03:24:35,120
..if they could find a way to bring
them down.

2220
03:24:39,000 --> 03:24:41,840
We know they eventually found a way to
do this

2221
03:24:41,840 --> 03:24:44,720
because they left a massive clue.

2222
03:24:44,720 --> 03:24:46,720
SLIDE PROJECTOR CLICKS

2223
03:24:49,600 --> 03:24:52,040
Skeletons of this megafauna.

2224
03:24:54,920 --> 03:24:58,520
Some clearly killed by humans.

2225
03:25:00,800 --> 03:25:03,520
Humans would have exploited some
megafauna,

2226
03:25:03,520 --> 03:25:06,240
some large land animals on the coast,

2227
03:25:06,240 --> 03:25:08,720
but it was once they hit the interior

2228
03:25:08,720 --> 03:25:12,400
that they saw them on a scale like
something else,

2229
03:25:12,400 --> 03:25:15,920
in terms of their sheer numbers, in
terms of their diversity.

2230
03:25:21,000 --> 03:25:24,400
But how on earth could people hunt
these giants?

2231
03:25:29,160 --> 03:25:31,520
BIRD CALLS

2232
03:25:31,520 --> 03:25:33,560
CRICKETS CHIRP

2233
03:25:37,800 --> 03:25:40,920
One animal still exists which gives us
a sense

2234
03:25:40,920 --> 03:25:43,520
of just how difficult that would have
been.

2235
03:25:47,760 --> 03:25:50,640
RUMBLING

2236
03:25:55,440 --> 03:25:59,720
HOOFBEATS RUMBLE

2237
03:26:03,680 --> 03:26:09,560
This beast can sprint at up to 40mph.

2238
03:26:09,560 --> 03:26:12,480
The male's horns are over two feet
long.

2239
03:26:13,680 --> 03:26:16,160
And, 14,000 years ago,

2240
03:26:16,160 --> 03:26:20,920
these bison had an even bigger
prehistoric relative

2241
03:26:20,920 --> 03:26:23,240
roaming these parts.

2242
03:26:25,520 --> 03:26:30,200
WHISPERING: Absolutely incredible, but
they're also so...

2243
03:26:31,360 --> 03:26:35,760
..big. They're about one tonne in
size.

2244
03:26:35,760 --> 03:26:39,840
And the giant bison, the one that's
now extinct,

2245
03:26:39,840 --> 03:26:41,560
but would have been around back then,

2246
03:26:41,560 --> 03:26:45,680
was up to 50... 50% bigger.

2247
03:26:45,680 --> 03:26:49,320
HOOFBEATS RUMBLE, BISON SNORT

2248
03:26:49,320 --> 03:26:50,760
It's one of those things, I think -

2249
03:26:50,760 --> 03:26:53,480
today, you can romanticise the idea of
these hunts

2250
03:26:53,480 --> 03:26:56,720
and you think about them as some kind
of,

2251
03:26:56,720 --> 03:27:00,200
you know, adrenaline-filled adventure,

2252
03:27:00,200 --> 03:27:03,760
but it's harder to grasp that,
actually, back then,

2253
03:27:03,760 --> 03:27:07,920
it would have been filled with fear
and risk.

2254
03:27:12,360 --> 03:27:16,360
Only a powerful spear thrust could
penetrate the giants' hides...

2255
03:27:26,120 --> 03:27:28,520
..so hunters needed to get close.

2256
03:27:46,440 --> 03:27:47,880
ALARM CALL

2257
03:27:50,720 --> 03:27:54,080
Many hunts ended in failure.

2258
03:27:59,600 --> 03:28:02,040
They needed a technology upgrade.

2259
03:28:04,720 --> 03:28:06,200
Up until this time,

2260
03:28:06,200 --> 03:28:09,360
the way spear points were attached to
their shafts

2261
03:28:09,360 --> 03:28:11,240
was a serious weakness.

2262
03:28:11,240 --> 03:28:13,240
SLIDE PROJECTOR CLICKS

2263
03:28:15,360 --> 03:28:19,000
Spear points frequently broke on
impact...

2264
03:28:21,880 --> 03:28:24,520
..until the design was altered.

2265
03:28:27,280 --> 03:28:30,160
A subtle shift at first glance,

2266
03:28:30,160 --> 03:28:33,280
but one that would change everything.

2267
03:28:35,080 --> 03:28:36,360
This is special.

2268
03:28:36,360 --> 03:28:40,320
So, it's about 18 centimetres long.

2269
03:28:40,320 --> 03:28:42,560
It's pretty sharp.

2270
03:28:42,560 --> 03:28:44,040
If we look at the shape,

2271
03:28:44,040 --> 03:28:49,400
it's long and narrow with the broadest
point being quite low down.

2272
03:28:49,400 --> 03:28:53,800
Notice also this thinning here
compared to the middle.

2273
03:28:53,800 --> 03:28:57,000
It's thought that the shape might help
with the penetration of hide,

2274
03:28:57,000 --> 03:29:00,080
and it's thought that this might help

2275
03:29:00,080 --> 03:29:02,760
with reducing shattering on impact.

2276
03:29:04,040 --> 03:29:06,520
We call it a Clovis point,

2277
03:29:06,520 --> 03:29:09,920
because it was found near Clovis in
New Mexico.

2278
03:29:12,240 --> 03:29:14,640
The narrow base of the Clovis points

2279
03:29:14,640 --> 03:29:19,400
allowed them to be slotted firmly into
the spear shaft,

2280
03:29:19,400 --> 03:29:22,760
better absorbing the force of impact.

2281
03:29:29,640 --> 03:29:31,400
From archaeological finds,

2282
03:29:31,400 --> 03:29:36,320
we know this new design rapidly spread
across the continent...

2283
03:29:43,800 --> 03:29:46,240
..and the technology continued to
develop.

2284
03:29:49,840 --> 03:29:53,360
Within 500 years, these points had
evolved

2285
03:29:53,360 --> 03:29:56,080
into more slender and sharper forms...

2286
03:29:58,880 --> 03:30:01,840
..able to penetrate deeper into
prey...

2287
03:30:12,800 --> 03:30:15,360
..and archaeologists think these spear
points

2288
03:30:15,360 --> 03:30:18,760
were delivered with such lethal force

2289
03:30:18,760 --> 03:30:21,440
because of another piece of
technology...

2290
03:30:24,280 --> 03:30:26,840
..whose use was exploding.

2291
03:30:41,440 --> 03:30:44,320
So this is a replica spearhead,

2292
03:30:44,320 --> 03:30:49,200
and it's been hafted or attached on to
a wooden shaft.

2293
03:30:49,200 --> 03:30:53,360
So, this would have been quite an
effective weapon,

2294
03:30:53,360 --> 03:30:56,200
but this is where technology gets
really interesting

2295
03:30:56,200 --> 03:31:00,080
because it's thought that one of the
ways that they threw these spears

2296
03:31:00,080 --> 03:31:02,360
is with a spear thrower.

2297
03:31:02,360 --> 03:31:04,560
So you'd attach it to the top here,

2298
03:31:04,560 --> 03:31:08,560
and then you would effectively use it
to...

2299
03:31:08,560 --> 03:31:10,840
..propel the spear forward.

2300
03:31:34,360 --> 03:31:39,760
At that velocity, you're more likely
to pierce the hide of an animal.

2301
03:31:41,360 --> 03:31:43,280
And to me, it's...

2302
03:31:43,280 --> 03:31:47,480
It's especially interesting because
what you get with this

2303
03:31:47,480 --> 03:31:53,560
is the ability for female hunters to
be more effective,

2304
03:31:53,560 --> 03:32:00,000
because suddenly it's not just about
strength, it's also about skill.

2305
03:32:09,120 --> 03:32:11,240
The new hunting technologies

2306
03:32:11,240 --> 03:32:16,200
allowed people to take down the
largest animals in their world.

2307
03:32:27,400 --> 03:32:31,800
Humans had become the apex predator of
the plains,

2308
03:32:31,800 --> 03:32:35,520
and now feasted on a glut of meat.

2309
03:32:42,320 --> 03:32:46,400
Our hunting prowess was shaping
society here.

2310
03:32:54,960 --> 03:32:57,120
This is absolutely stunning.

2311
03:32:57,120 --> 03:33:00,440
It's one of the most striking
spearheads I've ever seen.

2312
03:33:00,440 --> 03:33:04,080
It's... It's so well-crafted, and it
shines,

2313
03:33:04,080 --> 03:33:06,840
and it looks like it was made of glass
-

2314
03:33:06,840 --> 03:33:09,000
but actually, it's made of quartz,

2315
03:33:09,000 --> 03:33:11,440
so it's incredibly strong and it's
sharp,

2316
03:33:11,440 --> 03:33:16,040
and yet it doesn't have any signs that
it was actually ever used,

2317
03:33:16,040 --> 03:33:18,880
and that, along with the fact that
it's so beautiful,

2318
03:33:18,880 --> 03:33:21,120
suggests that it was ceremonial.

2319
03:33:21,120 --> 03:33:23,880
Now, when you've got an everyday
object

2320
03:33:23,880 --> 03:33:28,440
and it's made to look so... so
beautiful, and so striking,

2321
03:33:28,440 --> 03:33:31,560
it implies that it had become a
symbol.

2322
03:33:31,560 --> 03:33:34,600
We're not sure of what - perhaps of
how important hunting was,

2323
03:33:34,600 --> 03:33:38,440
but perhaps of a cultural identity,
perhaps of who they were.

2324
03:33:50,840 --> 03:33:54,760
Feasts began to bring different
communities together...

2325
03:33:57,200 --> 03:33:59,280
..and cement social ties.

2326
03:34:03,400 --> 03:34:05,920
Sharing meat fostered cooperation.

2327
03:34:09,960 --> 03:34:12,560
Food was fuelling a culture.

2328
03:34:16,760 --> 03:34:19,080
In the midst of this abundance,

2329
03:34:19,080 --> 03:34:23,400
it must have felt as if it would go on
forever.

2330
03:34:32,360 --> 03:34:35,040
But their world was changing.

2331
03:34:43,400 --> 03:34:45,040
The end of the Ice Age

2332
03:34:45,040 --> 03:34:48,880
that had gifted them this warm world
of plenty

2333
03:34:48,880 --> 03:34:53,640
was now beginning to have an effect
they could not have foreseen.

2334
03:35:01,760 --> 03:35:06,080
It's thought that melting ice at the
poles disrupted ocean currents.

2335
03:35:07,480 --> 03:35:10,080
Temperatures in the northern
hemisphere

2336
03:35:10,080 --> 03:35:13,080
rapidly cooled by several degrees.

2337
03:35:16,720 --> 03:35:18,160
Across North America,

2338
03:35:18,160 --> 03:35:23,000
the vegetation had begun to alter in
unpredictable ways.

2339
03:35:25,640 --> 03:35:28,240
In some areas, trees and shrubs

2340
03:35:28,240 --> 03:35:31,560
began to replace grassland and tundra.

2341
03:35:31,560 --> 03:35:33,080
SLIDE PROJECTOR CLICKS

2342
03:35:34,320 --> 03:35:37,800
Woolly mammoths could not effectively
chew or digest

2343
03:35:37,800 --> 03:35:39,680
these woodier plants...

2344
03:35:43,080 --> 03:35:46,040
..and as their environment
transformed...

2345
03:35:48,400 --> 03:35:51,320
..the giant herbivores dwindled.

2346
03:35:56,440 --> 03:36:00,640
Over the space of just a few hundred
years,

2347
03:36:00,640 --> 03:36:05,280
three-quarters of the large animal
species in North America

2348
03:36:05,280 --> 03:36:09,800
became extinct, vanishing forever.

2349
03:36:12,480 --> 03:36:17,560
I imagine it must have been a shock
for the early people here

2350
03:36:17,560 --> 03:36:22,360
to witness the megafauna disappearing,

2351
03:36:22,360 --> 03:36:25,040
because that's what they would have
seen -

2352
03:36:25,040 --> 03:36:28,240
and they're such a part of your
culture and your diet

2353
03:36:28,240 --> 03:36:31,120
and your lifestyle, and suddenly
they're not.

2354
03:36:32,560 --> 03:36:36,640
That... That must have been quite
difficult to comprehend.

2355
03:36:40,480 --> 03:36:43,280
Now, the main cause of the giant
megafaunal extinction

2356
03:36:43,280 --> 03:36:48,760
is climate change, but it's likely
that human hunting played a role,

2357
03:36:48,760 --> 03:36:51,680
that it was this final nail in the
coffin -

2358
03:36:51,680 --> 03:36:56,480
and so, perhaps unknowingly, we humans
tipped the balance of nature.

2359
03:37:03,560 --> 03:37:06,760
The once bountiful land of giants

2360
03:37:06,760 --> 03:37:10,000
had become a pile of bones.

2361
03:37:12,200 --> 03:37:14,640
All the hunting technology in the
world

2362
03:37:14,640 --> 03:37:18,480
could do nothing to reverse this
catastrophe.

2363
03:37:26,560 --> 03:37:31,800
The people here were plunged back to a
time before the feasts.

2364
03:37:38,320 --> 03:37:42,840
With these animals gone, how would
they now find enough food?

2365
03:37:46,480 --> 03:37:51,400
A clue lies in ancient holes carved in
the rock.

2366
03:37:53,840 --> 03:37:55,720
People needed to branch out

2367
03:37:55,720 --> 03:37:58,640
and exploit every part of the food
chain,

2368
03:37:58,640 --> 03:38:02,560
all the way through to something you
probably don't think of as food -

2369
03:38:02,560 --> 03:38:04,240
and that's acorns.

2370
03:38:04,240 --> 03:38:08,840
Now, these are incredibly bitter
because they're full of tannic acid,

2371
03:38:08,840 --> 03:38:10,280
and to get rid of some of that,

2372
03:38:10,280 --> 03:38:14,720
what they would do is they would
firstly get rid of the shells,

2373
03:38:14,720 --> 03:38:18,400
and then they would grind the nuts up

2374
03:38:18,400 --> 03:38:25,280
with water in the hopes of getting rid
of some of that bitterness.

2375
03:38:25,280 --> 03:38:30,920
And...honestly, acorns sound
disgusting

2376
03:38:30,920 --> 03:38:32,680
and they taste disgusting.

2377
03:38:32,680 --> 03:38:34,600
They're still incredibly bitter -

2378
03:38:34,600 --> 03:38:39,640
and yet it's likely that the flour
from these and the paste from these

2379
03:38:39,640 --> 03:38:42,360
were some of the earliest processed
plant food.

2380
03:38:42,360 --> 03:38:45,000
We actually have some of the grinding
stones

2381
03:38:45,000 --> 03:38:47,400
preserved in the archaeological record
-

2382
03:38:47,400 --> 03:38:49,760
and if you look at all this, it seems
so clever,

2383
03:38:49,760 --> 03:38:52,280
it seems so inventive,

2384
03:38:52,280 --> 03:38:54,960
and yet it's a lot of effort to go to

2385
03:38:54,960 --> 03:38:58,800
for what are essentially some really
unpleasant calories.

2386
03:39:01,200 --> 03:39:04,400
If you were starving, no question
you'd do this...

2387
03:39:06,080 --> 03:39:08,080
..and with the loss of the megafauna,

2388
03:39:08,080 --> 03:39:11,720
people's survival now hinged on
smaller game

2389
03:39:11,720 --> 03:39:13,760
and foraging for plants.

2390
03:39:15,760 --> 03:39:18,400
But there had to be another way.

2391
03:39:35,920 --> 03:39:39,720
The solution people came up with in
the Americas

2392
03:39:39,720 --> 03:39:43,440
would be found in tropical forests to
the south.

2393
03:40:12,320 --> 03:40:15,720
This place, it has...

2394
03:40:15,720 --> 03:40:18,120
It has real challenges.

2395
03:40:18,120 --> 03:40:21,000
There are plants - so many of them
look edible,

2396
03:40:21,000 --> 03:40:25,040
and yet some of them are definitely
poisonous.

2397
03:40:25,040 --> 03:40:29,440
It requires a process of trial and
error to find the actual food.

2398
03:40:34,840 --> 03:40:40,480
It was in a forest, archaeologists
think in present-day Mexico,

2399
03:40:40,480 --> 03:40:43,960
that a momentous change took place -

2400
03:40:43,960 --> 03:40:47,600
and it began with the simplest of
actions.

2401
03:40:50,400 --> 03:40:54,080
Every so often, someone would have
come across a plant

2402
03:40:54,080 --> 03:40:56,640
that was safe to eat,

2403
03:40:56,640 --> 03:40:59,440
and would have sought out more of it.

2404
03:41:03,120 --> 03:41:07,800
An example of this is this grass
called teosinte.

2405
03:41:07,800 --> 03:41:11,960
Now the seeds are incredibly small and
hard,

2406
03:41:11,960 --> 03:41:15,040
but they can be ground up into an
edible flour.

2407
03:41:15,040 --> 03:41:19,040
So, that same ingenuity that humans
brought to acorns,

2408
03:41:19,040 --> 03:41:21,440
they were now bringing to this grass.

2409
03:41:26,760 --> 03:41:29,360
Where people found teosinte growing,

2410
03:41:29,360 --> 03:41:32,640
they encouraged it by weeding out
other plants...

2411
03:41:34,640 --> 03:41:36,960
..and collected the seeds for food.

2412
03:41:38,280 --> 03:41:40,920
This may have continued for
centuries...

2413
03:41:43,360 --> 03:41:48,520
..until one individual would have
become the first person

2414
03:41:48,520 --> 03:41:52,520
in the Americas to do something
completely original

2415
03:41:52,520 --> 03:41:54,880
with a teosinte seed.

2416
03:42:15,000 --> 03:42:21,680
There is something so magical about
planting a seed, watering it,

2417
03:42:21,680 --> 03:42:24,880
and hoping that it sprouts

2418
03:42:24,880 --> 03:42:29,000
and becomes a tiny little delicate
green shoot.

2419
03:42:35,520 --> 03:42:38,080
And there would have been somebody

2420
03:42:38,080 --> 03:42:40,560
who planted the very, very first
seed...

2421
03:42:42,000 --> 03:42:44,000
..and they would have - they would
have known

2422
03:42:44,000 --> 03:42:47,920
that it would require effort and care

2423
03:42:47,920 --> 03:42:49,440
and protection from herbivores

2424
03:42:49,440 --> 03:42:52,040
if it was to ever become something big
enough

2425
03:42:52,040 --> 03:42:53,680
to feed their families with.

2426
03:42:55,440 --> 03:43:00,240
And anybody who's ever had an
allotment, or a garden,

2427
03:43:00,240 --> 03:43:05,120
or a balcony knows how much care and
commitment goes into it.

2428
03:43:14,960 --> 03:43:18,320
This was an idea whose time had come.

2429
03:43:24,800 --> 03:43:29,320
Because humans all over the planet
started to plant seeds

2430
03:43:29,320 --> 03:43:31,240
and grow them for food...

2431
03:43:32,880 --> 03:43:36,440
..and it was an experiment that began
to pay off.

2432
03:43:37,480 --> 03:43:41,160
Because across the world, the people
who did this

2433
03:43:41,160 --> 03:43:47,280
were creating a more dependable way of
feeding their families,

2434
03:43:47,280 --> 03:43:51,600
and so triggered a pivotal moment for
our species.

2435
03:43:55,840 --> 03:43:58,920
In different places all over the
Earth,

2436
03:43:58,920 --> 03:44:02,280
humans were inventing farming.

2437
03:44:04,520 --> 03:44:07,640
Probably first around 10,000 years
ago,

2438
03:44:07,640 --> 03:44:10,640
in the Fertile Crescent of the Middle
East,

2439
03:44:10,640 --> 03:44:12,760
where we domesticated wheat...

2440
03:44:15,440 --> 03:44:17,120
..then rice in China...

2441
03:44:19,440 --> 03:44:21,880
..sugar cane in present-day New
Guinea.

2442
03:44:25,040 --> 03:44:27,840
Farming emerged independently

2443
03:44:27,840 --> 03:44:30,840
in separate locations across the
globe...

2444
03:44:32,760 --> 03:44:36,960
..Central and South America among the
first.

2445
03:44:41,640 --> 03:44:44,680
Here, people created what would become

2446
03:44:44,680 --> 03:44:48,320
one of the three most important staple
crops

2447
03:44:48,320 --> 03:44:50,800
for feeding the world...

2448
03:44:54,160 --> 03:44:58,280
..because as the early farmers planted
and harvested teosinte...

2449
03:45:00,080 --> 03:45:04,120
..they began to shape it into a new
kind of plant.

2450
03:45:07,400 --> 03:45:11,960
Every so often, a genetic mutation
would arise in teosinte

2451
03:45:11,960 --> 03:45:15,320
that would actually be quite
beneficial for humans -

2452
03:45:15,320 --> 03:45:18,040
that would give rise to, say, larger
seeds,

2453
03:45:18,040 --> 03:45:20,720
or more seeds, or sweeter seeds -

2454
03:45:20,720 --> 03:45:22,720
and, perhaps most important of all,

2455
03:45:22,720 --> 03:45:25,400
would get rid of the hard seed
covering,

2456
03:45:25,400 --> 03:45:29,240
and humans started selecting for these
better varieties,

2457
03:45:29,240 --> 03:45:33,880
and over thousands of years, they
created something new,

2458
03:45:33,880 --> 03:45:37,800
that looked very different from
teosinte -

2459
03:45:37,800 --> 03:45:40,480
because they created maize.

2460
03:45:42,000 --> 03:45:45,080
It was no longer a wild plant.

2461
03:45:45,080 --> 03:45:48,160
It was now a domesticated crop.

2462
03:45:56,280 --> 03:45:59,960
The invention of farming was to set in
motion a change

2463
03:45:59,960 --> 03:46:03,680
that would go far beyond how we fed
ourselves.

2464
03:46:08,440 --> 03:46:14,520
The clue is in that word, "plant" - to
be put down in one place -

2465
03:46:14,520 --> 03:46:17,960
and just like the plants that they
grew,

2466
03:46:17,960 --> 03:46:21,680
those early farmers would have had to
have adopted

2467
03:46:21,680 --> 03:46:23,880
a very similar lifestyle.

2468
03:46:23,880 --> 03:46:27,160
Because you couldn't exactly keep
moving

2469
03:46:27,160 --> 03:46:29,880
if you had to tend to your crops,

2470
03:46:29,880 --> 03:46:35,040
and so, for the very first time since
the birth of Homo sapiens,

2471
03:46:35,040 --> 03:46:39,360
we were no longer a completely nomadic
species.

2472
03:46:39,360 --> 03:46:45,000
More and more of us were quite
literally putting down roots.

2473
03:46:50,200 --> 03:46:55,480
Farming supercharged our capacity to
fuel human activity...

2474
03:46:57,160 --> 03:47:00,240
..and what emerged was extraordinary.

2475
03:47:08,240 --> 03:47:09,920
Here in South America,

2476
03:47:09,920 --> 03:47:13,600
there's a place where they began a new
way of living

2477
03:47:13,600 --> 03:47:15,800
on an unprecedented scale.

2478
03:47:30,960 --> 03:47:36,080
The stepped pyramids of Caral were
once lost under the desert sand.

2479
03:47:42,280 --> 03:47:47,880
Archaeologists are now uncovering a
vast complex of structures.

2480
03:47:59,240 --> 03:48:04,120
And what made it possible to build
these extraordinary edifices...

2481
03:48:06,520 --> 03:48:09,680
..were the fields of crops that
surrounded them.

2482
03:48:15,600 --> 03:48:20,040
Caral became an immense hub for
trading food.

2483
03:48:24,080 --> 03:48:28,480
It represented a new path humans could
take

2484
03:48:28,480 --> 03:48:31,400
towards permanence and stability...

2485
03:48:35,600 --> 03:48:38,840
..but for our species to choose that
path

2486
03:48:38,840 --> 03:48:41,480
was not a foregone conclusion.

2487
03:48:54,760 --> 03:48:56,800
I just can't help but think,

2488
03:48:56,800 --> 03:48:58,680
what would it have been like

2489
03:48:58,680 --> 03:49:02,880
for people visiting it for the first
time back then?

2490
03:49:02,880 --> 03:49:06,880
Because they would have never seen a
city before.

2491
03:49:06,880 --> 03:49:08,880
It must have been so alien to them.

2492
03:49:08,880 --> 03:49:11,680
It must have looked like a place from
a different world.

2493
03:49:16,280 --> 03:49:20,240
This was a commitment to a static way
of life -

2494
03:49:20,240 --> 03:49:23,680
and yet we don't consider how
tumultuous

2495
03:49:23,680 --> 03:49:26,160
the process might have been,

2496
03:49:26,160 --> 03:49:29,600
how much social upheaval might have
been involved -

2497
03:49:29,600 --> 03:49:33,880
because for those who chose to lead
this life,

2498
03:49:33,880 --> 03:49:38,000
it must have come with a huge cultural
shift,

2499
03:49:38,000 --> 03:49:41,760
because humans were becoming an urban
species

2500
03:49:41,760 --> 03:49:43,760
for the very first time.

2501
03:49:52,320 --> 03:49:57,160
Humans across the planet stood at a
fork in the road.

2502
03:49:58,560 --> 03:50:00,960
For almost 300,000 years,

2503
03:50:00,960 --> 03:50:04,760
we had survived as nomadic
hunter-gatherers...

2504
03:50:07,200 --> 03:50:09,120
..but settled lives as farmers

2505
03:50:09,120 --> 03:50:13,440
promised a more reliable way to feed
ourselves

2506
03:50:13,440 --> 03:50:15,560
and plan for the future.

2507
03:50:28,360 --> 03:50:31,080
The choice most of our species took

2508
03:50:31,080 --> 03:50:36,320
would bring dilemmas and dangers we
could never have imagined.

2509
03:50:42,920 --> 03:50:47,120
In the final chapter of our Human
story,

2510
03:50:47,120 --> 03:50:51,760
we begin to live together in ever
larger numbers -

2511
03:50:51,760 --> 03:50:54,760
but open a Pandora's box...

2512
03:50:56,680 --> 03:50:58,840
..of death and chaos...

2513
03:51:00,360 --> 03:51:04,360
..as we seek ways to harness human
knowledge

2514
03:51:04,360 --> 03:51:07,520
on our path to the modern world.

2515
03:51:19,920 --> 03:51:24,760
In this episode, we filmed at a place
I'd long dreamt of visiting.

2516
03:51:26,120 --> 03:51:28,520
White Sands in New Mexico.

2517
03:51:33,360 --> 03:51:37,960
Underneath the surface of the desert
are sets of fossilised footprints.

2518
03:51:41,920 --> 03:51:46,720
They've become the subject of some of
the most ground-breaking

2519
03:51:46,720 --> 03:51:51,600
but also most hotly debated research
in archaeology.

2520
03:51:57,600 --> 03:52:01,440
In 2018, the discovery of the double
footprints,

2521
03:52:01,440 --> 03:52:04,080
possibly a mother and child,

2522
03:52:04,080 --> 03:52:08,760
revealed vivid details about who the
early people here were...

2523
03:52:10,080 --> 03:52:12,520
..and what animals roamed alongside
them.

2524
03:52:16,520 --> 03:52:18,760
- When we first started seeing the
human prints

2525
03:52:18,760 --> 03:52:20,400
walking alongside a mammoth print,

2526
03:52:20,400 --> 03:52:23,280
when I'd first seen it, I was like,
"Uh, that's not possible,"

2527
03:52:23,280 --> 03:52:26,400
but it takes a while to understand
what you see,

2528
03:52:26,400 --> 03:52:29,080
and then you go back and you start to
understand them.

2529
03:52:30,520 --> 03:52:33,720
- But the prints themselves were just
the start -

2530
03:52:33,720 --> 03:52:38,080
because, in 2021, new research on
their age

2531
03:52:38,080 --> 03:52:41,680
sent shock waves through the
scientific world.

2532
03:52:43,360 --> 03:52:46,840
- There's been a lot of ideas when
people got to the Americas.

2533
03:52:46,840 --> 03:52:49,640
Some of the main theories is there's a
large ice sheet

2534
03:52:49,640 --> 03:52:52,080
and people weren't really able to
enter this area

2535
03:52:52,080 --> 03:52:55,520
until about 14,000 years ago, until
that ice sheet melted.

2536
03:52:56,960 --> 03:52:59,760
- When humans first arrived in North
America,

2537
03:52:59,760 --> 03:53:03,520
an ice sheet covered the northern half
of the continent.

2538
03:53:04,640 --> 03:53:08,680
If no humans had been able to
penetrate the interior

2539
03:53:08,680 --> 03:53:10,840
until it had melted,

2540
03:53:10,840 --> 03:53:16,800
then the oldest the footprints could
possibly be is around 14,000 years -

2541
03:53:16,800 --> 03:53:19,600
but the dating of the footprints

2542
03:53:19,600 --> 03:53:22,680
seemed to overturn that conventional
view.

2543
03:53:24,760 --> 03:53:27,080
- We put in a trench at the edge of
the lakeshore

2544
03:53:27,080 --> 03:53:28,520
and we're finding prints

2545
03:53:28,520 --> 03:53:30,880
that were dated above and below the
prints,

2546
03:53:30,880 --> 03:53:32,800
so we can see the soil chronology.

2547
03:53:34,640 --> 03:53:39,160
- The footprints themselves can't be
carbon dated -

2548
03:53:39,160 --> 03:53:41,200
but fossilised plant seeds

2549
03:53:41,200 --> 03:53:45,600
trapped in the mud near the footprints
can be,

2550
03:53:45,600 --> 03:53:47,360
and carbon dating of seeds

2551
03:53:47,360 --> 03:53:52,480
in the layers above and below these
footprints were explosive.

2552
03:53:54,720 --> 03:53:56,760
- So, we don't know exactly how old
they are,

2553
03:53:56,760 --> 03:53:59,440
but we're looking at the lake
sediments,

2554
03:53:59,440 --> 03:54:03,120
and what we see is there's at least 11
different layers right now,

2555
03:54:03,120 --> 03:54:06,480
and those range from the top of the
sediment to the bottom,

2556
03:54:06,480 --> 03:54:08,560
from 21,000 to 23,000 years old.

2557
03:54:11,280 --> 03:54:14,520
- The dating research suggested the
footprints

2558
03:54:14,520 --> 03:54:19,680
went as far back as 23,000 years ago.

2559
03:54:21,760 --> 03:54:27,480
If true, it would mean humans had set
foot in North America

2560
03:54:27,480 --> 03:54:33,240
thousands of years earlier than many
scientists had long believed.

2561
03:54:37,000 --> 03:54:39,040
- So, at White Sands we see people
here

2562
03:54:39,040 --> 03:54:40,960
before the last glacier maximum,

2563
03:54:40,960 --> 03:54:42,800
before there was these last ice
sheets,

2564
03:54:42,800 --> 03:54:44,160
people were already here.

2565
03:54:45,400 --> 03:54:48,360
- The very early dates are
controversial.

2566
03:54:48,360 --> 03:54:50,040
Further research will be needed

2567
03:54:50,040 --> 03:54:54,440
to confirm how old the White Sands
footprints truly are.

2568
03:54:56,080 --> 03:54:59,600
If they date to before the melting of
the ice sheets,

2569
03:54:59,600 --> 03:55:03,680
did those pioneers travel around the
ice?

2570
03:55:03,680 --> 03:55:05,680
Despite the debate,

2571
03:55:05,680 --> 03:55:11,000
the footprints remain one of the most
important archaeological finds

2572
03:55:11,000 --> 03:55:13,360
of recent history,

2573
03:55:13,360 --> 03:55:17,440
with huge significance for the entire
question

2574
03:55:17,440 --> 03:55:22,280
of when humans first set foot in the
Americas.

2575
03:56:11,540 --> 03:56:15,580
Around 300,000 years ago,

2576
03:56:15,580 --> 03:56:18,700
our species, Homo sapiens,

2577
03:56:18,700 --> 03:56:20,300
evolved in Africa.

2578
03:56:23,780 --> 03:56:25,020
For generations,

2579
03:56:25,020 --> 03:56:28,660
small bands of hunter-gatherers
explored the planet...

2580
03:56:31,180 --> 03:56:33,060
..learning to survive.

2581
03:56:38,820 --> 03:56:44,060
Many other species of human walked the
Earth alongside us,

2582
03:56:44,060 --> 03:56:47,340
but one by one, we supplanted them...

2583
03:56:51,380 --> 03:56:54,220
..until only we remained.

2584
03:56:58,900 --> 03:57:03,660
For most of our history, our
population was tiny and fragile.

2585
03:57:06,820 --> 03:57:10,780
Every aspect of our lives determined
by the natural world.

2586
03:57:14,020 --> 03:57:15,220
And yet...

2587
03:57:18,500 --> 03:57:20,620
..everything would change.

2588
03:57:27,220 --> 03:57:30,020
Today, there are about eight billion
of us,

2589
03:57:30,020 --> 03:57:33,580
most of us living in cities, like this
one,

2590
03:57:33,580 --> 03:57:38,860
able to connect in an instant with
people across the planet.

2591
03:57:38,860 --> 03:57:40,580
And you might think it was inevitable,

2592
03:57:40,580 --> 03:57:46,020
the result of progress over time, but
surely, our story so far, if it

2593
03:57:46,020 --> 03:57:50,940
teaches us anything, it's that none of
this was a foregone conclusion.

2594
03:57:54,380 --> 03:57:56,180
So, how did we get here?

2595
03:57:58,340 --> 03:58:01,380
How did humanity transform from
scattered

2596
03:58:01,380 --> 03:58:06,180
groups of nomads into our modern,
interconnected world?

2597
03:58:09,220 --> 03:58:13,140
What happened in that final chapter of
our story

2598
03:58:13,140 --> 03:58:16,620
that took us on a path to this place?

2599
03:58:46,420 --> 03:58:49,460
On a remote hilltop, in the far east
of Turkey...

2600
03:58:53,500 --> 03:58:57,540
..stands a prehistoric monument
steeped in mystery.

2601
03:59:16,180 --> 03:59:20,740
It is so hard to stand here and not
have goose bumps.

2602
03:59:24,900 --> 03:59:31,820
This is the oldest temple unearthed
anywhere on this planet.

2603
03:59:36,740 --> 03:59:41,140
It was built 11,500 years ago by
hunter-gatherers.

2604
03:59:42,300 --> 03:59:47,060
That's 6,000 years earlier than
Stonehenge,

2605
03:59:47,060 --> 03:59:51,740
and yet somehow, our ancestors were
capable of making this.

2606
03:59:56,460 --> 03:59:59,260
This is Gobekli Tepe.

2607
04:00:07,900 --> 04:00:11,300
There are these incredible T-shaped
pillars,

2608
04:00:11,300 --> 04:00:15,980
which would've been holding up a huge
roof.

2609
04:00:15,980 --> 04:00:22,380
And then, if we look at them, they're
covered in these engravings.

2610
04:00:22,380 --> 04:00:26,340
So, this is a fox, there's vultures
here, there's bear,

2611
04:00:26,340 --> 04:00:32,420
there's wild boar, and here, this one
just has to be my favourite.

2612
04:00:32,420 --> 04:00:37,820
It's a leopard, hunting one of those
wild boars.

2613
04:00:37,820 --> 04:00:39,660
So, notice these holes here.

2614
04:00:39,660 --> 04:00:43,900
This was dressed with furs and they
were also painted.

2615
04:00:43,900 --> 04:00:49,300
So, you get the impression of this
place as being beautifully

2616
04:00:49,300 --> 04:00:51,660
coloured and textured.

2617
04:00:52,700 --> 04:00:59,460
And yet, this incredible feat of
architecture is not the most

2618
04:00:59,460 --> 04:01:01,900
revolutionary thing about this place.

2619
04:01:04,660 --> 04:01:07,860
Gobekli Tepe is not simply a temple.

2620
04:01:07,860 --> 04:01:12,500
It is a marker of a species on the
cusp of change.

2621
04:01:23,460 --> 04:01:24,700
In many ways,

2622
04:01:24,700 --> 04:01:29,020
these prehistoric builders lived as
their ancestors had for thousands

2623
04:01:29,020 --> 04:01:34,660
of years, their days spent foraging
and hunting to feed their families.

2624
04:01:36,580 --> 04:01:38,140
ANIMAL GRUNTS

2625
04:01:53,940 --> 04:01:56,540
But they'd made one fundamental
change.

2626
04:02:01,340 --> 04:02:05,100
After generations spent as nomads,
following the herds...

2627
04:02:10,940 --> 04:02:16,540
..here at Gobekli Tepe, they stopped
moving and settled down.

2628
04:02:24,260 --> 04:02:27,500
The evidence for which lies not in the
temple itself...

2629
04:02:29,540 --> 04:02:31,620
..but in the rubble surrounding it.

2630
04:02:39,220 --> 04:02:42,740
Now, this might not look like much
compared to that,

2631
04:02:42,740 --> 04:02:45,980
but this small square building is
actually

2632
04:02:45,980 --> 04:02:50,540
the remains of one of the first
permanent houses ever built.

2633
04:02:56,180 --> 04:03:01,260
That there is a storage vessel, this
is a grinding stone for wild

2634
04:03:01,260 --> 04:03:07,460
wheat, and this floor of plaster and
stone, this was somebody's home.

2635
04:03:12,780 --> 04:03:16,300
This is one of the first villages.

2636
04:03:22,780 --> 04:03:25,380
Archaeologists believe maybe a few
hundred people

2637
04:03:25,380 --> 04:03:27,260
were living here permanently...

2638
04:03:30,140 --> 04:03:31,500
..and calling it home.

2639
04:03:34,900 --> 04:03:40,980
For 300,000 years, Homo sapiens roamed
freely.

2640
04:03:40,980 --> 04:03:46,180
But now, they were gathering together
to put down roots.

2641
04:03:46,180 --> 04:03:49,540
And so, the question is, why?

2642
04:03:49,540 --> 04:03:51,940
And why now?

2643
04:04:07,020 --> 04:04:09,060
This was a world of plenty...

2644
04:04:10,780 --> 04:04:13,180
..warm and abundant.

2645
04:04:15,420 --> 04:04:18,500
But the planet had not always been
this way.

2646
04:04:19,620 --> 04:04:23,340
Only a few generations earlier, Homo
sapiens had been

2647
04:04:23,340 --> 04:04:25,100
fighting for survival...

2648
04:04:26,900 --> 04:04:29,900
..through the brutal peak of the last
Ice Age.

2649
04:04:34,140 --> 04:04:38,260
Now that local areas could provide
plenty of food,

2650
04:04:38,260 --> 04:04:41,580
people could spend longer in one
place,

2651
04:04:41,580 --> 04:04:47,220
and when large groups came together to
share their bounty, a feature

2652
04:04:47,220 --> 04:04:51,180
of our brain had an opportunity to
flourish like never before.

2653
04:04:54,660 --> 04:04:57,740
Our almost limitless capacity to
learn.

2654
04:05:04,060 --> 04:05:07,860
An ability with roots that can be
traced way back,

2655
04:05:07,860 --> 04:05:10,980
right to the beginning of the human
story.

2656
04:05:16,660 --> 04:05:21,060
As the distant ancestors of our
species were gradually evolving...

2657
04:05:25,580 --> 04:05:28,620
..they had begun developing larger
brains.

2658
04:05:34,020 --> 04:05:35,820
But as their brains grew,

2659
04:05:35,820 --> 04:05:39,100
the way they were organised was
evolving too...

2660
04:05:42,340 --> 04:05:45,900
..becoming increasingly adaptable, and
more able to

2661
04:05:45,900 --> 04:05:50,140
change in response to stimulation from
the outside world...

2662
04:05:54,020 --> 04:05:56,380
..until they became us...

2663
04:05:58,340 --> 04:06:00,820
..a species brilliant at learning,

2664
04:06:00,820 --> 04:06:04,300
both from our experiences and other
people.

2665
04:06:10,020 --> 04:06:13,700
The major thing that marks our species
as different isn't

2666
04:06:13,700 --> 04:06:18,700
just the size of our brain, it's also
the way they're organised

2667
04:06:18,700 --> 04:06:21,660
and their extraordinary flexibility.

2668
04:06:21,660 --> 04:06:24,580
Now, we call this flexibility
neuroplasticity,

2669
04:06:24,580 --> 04:06:27,660
because it's like our brains are
plastic.

2670
04:06:27,660 --> 04:06:31,500
They adapt, they alter and they
change.

2671
04:06:31,500 --> 04:06:34,140
It has some profound effects.

2672
04:06:46,860 --> 04:06:50,020
Humans have a natural affinity for
observing

2673
04:06:50,020 --> 04:06:51,380
and copying each other...

2674
04:06:54,100 --> 04:06:56,500
..giving Homo sapiens the ability to
have a

2675
04:06:56,500 --> 04:06:58,700
shared understanding of the world.

2676
04:07:04,500 --> 04:07:08,100
At Gobekli Tepe, the symbols of their
shared experiences

2677
04:07:08,100 --> 04:07:11,220
and beliefs are carved into the stone.

2678
04:07:13,100 --> 04:07:16,500
And these indicate a bigger shift in
our species.

2679
04:07:18,380 --> 04:07:21,820
The odd thing about being human is
that we are constantly

2680
04:07:21,820 --> 04:07:27,260
surrounded by a bunch of things that
are so all-encompassing, and yet we

2681
04:07:27,260 --> 04:07:31,380
never really think about where they
started or where they come from.

2682
04:07:31,380 --> 04:07:33,740
I'm talking here about culture.

2683
04:07:38,700 --> 04:07:42,820
Ritual, custom, language, art, stories

2684
04:07:42,820 --> 04:07:47,780
and ideas that have been passed down
orally through generations,

2685
04:07:47,780 --> 04:07:50,420
and have now found physical form.

2686
04:07:56,860 --> 04:08:00,980
Places like Gobekli Tepe became so
rich in meaning

2687
04:08:00,980 --> 04:08:06,540
that our ancestors never wanted to
leave, and culture flourished.

2688
04:08:10,100 --> 04:08:15,220
Cooperating and building connections

2689
04:08:15,220 --> 04:08:18,300
are what our brains are actually set
up to do.

2690
04:08:21,060 --> 04:08:24,380
Wherever humans settled down, an
explosion in creativity

2691
04:08:24,380 --> 04:08:30,300
followed, launching an era of
extraordinary innovation.

2692
04:08:31,620 --> 04:08:35,420
We can see the results of this shift
in the archaeological record...

2693
04:08:36,700 --> 04:08:41,580
..which begins to seethe with the
debris of new technology.

2694
04:08:46,740 --> 04:08:49,580
Our ancestors couldn't have foreseen
it,

2695
04:08:49,580 --> 04:08:53,020
but one innovation from around this
time was to have consequences

2696
04:08:53,020 --> 04:08:56,820
far greater than they could possibly
have imagined.

2697
04:09:03,900 --> 04:09:07,940
We start to see the first sparks of
something that would come to

2698
04:09:07,940 --> 04:09:10,220
shape the way we live today.

2699
04:09:12,900 --> 04:09:15,060
Wherever there were humans, there was

2700
04:09:15,060 --> 04:09:18,660
a dramatic rise in the bones of goats
and sheep...

2701
04:09:23,340 --> 04:09:27,580
..far outstripping the remains of the
species they hunted.

2702
04:09:43,140 --> 04:09:46,860
These changes reveal a key point in
the human story...

2703
04:09:48,500 --> 04:09:51,780
..the moment we began to farm
livestock.

2704
04:10:04,220 --> 04:10:08,620
The people had found a safe, reliable
way to feed themselves.

2705
04:10:09,940 --> 04:10:13,340
They'd stopped chasing their food and
started rearing it...

2706
04:10:15,660 --> 04:10:19,980
..providing a regular supply of milk,
cheese and yoghurt...

2707
04:10:24,220 --> 04:10:26,900
..and later, textiles like wool...

2708
04:10:29,020 --> 04:10:31,780
..season after season.

2709
04:10:40,620 --> 04:10:43,980
The farming of animals marked a
watershed moment.

2710
04:10:46,820 --> 04:10:52,100
The result of this, I don't think
could've been predicted.

2711
04:10:52,100 --> 04:10:56,820
This altered relationship that they
had with animals, altered them,

2712
04:10:56,820 --> 04:11:00,740
because not long after they learnt how
to do this,

2713
04:11:00,740 --> 04:11:02,500
something fascinating happened.

2714
04:11:12,740 --> 04:11:15,780
Their population started to boom.

2715
04:11:17,220 --> 04:11:19,580
Now, we're not really sure why this
happened,

2716
04:11:19,580 --> 04:11:22,620
but the strongest theory is that
people staying in one place

2717
04:11:22,620 --> 04:11:26,460
and not moving as much, but also
having more food, having more

2718
04:11:26,460 --> 04:11:32,020
calories, basically led to mums having
more energy for reproduction.

2719
04:11:39,460 --> 04:11:43,140
As our numbers rose, settlements began
springing up...

2720
04:11:46,460 --> 04:11:51,060
..scattered across an area which we
now call the Fertile Crescent.

2721
04:11:59,740 --> 04:12:05,900
As their populations grew, villages
transformed into towns.

2722
04:12:24,780 --> 04:12:29,100
And the largest of the towns of the
Fertile Crescent was Catalhoyuk.

2723
04:12:37,860 --> 04:12:40,460
An early prototype of urban living.

2724
04:12:43,540 --> 04:12:44,580
Wow!

2725
04:12:47,020 --> 04:12:49,740
Every single one of these is a house.

2726
04:12:49,740 --> 04:12:51,700
- That's right. And you have to
imagine, of course,

2727
04:12:51,700 --> 04:12:54,940
that each of these houses is a box,
with a roof.

2728
04:12:54,940 --> 04:12:57,740
But, uh, there's no space really
between them.

2729
04:12:57,740 --> 04:12:58,780
Like a beehive.

2730
04:12:58,780 --> 04:13:02,820
The fact that they're all tightly up
against each other means

2731
04:13:02,820 --> 04:13:06,700
that the whole thing is much more
structurally sound.

2732
04:13:06,700 --> 04:13:09,220
- There's literally no gap.

2733
04:13:09,220 --> 04:13:12,860
- The only way you can get in the
house is to move along the roofs

2734
04:13:12,860 --> 04:13:15,300
and go down through a hole into the
house,

2735
04:13:15,300 --> 04:13:16,780
because there's no streets.

2736
04:13:26,460 --> 04:13:30,740
- Each dwelling was small and had its
door in the ceiling.

2737
04:13:34,100 --> 04:13:38,260
The inhabitants lived much of their
lives up on the roofs...

2738
04:13:40,700 --> 04:13:43,620
..grinding grain, trading,

2739
04:13:43,620 --> 04:13:47,540
and feasting in the bright sunlight
above their homes.

2740
04:13:51,220 --> 04:13:52,980
In this honeycomb,

2741
04:13:52,980 --> 04:13:57,380
their animals were kept in pens right
next to the living quarters.

2742
04:13:58,660 --> 04:14:02,780
- Here, you can see bits of animal
bone. These are the sheep bones

2743
04:14:02,780 --> 04:14:04,140
from feasting and so on.

2744
04:14:04,140 --> 04:14:07,220
But also, there are lots of droppings

2745
04:14:07,220 --> 04:14:10,620
and so, this is telling us that, as
well as people

2746
04:14:10,620 --> 04:14:15,060
living in the village, they also
brought in domesticated animals.

2747
04:14:20,020 --> 04:14:23,260
- And these farmers left behind
intriguing signs

2748
04:14:23,260 --> 04:14:25,780
that they were here to stay.

2749
04:14:27,380 --> 04:14:29,660
What are those holes over there?

2750
04:14:29,660 --> 04:14:33,780
- These are the ancestors who are
buried beneath the floors.

2751
04:14:33,780 --> 04:14:37,140
In some houses, there are up to 62
people buried in them.

2752
04:14:37,140 --> 04:14:40,460
- I mean, Ian, 60-odd people being
buried,

2753
04:14:40,460 --> 04:14:42,060
that's a graveyard in a home.

2754
04:14:42,060 --> 04:14:44,660
- We've dug up hundreds of burials
here,

2755
04:14:44,660 --> 04:14:47,660
and what's fascinating is that people
were sleeping just

2756
04:14:47,660 --> 04:14:51,380
a few centimetres from the bones of
their ancestors.

2757
04:15:08,020 --> 04:15:11,180
- Between the dead, the living and
their animals...

2758
04:15:12,860 --> 04:15:15,460
..this thriving town was densely
packed.

2759
04:15:20,620 --> 04:15:23,140
At its height, some people think there
were 8,000 people

2760
04:15:23,140 --> 04:15:26,980
living at Catalhoyuk, so that's one of
the largest

2761
04:15:26,980 --> 04:15:30,340
settlements on the planet at this
point.

2762
04:15:30,340 --> 04:15:33,740
And so, it's so easy to imagine this
straight line from this

2763
04:15:33,740 --> 04:15:40,780
population boom to our own huge
population of humans on this planet.

2764
04:15:40,780 --> 04:15:45,020
And yet, that straight line was
severely interrupted,

2765
04:15:45,020 --> 04:15:49,180
because the formula for success that
was playing out here

2766
04:15:49,180 --> 04:15:52,380
also turned out to be a bit of a
disaster.

2767
04:15:56,660 --> 04:16:00,100
Our pioneering farmer ancestors
couldn't have known it...

2768
04:16:01,540 --> 04:16:03,940
..but they had opened Pandora's box.

2769
04:16:10,060 --> 04:16:12,660
Amongst the many burials of
Catalhoyuk...

2770
04:16:15,540 --> 04:16:20,420
..were skull after skull with clear
signs of violent impact.

2771
04:16:24,020 --> 04:16:27,180
And it's something not only seen at
Catalhoyuk.

2772
04:16:31,900 --> 04:16:34,780
In many early farming settlements,

2773
04:16:34,780 --> 04:16:39,220
we start to see the unmistakable signs
of violence...

2774
04:16:42,020 --> 04:16:44,260
..suggesting the two are connected.

2775
04:16:49,340 --> 04:16:54,380
Choosing to live like this, in such
close proximity with your

2776
04:16:54,380 --> 04:16:58,860
neighbours, with the animals which
you're breeding,

2777
04:16:58,860 --> 04:17:00,700
with your rubbish...

2778
04:17:01,980 --> 04:17:07,460
..in a way that has never been seen
before, leads to this cascade.

2779
04:17:09,540 --> 04:17:13,740
The densely populated towns had become
exposed to new dangers.

2780
04:17:14,780 --> 04:17:17,540
Living with their animals spread
disease.

2781
04:17:17,540 --> 04:17:21,980
Their dependence on crops made them
vulnerable to failed harvests.

2782
04:17:25,020 --> 04:17:29,140
And with ever growing competition for
the land near the settlement,

2783
04:17:29,140 --> 04:17:32,740
people were no longer just battling
nature,

2784
04:17:32,740 --> 04:17:34,500
they were battling each other.

2785
04:17:37,180 --> 04:17:40,540
Suddenly, it must have seemed like
this perfect world

2786
04:17:40,540 --> 04:17:43,300
they'd created was cursed.

2787
04:17:53,580 --> 04:17:55,940
Faced with all these challenges,

2788
04:17:55,940 --> 04:18:00,740
these towns didn't survive or grow
into great metropolises.

2789
04:18:00,740 --> 04:18:05,780
Instead, growth was followed by
collapse and exodus.

2790
04:18:13,420 --> 04:18:16,180
And as the early town dwellers left
their homes

2791
04:18:16,180 --> 04:18:19,380
and farms in droves, they faced a
choice.

2792
04:18:21,260 --> 04:18:25,260
To start again and risk failing, or
rejoin the vast

2793
04:18:25,260 --> 04:18:30,420
majority of humans across the globe
still living nomadic lives.

2794
04:18:44,380 --> 04:18:47,420
For me, this is one of the biggest
mysteries

2795
04:18:47,420 --> 04:18:49,780
in the history of our species.

2796
04:18:51,300 --> 04:18:55,300
Because for the very first settlers,
it was a disaster.

2797
04:18:55,300 --> 04:19:01,380
They were facing disease and famine,
and yet, at the very same time,

2798
04:19:01,380 --> 04:19:05,740
across the planet, hunter-gatherers
were thriving.

2799
04:19:05,740 --> 04:19:09,100
And that way of life we know works,

2800
04:19:09,100 --> 04:19:12,860
because today, millions of people live
like that.

2801
04:19:12,860 --> 04:19:17,500
They have made it to the 21st century
just like the rest of us.

2802
04:19:17,500 --> 04:19:20,540
And yet, we know how this story ends.

2803
04:19:20,540 --> 04:19:24,620
Most of us live in huge cities like
this.

2804
04:19:37,820 --> 04:19:43,180
So, what is it that turned a disaster
into a success?

2805
04:20:06,100 --> 04:20:09,580
Our early attempts to live together in
large numbers

2806
04:20:09,580 --> 04:20:11,700
had ended in failure and strife.

2807
04:20:16,020 --> 04:20:20,060
To make it work, our species would
have to find another way.

2808
04:20:37,020 --> 04:20:38,420
An answer would lie...

2809
04:20:42,380 --> 04:20:43,900
..along a great river.

2810
04:20:52,580 --> 04:20:56,940
There are bits of our story where
geography just does not

2811
04:20:56,940 --> 04:21:00,780
feel like a fluke. Where if it was
going to happen,

2812
04:21:00,780 --> 04:21:03,060
it was always going to happen here.

2813
04:21:05,340 --> 04:21:09,780
Because beyond the thin strips of
green that cut through this

2814
04:21:09,780 --> 04:21:14,740
arid landscape, there is very little
but sand and death.

2815
04:21:25,380 --> 04:21:29,980
This narrow strip of habitable land
was the only place to grow food

2816
04:21:29,980 --> 04:21:31,660
and rear animals.

2817
04:21:32,860 --> 04:21:37,660
But to produce enough, they had to
control this natural resource.

2818
04:21:39,020 --> 04:21:42,860
The people needed to direct the water
onto their fields,

2819
04:21:42,860 --> 04:21:45,980
and harvest en masse, once a year.

2820
04:21:47,580 --> 04:21:51,420
And so, they had no choice but to work
together.

2821
04:21:54,580 --> 04:21:58,060
Put enough effort in, and more and
more of this becomes

2822
04:21:58,060 --> 04:22:04,300
productive farmland, giving these guys
a massive food surplus

2823
04:22:04,300 --> 04:22:08,820
that would be collected in huge grain
stores, attracting more and

2824
04:22:08,820 --> 04:22:15,140
more people to come and settle here,
and join this growing revolution.

2825
04:22:22,620 --> 04:22:26,100
The people flooded into the Nile
Valley, jostling for space.

2826
04:22:33,780 --> 04:22:36,660
But now, instead of abandoning their
communities

2827
04:22:36,660 --> 04:22:38,620
when the towns became overcrowded...

2828
04:22:41,260 --> 04:22:42,660
..they restructured them.

2829
04:22:49,820 --> 04:22:52,860
When you live in a small group, you've
all got to be good,

2830
04:22:52,860 --> 04:22:56,700
or at least competent, at everything
to survive.

2831
04:22:56,700 --> 04:23:01,940
But living in a large group, you can
suddenly specialise.

2832
04:23:01,940 --> 04:23:04,460
Some of you might become really good
at a particular

2833
04:23:04,460 --> 04:23:05,980
kind of textile making.

2834
04:23:05,980 --> 04:23:09,820
Others might become stone makers,
butchers, bakers,

2835
04:23:09,820 --> 04:23:12,700
probably not candlestick makers yet.

2836
04:23:12,700 --> 04:23:15,100
All cogs in a huge machine,

2837
04:23:15,100 --> 04:23:19,260
at a scale that had never been seen
before.

2838
04:23:25,660 --> 04:23:29,340
The people of these busy settlements
were increasingly collaborating.

2839
04:23:31,780 --> 04:23:34,180
Becoming part of a social group

2840
04:23:34,180 --> 04:23:36,620
with hundreds or thousands of
strangers.

2841
04:23:38,740 --> 04:23:43,060
And in the process, laying the
foundation for something brand-new.

2842
04:23:53,100 --> 04:23:55,540
I know archaeologists are constantly
pointing at walls

2843
04:23:55,540 --> 04:23:58,300
and trying to convince people of how
important they are,

2844
04:23:58,300 --> 04:24:03,220
but this absolutely massive wall is
pretty much all that's

2845
04:24:03,220 --> 04:24:05,820
left of the original city of Abydos.

2846
04:24:05,820 --> 04:24:10,460
Abydos being one of the very first
cities in the whole world.

2847
04:24:11,580 --> 04:24:14,940
But walls like these also indicate a
momentous shift

2848
04:24:14,940 --> 04:24:17,860
in the way humans lived together,

2849
04:24:17,860 --> 04:24:21,980
because to be on this side of the wall
meant protection

2850
04:24:21,980 --> 04:24:24,540
and access to the grain stores,

2851
04:24:24,540 --> 04:24:28,940
but to be on that side of the wall
meant to literally be without.

2852
04:24:28,940 --> 04:24:33,260
Now, humans have always been tribal,
we've always been able to act

2853
04:24:33,260 --> 04:24:39,020
and think as part of a group, but what
places like this prove

2854
04:24:39,020 --> 04:24:44,180
is that tribalism was scalable to the
size of a city.

2855
04:24:47,820 --> 04:24:53,340
All along the great rivers of the
ancient world, huge cities began

2856
04:24:53,340 --> 04:24:59,180
to appear, as our ancestors cracked
the secret to living at scale.

2857
04:25:03,460 --> 04:25:07,860
A change which would propel us forward
at an astonishing rate.

2858
04:25:13,740 --> 04:25:15,900
As these newly emerging cities grew

2859
04:25:15,900 --> 04:25:18,460
and their communities became more
complex...

2860
04:25:22,460 --> 04:25:23,900
..they started to change...

2861
04:25:28,660 --> 04:25:32,420
..leaving evidence which can still be
seen here in Abydos.

2862
04:25:34,260 --> 04:25:38,380
Not in the city of the living, but in
the city of the dead.

2863
04:25:48,500 --> 04:25:54,700
This is Shunet El Zebib, and it's so
vast, clearly,

2864
04:25:54,700 --> 04:25:59,460
but it was actually originally
mistaken for a fort.

2865
04:25:59,460 --> 04:26:05,180
But it's a temple dedicated to a
human, a man called Khasekhemwy,

2866
04:26:05,180 --> 04:26:07,700
who's actually buried in a cemetery
over there.

2867
04:26:07,700 --> 04:26:14,140
Not everybody got one of these, which
means that around here,

2868
04:26:14,140 --> 04:26:17,500
there were now at least two classes of
people.

2869
04:26:19,340 --> 04:26:22,860
There was something about cities that
was the perfect breeding

2870
04:26:22,860 --> 04:26:27,180
ground for producing not just the
haves, but the have-a-lots.

2871
04:26:31,740 --> 04:26:34,700
We may never know why some people
became wealthier

2872
04:26:34,700 --> 04:26:36,420
and more powerful than others.

2873
04:26:38,860 --> 04:26:43,580
One theory is that those in control of
the water

2874
04:26:43,580 --> 04:26:46,140
could also be in control of the food
supply.

2875
04:26:47,540 --> 04:26:53,700
But so long as they shared enough to
feed the cities, the cities thrived.

2876
04:26:56,100 --> 04:27:00,980
Their newly specialised populations
invented, made

2877
04:27:00,980 --> 04:27:05,460
and traded an unprecedented number of
objects.

2878
04:27:09,260 --> 04:27:14,780
And in the process, created a tool,
unassuming at first glance,

2879
04:27:14,780 --> 04:27:17,660
that would become a powerful
instrument.

2880
04:27:20,580 --> 04:27:23,260
I know they don't look like much.

2881
04:27:23,260 --> 04:27:28,100
They look like just square pieces of
bone.

2882
04:27:28,100 --> 04:27:33,100
They were found in Abydos, in a tomb,
thought to be that

2883
04:27:33,100 --> 04:27:39,020
of a king known as The Scorpion King,
from about 5,300 years ago.

2884
04:27:39,020 --> 04:27:42,780
Now, some of these symbols are very
recognisable.

2885
04:27:42,780 --> 04:27:44,900
That's obviously a bird.

2886
04:27:46,140 --> 04:27:49,020
This is a plant of some kind.

2887
04:27:49,020 --> 04:27:50,900
And notice the holes in them.

2888
04:27:50,900 --> 04:27:55,380
These are effectively labels, or tags.

2889
04:27:55,380 --> 04:27:59,020
These tags were thought to have been
attached to offerings

2890
04:27:59,020 --> 04:28:02,340
buried in the tomb, but what they
reveal is something

2891
04:28:02,340 --> 04:28:04,460
happening in the world of the living.

2892
04:28:05,460 --> 04:28:10,340
And these symbols represented the
provenance where the

2893
04:28:10,340 --> 04:28:13,820
item that they were attached to came
from.

2894
04:28:13,820 --> 04:28:17,180
Perhaps they have a quantity as well
attached to them.

2895
04:28:17,180 --> 04:28:21,740
And then someone had this absolutely
revolutionary idea.

2896
04:28:21,740 --> 04:28:23,780
What if they strung them together?

2897
04:28:37,860 --> 04:28:42,780
With local agreement on their meaning,
symbols became words.

2898
04:28:44,900 --> 04:28:50,460
Gradually, the rows of images became
more complex...

2899
04:28:53,940 --> 04:28:55,020
..until...

2900
04:28:58,180 --> 04:29:01,740
..we stopped labelling and started
writing.

2901
04:29:05,260 --> 04:29:09,860
Detailed knowledge and culture that
had previously been

2902
04:29:09,860 --> 04:29:15,100
passed down generation to generation
to generation was now able to

2903
04:29:15,100 --> 04:29:17,980
be preserved in a completely different
way.

2904
04:29:17,980 --> 04:29:21,380
And the thing with writing is that
like

2905
04:29:21,380 --> 04:29:25,460
so many of the giant leaps forward
that we have made as a species, I'm

2906
04:29:25,460 --> 04:29:29,060
thinking here about the invention of
agriculture and metalworks

2907
04:29:29,060 --> 04:29:35,620
and the wheel, writing does seem like
an idea whose time had come,

2908
04:29:35,620 --> 04:29:38,980
because it doesn't just happen in
Egypt.

2909
04:29:43,060 --> 04:29:46,060
Again and again across the Earth,

2910
04:29:46,060 --> 04:29:48,780
we invented forms of writing.

2911
04:29:55,060 --> 04:29:59,660
Giving our facts, stories and ideas
lasting form.

2912
04:30:06,820 --> 04:30:10,660
And we still have no conclusive
evidence as to how or even

2913
04:30:10,660 --> 04:30:14,460
whether these events influenced each
other, or

2914
04:30:14,460 --> 04:30:16,500
whether they happened organically,

2915
04:30:16,500 --> 04:30:20,260
as a result of needing to keep track
of things at that scale.

2916
04:30:20,260 --> 04:30:23,780
But however it happened, once writing
was a thing, once it was

2917
04:30:23,780 --> 04:30:28,860
out there in the world, then nothing
would be the same ever again.

2918
04:30:34,460 --> 04:30:36,460
Now, laws, customs

2919
04:30:36,460 --> 04:30:40,620
and beliefs could be recorded
permanently in ink.

2920
04:30:47,500 --> 04:30:50,100
But with over 700 symbols,

2921
04:30:50,100 --> 04:30:53,500
this technology required years of
study to master...

2922
04:30:54,940 --> 04:30:59,380
..and so was the sole preserve of
those trained to use it,

2923
04:30:59,380 --> 04:31:02,340
scribes working for the ruling class.

2924
04:31:07,300 --> 04:31:11,140
And the ability to send out detailed
instructions to people across the

2925
04:31:11,140 --> 04:31:17,900
land gave the rulers enormous power to
influence, instruct and build.

2926
04:31:22,460 --> 04:31:26,140
In 2013, a team of archaeologists were
excavating

2927
04:31:26,140 --> 04:31:28,660
a cave on the Red Sea coast...

2928
04:31:31,100 --> 04:31:33,020
..when, hidden inside,

2929
04:31:33,020 --> 04:31:37,220
they found ancient fragments of
inscribed papyrus.

2930
04:31:43,460 --> 04:31:46,580
Preserved there for over 4,000 years.

2931
04:31:50,260 --> 04:31:53,460
It's believed to be the oldest ever
found.

2932
04:31:58,420 --> 04:32:02,060
And a time capsule from the reign of
an iconic ruler.

2933
04:32:03,780 --> 04:32:08,460
So, this is...this is your actual
excavation notebook from the time?

2934
04:32:08,460 --> 04:32:12,140
- Yeah, yeah. Every day, I was
recording the papyri,

2935
04:32:12,140 --> 04:32:15,980
and we were surprised to find most of
them have the name of a king.

2936
04:32:15,980 --> 04:32:20,100
And this pharaoh is Khufu, the builder
of the Great Pyramid.

2937
04:32:20,100 --> 04:32:21,420
- Not a small pharaoh.

2938
04:32:21,420 --> 04:32:24,260
- All the material is giving
information about this very

2939
04:32:24,260 --> 04:32:28,100
reign, which is the very beginning of
the Egyptian state, in fact.

2940
04:32:28,100 --> 04:32:29,140
- Yeah.

2941
04:32:30,780 --> 04:32:34,580
Khufu ruled Egypt for almost a quarter
of a century.

2942
04:32:36,260 --> 04:32:39,900
And one of world's most familiar
structures was built to

2943
04:32:39,900 --> 04:32:45,260
honour him - the first of the Great
Pyramids of Giza.

2944
04:32:47,700 --> 04:32:51,100
- We had to wait till the very end of
the excavation

2945
04:32:51,100 --> 04:32:54,620
to have the best-preserved papyri.

2946
04:32:54,620 --> 04:32:58,020
We only had a small piece left
untouched.
- No!

2947
04:32:58,020 --> 04:33:00,420
- And all the papyri were thrown
inside...

2948
04:33:00,420 --> 04:33:02,180
- Into that one spot that was the very
last spot

2949
04:33:02,180 --> 04:33:05,420
that you decided to look in.
- Yeah, yeah.

2950
04:33:05,420 --> 04:33:09,460
- The team discovered around 1,000
pieces of papyrus,

2951
04:33:09,460 --> 04:33:12,740
revealing a vastly complex
construction project.

2952
04:33:13,860 --> 04:33:15,060
Wow!
- Yeah.

2953
04:33:15,060 --> 04:33:17,620
It belongs to a kind of elite at that
time,

2954
04:33:17,620 --> 04:33:19,220
because we don't think that more

2955
04:33:19,220 --> 04:33:23,500
than 1% of the...of the population was
able to read and write.

2956
04:33:23,500 --> 04:33:26,460
It's a logbook, and I can see in the
small boxes

2957
04:33:26,460 --> 04:33:29,100
the number of the day of the month,
and for each day,

2958
04:33:29,100 --> 04:33:33,260
this official is giving information
about what he has done.

2959
04:33:33,260 --> 04:33:36,820
For example, here, on the first day of
the month, they are

2960
04:33:36,820 --> 04:33:40,700
sending a boat to Heliopolis, to fetch
the food for the workers.

2961
04:33:40,700 --> 04:33:42,620
And when it arrives, it's written in
red,

2962
04:33:42,620 --> 04:33:47,020
because it's much more important for
them than everything else.

2963
04:33:47,020 --> 04:33:51,820
About 40 days, you have a precise
record of what he is doing.

2964
04:33:53,100 --> 04:33:57,020
Egyptian extracted fine limestone
blocks that were used

2965
04:33:57,020 --> 04:34:00,940
for the building of the outer casing
of the pyramids.

2966
04:34:00,940 --> 04:34:04,700
So, what it is all about is that they
were bringing

2967
04:34:04,700 --> 04:34:09,460
stones from the Tura quarries to the
pyramid of Khufu at the end

2968
04:34:09,460 --> 04:34:11,340
of the reign of this king.

2969
04:34:11,340 --> 04:34:17,580
- So, this is...this is telling us how
they built the pyramids, basically.

2970
04:34:17,580 --> 04:34:20,540
- Yeah, basically, yeah.
- This is the administration behind it
all.

2971
04:34:20,540 --> 04:34:23,100
That... That's absolutely incredible.

2972
04:34:23,100 --> 04:34:27,540
So, this is a snapshot in time

2973
04:34:27,540 --> 04:34:30,100
of the building of the Great Pyramid.

2974
04:34:30,100 --> 04:34:32,460
- Mm.
- And you found it.

2975
04:34:36,340 --> 04:34:38,460
- Without all those records, I think

2976
04:34:38,460 --> 04:34:40,580
the pyramid would not have been
possible.

2977
04:34:48,780 --> 04:34:51,900
- You can't really overstate the
significance of finding

2978
04:34:51,900 --> 04:34:58,140
a document like that, one from such a
pivotal moment in history.

2979
04:34:58,140 --> 04:35:01,900
And when you read the translation, you
definitely do get

2980
04:35:01,900 --> 04:35:06,260
a sense of what a logistical feat it
was,

2981
04:35:06,260 --> 04:35:08,940
building these things.

2982
04:35:08,940 --> 04:35:14,380
But you do also get a real sense of
how mundane

2983
04:35:14,380 --> 04:35:16,460
and bureaucratic it all was.

2984
04:35:16,460 --> 04:35:20,220
Just kind of ordinary humans doing
ordinary human things.

2985
04:35:20,220 --> 04:35:25,980
Between the invention of writing and
the building of the pyramids,

2986
04:35:25,980 --> 04:35:28,860
there were no major technological
advancements

2987
04:35:28,860 --> 04:35:30,380
that we know of in Egypt.

2988
04:35:33,020 --> 04:35:39,260
And so, for 4,500 years, people have
looked at these and just had their

2989
04:35:39,260 --> 04:35:46,020
breath taken away, and wondered how on
earth were they built.

2990
04:35:46,020 --> 04:35:52,020
And perhaps the answer is just this
simple - writing built the pyramids.

2991
04:35:56,060 --> 04:36:00,100
And even though they were originally
built for the elites,

2992
04:36:00,100 --> 04:36:04,380
they actually became symbols of
national identity,

2993
04:36:04,380 --> 04:36:08,820
which bind huge groups of people
together on an unconscious level.

2994
04:36:12,820 --> 04:36:18,460
The unit of human cooperation had
grown from tribe, to village,

2995
04:36:18,460 --> 04:36:20,820
to town, to city...

2996
04:36:23,940 --> 04:36:26,140
..and now, to nation.

2997
04:36:35,100 --> 04:36:39,020
But alongside the emergence of these
nation states

2998
04:36:39,020 --> 04:36:41,060
was a more sinister development.

2999
04:36:42,100 --> 04:36:47,980
What had once been tribal skirmishes
became state warfare...

3000
04:36:50,980 --> 04:36:54,300
..recorded by the victors in art and
writing.

3001
04:36:56,660 --> 04:37:00,020
The emerging superpowers began
launching military

3002
04:37:00,020 --> 04:37:06,780
campaigns against their neighbours,
for land, resources and manpower.

3003
04:37:08,580 --> 04:37:11,940
Bringing thousands of captives back as
slaves.

3004
04:37:19,180 --> 04:37:23,940
Many of the early civilisations follow
this pattern of growth,

3005
04:37:23,940 --> 04:37:29,420
innovation, writing and an ever more
stratified society.

3006
04:37:33,620 --> 04:37:37,700
By 4,000 years ago, we'd clearly made
some massive strides to the

3007
04:37:37,700 --> 04:37:42,260
modern world, with the rise of these
civilisations that were supporting

3008
04:37:42,260 --> 04:37:47,580
so many more people, and about 70
million of us walking this planet.

3009
04:37:49,060 --> 04:37:50,100
But...

3010
04:37:51,380 --> 04:37:57,460
..the disparity in the human condition
had never been so wide.

3011
04:37:57,460 --> 04:38:01,020
Some people were living gods, and they
would go on to build

3012
04:38:01,020 --> 04:38:05,940
monuments like these to themselves for
centuries.

3013
04:38:07,860 --> 04:38:10,140
But many more were slaves, who were
forced to

3014
04:38:10,140 --> 04:38:14,740
live in the shadows of the splendour
that they'd helped to create.

3015
04:38:16,740 --> 04:38:20,300
And humankind's powerful new tool,
writing...

3016
04:38:21,340 --> 04:38:25,060
..still remained in the hands of just
a tiny number.

3017
04:38:26,260 --> 04:38:29,100
If we were going to get to the future,
the here and now as you

3018
04:38:29,100 --> 04:38:34,380
and I know it, it was going to require
a spark from somewhere else.

3019
04:38:53,460 --> 04:38:58,500
Almost 4,000 years ago, a small group
of our ancestors were

3020
04:38:58,500 --> 04:39:02,420
forced to make a journey to one of the
most inhospitable

3021
04:39:02,420 --> 04:39:04,580
places on Earth.

3022
04:39:05,940 --> 04:39:09,660
Through the baking, barren waste

3023
04:39:09,660 --> 04:39:11,460
of the Sinai Desert.

3024
04:39:14,100 --> 04:39:17,020
But here, in this desolate landscape,

3025
04:39:17,020 --> 04:39:19,020
they would change the world.

3026
04:39:23,820 --> 04:39:30,180
This place is stunning and yet, a
complete and utter deathtrap.

3027
04:39:31,260 --> 04:39:34,300
It was of very little interest to the
Egyptian elites.

3028
04:39:35,660 --> 04:39:40,180
That is until someone found something
in these mountains.

3029
04:39:41,660 --> 04:39:44,220
Lots and lots of copper.

3030
04:39:45,660 --> 04:39:47,780
And this stuff, turquoise.

3031
04:39:49,180 --> 04:39:53,980
Raw materials that could be
transformed into jewels

3032
04:39:53,980 --> 04:39:56,140
and ornaments of great value...

3033
04:40:04,380 --> 04:40:08,260
..if you could prize them from this
harsh landscape.

3034
04:40:11,940 --> 04:40:15,860
Far to the north was the tiny land of
Retjenu.

3035
04:40:16,900 --> 04:40:21,060
When Egypt demanded labourers for this
treacherous mining mission...

3036
04:40:23,100 --> 04:40:26,860
..it was the unfortunate people of
this small powerless state,

3037
04:40:26,860 --> 04:40:29,780
who had no choice but to answer the
call.

3038
04:40:43,100 --> 04:40:47,700
I can't imagine what it would've been
like to be dragged here

3039
04:40:47,700 --> 04:40:52,140
to work in the turquoise mines, in the
blazing heat,

3040
04:40:52,140 --> 04:40:53,620
in the middle of nowhere.

3041
04:40:57,820 --> 04:40:59,780
It must've been like being dropped
onto

3042
04:40:59,780 --> 04:41:01,540
the surface of a different planet.

3043
04:41:09,260 --> 04:41:12,860
And even the Egyptians probably
wondered

3044
04:41:12,860 --> 04:41:14,460
if they would make it back home.

3045
04:41:23,180 --> 04:41:26,220
The Egyptians turned to their gods for
protection.

3046
04:41:27,300 --> 04:41:31,300
And here, high up on a desolate
plateau,

3047
04:41:31,300 --> 04:41:37,140
at the furthest edge of their world,
they built a temple to ask for it.

3048
04:41:43,260 --> 04:41:46,220
A monument which has survived
remarkably

3049
04:41:46,220 --> 04:41:49,820
unscathed for almost 4,000 years.

3050
04:41:52,860 --> 04:41:56,540
Frozen in time by the bone-dry desert.

3051
04:42:07,100 --> 04:42:10,300
This temple is dedicated to the
goddess Hathor,

3052
04:42:10,300 --> 04:42:12,860
who is the goddess of turquoise and
miners.

3053
04:42:12,860 --> 04:42:15,660
And they were documenting and
celebrating their presence,

3054
04:42:15,660 --> 04:42:17,940
and worshipping their gods.

3055
04:42:17,940 --> 04:42:23,780
And each one of these pillars
represents one of the missions.

3056
04:42:23,780 --> 04:42:24,860
And they are hierarchical.

3057
04:42:24,860 --> 04:42:30,540
So, you've got the Pharaoh at the top,
and it goes through the ranks.

3058
04:42:30,540 --> 04:42:33,420
You've got stonemasons, etc, etc, etc,

3059
04:42:33,420 --> 04:42:37,660
until this is the brother of the
Prince of Retjenu.

3060
04:42:37,660 --> 04:42:41,020
Retjenu is where the miners came from.

3061
04:42:41,020 --> 04:42:46,140
And yet, the miners are not here on
this pillar, but they would have

3062
04:42:46,140 --> 04:42:49,740
come through here, they would've seen
this grandeur, this splendour.

3063
04:42:49,740 --> 04:42:53,460
Seeing these impenetrable Egyptian
hieroglyphics...

3064
04:42:54,780 --> 04:42:59,260
..the foreign workers also wanted to
immortalise their presence here.

3065
04:43:02,380 --> 04:43:03,860
But there was a problem.

3066
04:43:03,860 --> 04:43:06,900
They weren't part of the elites and so
they couldn't write.

3067
04:43:11,260 --> 04:43:15,260
So, the illiterate miners did what we
humans have always done.

3068
04:43:18,300 --> 04:43:22,660
They copied what they'd seen and made
it their own.

3069
04:43:35,660 --> 04:43:40,460
This is one of the turquoise mines,
and if you look, all over the walls

3070
04:43:40,460 --> 04:43:45,380
there are these scratches from where
the workers' pickaxes have been.

3071
04:43:46,820 --> 04:43:49,580
But here, something else is going on.

3072
04:43:49,580 --> 04:43:54,940
There are about 30 or 40 of them all
over this place.

3073
04:43:54,940 --> 04:43:57,260
Some of these have been copied from
hieroglyphics,

3074
04:43:57,260 --> 04:44:00,500
but some are completely new, and
here's how the system works.

3075
04:44:00,500 --> 04:44:04,980
You take the symbol and you say the
name,

3076
04:44:04,980 --> 04:44:09,340
but you only take the first sound, and
you discard the rest.

3077
04:44:09,340 --> 04:44:11,500
So, for example, this here.

3078
04:44:11,500 --> 04:44:15,180
This is an ox, you can see the horns
and the head here.

3079
04:44:15,180 --> 04:44:18,140
To the miners, this would be "aleph".

3080
04:44:18,140 --> 04:44:23,380
Now, aleph, just take the first sound,
"a", discard the rest.

3081
04:44:23,380 --> 04:44:25,980
This is another symbol. This is the
symbol for house.

3082
04:44:25,980 --> 04:44:27,980
To them it would be "bet",

3083
04:44:27,980 --> 04:44:31,420
so you just take the "be" sound at the
beginning.

3084
04:44:31,420 --> 04:44:33,900
And if you put these two together,

3085
04:44:33,900 --> 04:44:36,820
you start understanding what you're
actually looking at here.

3086
04:44:36,820 --> 04:44:40,660
This is the birthplace of the
alphabet.

3087
04:44:45,180 --> 04:44:49,260
This new script was simpler to learn
than hieroglyphics, because

3088
04:44:49,260 --> 04:44:54,140
the alphabet did not represent
complete words, but spoken sounds.

3089
04:44:57,380 --> 04:45:02,420
It was able to convey any thought with
only 20 to 30 symbols.

3090
04:45:05,380 --> 04:45:09,580
These miners are the ones who gave
birth to this,

3091
04:45:09,580 --> 04:45:12,700
and their legacy is still with us
today, and is so important.

3092
04:45:18,900 --> 04:45:21,380
In the centuries and millennia that
followed...

3093
04:45:24,300 --> 04:45:26,700
..nearly all the early written
languages

3094
04:45:26,700 --> 04:45:30,820
fell into obscurity as those
civilisations waned.

3095
04:45:33,660 --> 04:45:38,540
But the alphabet would only grow,
spreading across the planet,

3096
04:45:38,540 --> 04:45:42,620
reshaping and branching into many
different forms.

3097
04:45:45,180 --> 04:45:49,980
Eventually becoming the most wildly
used writing system

3098
04:45:49,980 --> 04:45:51,820
in the world.

3099
04:45:57,780 --> 04:46:02,660
Allowing millions, and then billions,
of ordinary humans

3100
04:46:02,660 --> 04:46:07,700
to access knowledge, to communicate
and to document their thoughts,

3101
04:46:07,700 --> 04:46:12,100
and their existence, in every corner
of the globe.

3102
04:46:15,580 --> 04:46:20,380
For me, this is one of the most
powerful moments in the human story,

3103
04:46:20,380 --> 04:46:25,940
because unbeknownst to the underdog,
they had changed the world.

3104
04:46:25,940 --> 04:46:30,660
One of civilisation's most profound
and revolutionary ideas didn't

3105
04:46:30,660 --> 04:46:36,860
come from an educated elite, it came
from inside these dark and miserable

3106
04:46:36,860 --> 04:46:42,620
mines, through the copying and
innovating of lowly migrant workers.

3107
04:47:05,780 --> 04:47:09,460
The invention of writing marks an
ending and a beginning.

3108
04:47:11,620 --> 04:47:15,820
Because prehistory, so the period
before writing,

3109
04:47:15,820 --> 04:47:20,060
we could only really piece together
using fragments and artefacts,

3110
04:47:20,060 --> 04:47:23,820
and now recorded time, history, had
begun.

3111
04:47:25,220 --> 04:47:29,500
And what we see is that as writing
spreads,

3112
04:47:29,500 --> 04:47:33,220
the pace of human innovation
accelerates.

3113
04:47:36,780 --> 04:47:40,660
Because that is the power of being
able to document

3114
04:47:40,660 --> 04:47:42,220
and lay down knowledge.

3115
04:47:52,660 --> 04:47:57,860
Generation after generation building
on the last, retaining

3116
04:47:57,860 --> 04:47:59,700
and accumulating knowledge.

3117
04:48:01,900 --> 04:48:06,020
Stone became bronze, iron became
silicon...

3118
04:48:08,540 --> 04:48:11,460
..and gradually, we built the future.

3119
04:48:13,700 --> 04:48:18,340
This is the very final bone of our
series.

3120
04:48:18,340 --> 04:48:22,260
This is actually one of the three ear
bones,

3121
04:48:22,260 --> 04:48:26,060
and just like every human bone we've
encountered,

3122
04:48:26,060 --> 04:48:32,340
whether Homo sapiens or otherwise, it
represents a person.

3123
04:48:32,340 --> 04:48:38,420
This individual had a family, parents,
perhaps children, friends.

3124
04:48:38,420 --> 04:48:42,100
But what's particularly remarkable is
how much

3125
04:48:42,100 --> 04:48:46,100
we now know about these ancient
ancestors of ours,

3126
04:48:46,100 --> 04:48:50,700
thanks to modern temples of knowledge,
like this one.

3127
04:48:50,700 --> 04:48:54,860
The scientists here are able to
extract DNA from an individual

3128
04:48:54,860 --> 04:48:58,260
who, in this case, lived about 1,600
years ago,

3129
04:48:58,260 --> 04:49:02,900
from a piece of bone that is so tiny,
delicate and precious,

3130
04:49:02,900 --> 04:49:08,540
and they're able to ask questions,
like whether industrialisation and

3131
04:49:08,540 --> 04:49:14,660
agriculture actually affected our DNA,
whether we're still evolving.

3132
04:49:16,260 --> 04:49:21,340
And to think that our knowledge has
got to the point where we're

3133
04:49:21,340 --> 04:49:26,460
even able to entertain such huge
questions

3134
04:49:26,460 --> 04:49:28,860
from something so tiny...

3135
04:49:31,180 --> 04:49:33,180
..for me there's a poetry in that.

3136
04:49:41,660 --> 04:49:46,140
We can look back on when nature and
luck were on our side...

3137
04:49:47,420 --> 04:49:49,540
..and when they weren't.

3138
04:49:49,540 --> 04:49:51,420
Where we made the right decisions...

3139
04:49:53,340 --> 04:49:54,980
..and where we went wrong.

3140
04:49:57,220 --> 04:49:59,380
But what underpins our story

3141
04:49:59,380 --> 04:50:05,180
and makes it unique is far more than
just our will to survive.

3142
04:50:06,420 --> 04:50:10,580
It's our cultural drive to come
together, to learn from

3143
04:50:10,580 --> 04:50:16,580
and inspire each other, to go further
than what has gone before.

3144
04:50:19,340 --> 04:50:24,380
We are the very last species of human
to walk this Earth,

3145
04:50:24,380 --> 04:50:30,020
and the most fascinating thing about
our 300,000-year-long story

3146
04:50:30,020 --> 04:50:33,540
is that we have no idea how much is
left.

3147
04:50:33,540 --> 04:50:39,860
Is this basically the whole of our
story, or are we on the first

3148
04:50:39,860 --> 04:50:43,780
act, or even prologue, with a long
future ahead of us?

3149
04:50:43,780 --> 04:50:46,020
We have no idea.

3150
04:50:46,020 --> 04:50:50,100
But we are one species with one
future.

3151
04:50:50,100 --> 04:50:54,140
Now, you could never have predicted
how we got here,

3152
04:50:54,140 --> 04:50:57,980
and where we go next is up to all of
us.

3153
04:51:28,660 --> 04:51:32,540
In this episode, we filmed at Serabit
el-Khadim,

3154
04:51:32,540 --> 04:51:36,980
a 4,000-year-old mining complex on the
Sinai Peninsula.

3155
04:51:38,660 --> 04:51:42,420
Where ancient messages were scrolled
on the walls of the mines.

3156
04:51:44,380 --> 04:51:49,460
The archaeologists who discovered this
mystery script in 1905

3157
04:51:49,460 --> 04:51:54,820
called it Proto-Sinaitic, but they had
no idea what it said.

3158
04:51:54,820 --> 04:51:56,860
And until they could read it,

3159
04:51:56,860 --> 04:51:59,380
they were ignorant of its true
significance.

3160
04:52:02,860 --> 04:52:06,500
A remarkable artefact, now in the
British Museum, would be

3161
04:52:06,500 --> 04:52:09,980
the vital clue to cracking the ancient
code.

3162
04:52:11,460 --> 04:52:14,660
- This amazing object was discovered
in the Hathor

3163
04:52:14,660 --> 04:52:18,500
temple in Serabit el-Khadim, close to
the turquoise mines.

3164
04:52:18,500 --> 04:52:22,900
It's a so-called sphinx and dates
roughly about 4,000 years old.

3165
04:52:25,860 --> 04:52:30,820
- Linguists already knew how to read
ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics.

3166
04:52:30,820 --> 04:52:33,420
What the sphynx gave them was a key to
decipher

3167
04:52:33,420 --> 04:52:35,220
the script they couldn't read.

3168
04:52:39,740 --> 04:52:43,780
- So, if you look at the piece, we
have inscription on both sides,

3169
04:52:43,780 --> 04:52:45,500
and I'll show you this side first,

3170
04:52:45,500 --> 04:52:48,060
where we only have the Proto-Sinaitic
script.

3171
04:52:49,820 --> 04:52:53,420
And then if I turn the sphynx, this is
the most important and most

3172
04:52:53,420 --> 04:52:57,860
fascinating side, because here we have
then two different scripts.

3173
04:52:57,860 --> 04:53:00,060
On the bottom, Proto-Sinaitic,

3174
04:53:00,060 --> 04:53:02,420
and then you see the hieroglyphic
right on top.

3175
04:53:05,100 --> 04:53:08,740
- The message in hieroglyphics at the
top was a dedication

3176
04:53:08,740 --> 04:53:10,740
to the goddess Hathor.

3177
04:53:10,740 --> 04:53:14,780
Linguists deduced that the script
below in Proto-Sinaitic

3178
04:53:14,780 --> 04:53:16,580
was saying the same thing.

3179
04:53:18,660 --> 04:53:23,300
- We can start with the hieroglyphs,
which reads "Beloved of Hathor",

3180
04:53:23,300 --> 04:53:25,700
so we have now the Egyptian goddess
Hathor.

3181
04:53:25,700 --> 04:53:29,620
Then we have a second part, which
allowed us to decipher

3182
04:53:29,620 --> 04:53:33,420
the Proto-Sinaitic language, because
we know it was the same message.

3183
04:53:33,420 --> 04:53:36,660
So, we were very lucky we found this
amazing object.

3184
04:53:36,660 --> 04:53:40,220
This is the kind of lottery win for
the linguists.

3185
04:53:41,380 --> 04:53:45,100
- These short, corresponding phrases
were the key to decoding

3186
04:53:45,100 --> 04:53:46,340
the miners' writing.

3187
04:53:48,500 --> 04:53:51,940
- The probably most important aspect
of Proto-Sinaitic is that

3188
04:53:51,940 --> 04:53:55,140
it's an alphabetic script, and if you
look at these signs,

3189
04:53:55,140 --> 04:53:59,740
you probably will not recognise any
alphabetic signs we use today,

3190
04:53:59,740 --> 04:54:04,140
but the cow head that you see here
becomes our A.

3191
04:54:07,820 --> 04:54:13,180
- Proto-Sinaitic gave birth to the
modern alphabet, and unlocked

3192
04:54:13,180 --> 04:54:18,020
the origins of the most widespread
form of writing in the world.